New Report from the No-Knead Bread Contingent…
August 2016 — Chef April Goess from the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) made the sourdough no-knead bread…
Zeal’s Sourdough Starter — Bubble-licious!
May 3rd, 2012 — Another posting from the No-Kneaders…this time in photos from Lee and Lea!
Kitchen Goddesses!
On April 10, 2012 the Northcoast Co-op once again allowed me to spread my evangelical fervor about the no-knead sourdough bread making — the result? 
another convert and another 
perfect loaf — go Karen!
April 17, 2012 — “I took the bread dough to my friend’s house yesterday because I gave her some starter and thought it would be good to share the experience with her. Here is the picture of our PERFECT bread. Her husband took the picture and they emailed it to me this morning. Thank you again.” Karen Furber
June 28, 2011 — Pat Bitton emailed to say her favorite way so far is bacon bread…so I had to ask…how?! She sent this description and gave permission to post it — lucky us!
Hi Jennifer
John Salizzoni gave me the idea – and it worked!
I made the first rise of my basic bread – which is 2 cups bread flour, 2 cups whole wheat flour (Shakefork when possible) and 2 cups Shakefork barley flour – remainder as per your standard recipe. Then I mix in ½ lb of bacon that’s been cooked and chopped small (not quite crumbled – I like to be able to see the pieces), knead for 3-4 minutes, and do the second rise. Complete as normal.
Delish!
Pat
Thank you for your bread making class. I have made two loaves so far. The first loaf I know I made an error (forgot how much water I was putting in). It was OK, but not Jennifer level. The second loaf I paid attention and it turned out picture perfect (evidence below!). This email is to follow through on your request for a report with a picture. Attached is a full file-sized version of the photo on the left.
Cheers,
Carolyn and Charlie
Jennifer: I made my first loaf of “Jennifer’s No Knead Sourdough Bread”. It was great. Just as you described. Crunchy outside. Soft and moist inside. Thanks. Peggy
Jennifer,
I made it, you were right, the end crusts are to die for! The dough went in very off center… flopped up on one side….and came out like it went in perfectly flat. I added barley flour and a hand full of ground flax seed (no extra H20) I wasn’t sure about that but it worked and made the bread have pleasing dark speckles.I did not send you a pic because we ate it for breakfast and lunch and whats left is not as pretty as it was when it popped out.Thank you thank you thank you for teaching us this sourdough bread recipe.
My Dad got in to sourdough when we went drove to Alaska when our family was young. We popped 5 tires on the Alaskan Highway. He read us books about the “Sourdough” men of Alaska fame and got some himself. We had sourdough pancakes my whole childhood. Now my Dad has passed on his love of sourdough to my sister her three grown kids and me and my grown kids. However, try as we did we only made waffles, pancakes, and could never make bread. I even thought I would see if I could help the night baker at the Co-op to find out how to make sourdough bread.
So thanks to you I have mailed copies of your recipes to my Dad, sister and her kids and will send them to mine as well!Oh by the way my sisters name is Jennifer too :)Great Bread to you always,Jan
hi jennifer
i took your so very enjoyable class monday night ,purchased a 5 qt dutch oven and made a “sort of okay but not really” loaf .can you help me?i used 5 cups white flour, 1 cup barley flour. everything seems like the same as you did, but i set my gas oven at 475 degrees.after 30 minutes, it was pretty pale, so i put it back in for about 7 or 8 minutes.this browned it a bit more, but it was not as brown as your work of art. the crust was-is -nice and crunchy but inside is very moist and dense and i guess, underdonedo you think 500 degrees would have made a difference? it seemed to be about the same size as your loaf,so i guess it rose okaysure had a great smell and i love that starter!
thanks again for sharing your knowledge. i really want to get it right thank you vicki (it seems some ovens need to be turned up to 500 degrees, either it is that the thermostat is off, but also gas ovens seem to need the higher temp, Jennifer)
This is from Harold from Eureka…”I attended your no-knead sourdough bread class at Eureka Co-op, I wasn’t able to find a thrift store dutch oven, so came up with a third best solution of using a blue enamel roasting pot. But, each time I made the dough, I didn’t allow for the time it takes to make it, so I ended up taking it over to my girlfriends house, and with her kitchen’s oven, the final step was achieved, but I always wanted to do all the steps myself, and today I did It, and I’m eating my own completely made myself sourdough bread, with cornmeal. Thank you for showing me the enjoyment of making sourdough bread. I don’t have the capability to take and send you a picture, but it looks and tastes great.”
In January the North Coast Co-op gave me the opportunity to teach a No-Knead Sourdough Bread class — and I asked participants to email photos of their bread and innovative techniques they used to improve on the original recipe. Ellen, from Arcata sent the following…doesn’t it make you hungry?!
From Ellen…”I baked the loaf in my Dutch oven and sprayed water just before putting the lid on,which gives you a great top. I used 3 cups of unbleached organic white flour, 2 cups of organic whole wheat flour and 1 cup of Shakefork Egyptian barley flour (I grind this flour fresh in my flour mill), it turned out great. I had a starter at home already,but mine is much more sour than yours. Both are nice! I have baked 3 loaves already,and the 4th one is baking right now.The only peculiar thing is that my dough seems to rise much faster than 18-24 hrs., even though the dough is quite heavy duty.I can get the first rising done in about 8 hrs, then 1.5 hrs in the tea towel and then into the oven. Anyway, I thought you’d enjoy this little report.”
Heidi Hansen passed on her recipes to a friend of mine which got me started baking no-knead bread — and kicked off my evangelical desires to get everyone baking bread using these slow-rise methods. Heidi’s recipe is as follows — my sourdough recipe which I adapted from other recipes is listed next.
Heidi’s Bread
Mix – in electric mixer!
3 Cups Flour
1¼ tsp. Salt
¼ tsp. Yeast
1 ½ Cups Water
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 12-18 Hrs.
Next Day:
– Sprinkle kitchen counter with flour and turn dough onto counter. Then sprinkle dough with more flour and cover lightly with dishtowel. Let rise for another 2 Hrs.
– Place Pot with lid in oven (Le Creuset, or other) and preheat to 500°F.
– Turn dough into pot and put on lid. Bake for 30 min.
– Now take off lid and bake for another 5 min. Cool on a rack!
PS:
I have a large Le Creuset pot and dbl. the amounts of ingredients, otherwise my bread will be kind of flat. The above is a white bread recipe (very good), but I like to add all kind of grains. Here is my recipe for that (dbl portion):
PPS:
If you want to bake off a loaf during the work week, it works to mix ingredients before going to bed. You can then finish the bread in the
afternoon after work and have fresh bread for your dinner. Otherwise, mix in the afternoon and finish the next morning.
Heidi’s Whole Grain Bread
Mix (in electric mixer)
5 ½ – 6 Cups Flour
2 ½ tsp. Salt
¼ – ½ tsp. Yeast
¼ Cup each of Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Millet, Black Sesame Seeds
1 ½ Tbsp. Flax meal (keep in airtight container in fridge)
3 Cups Water
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 12-18 Hrs.
Next Day:
– Sprinkle kitchen counter with flour and turn dough onto counter. Then sprinkle dough with more flour and cover lightly with dishtowel. Let rise for another 2 Hrs.
– Place Pot with lid in oven (Le Creuset, or other) and preheat to 500°F.
– Turn dough into pot and put on lid. Bake for 30 min.
– Now take off lid and bake for another 5 min. Cool on a rack!
PS:
You can get creative with what you add to the basic recipe. I have tried pecans and cranberries together, or shredded carrots with oats and pumpkins seeds. You can make the bread even hardier by adding whole wheat berries (boiled for 20 min, drained and cooled before adding). There are no rules – that’s the fun part.
Jennifer’s No Knead Sourdough Bread
This recipe has been adapted from two bread recipes, along with several successful trials. One recipe from Food: Field Report called Pane Integrale (Whole-Wheat Bread) and the other from Breadtopia.com for Sourdough bread. This loaf is gigantic and will be as big as your dutch oven. It lasts us about a week, but we eat a lot of bread.
4 c. organic white flour
2 c. organic whole wheat flour or 2 cups whole wheat, and 1 cup Shakefork Farm Barley or Rye flour
1 3/4 tbl salt
1/4 tsp yeast
3/4 c. sourdough starter
2.5 cups cold water (non chlorinated – I use Britta filtered water.
Mix the 2 flours, salt and yeast together in a large mixing bowl (great results with 3 cups whole grain, 3 cups white). Make a well, pour in sourdough starter and water, mix with a spoon (you can use your hands, it will be sticky though). Cover with a towel and leave on a countertop – it shouldn’t be somewhere very warm because it will be raising for 18-24 hours.
After the dough has raised for 18-24 hours, pour a bit of flour (1/4 – ½ cup) over the dough and scrape the dough away from the side of the bowl with your fingers – squish it into a nice, round ball — using enough flour that it isn’t super sticky. Set the dough on the middle of your tea towel and gently fold the flaps over the dough to cover.
In 1.5 hours put a dutch oven, including the lid on it, in the over at 460 (this is going to vary depending on the accuracy of your oven, some ovens need to be at 500)– Let it heat up for ½ hour. Slide the oven rack with the dutch oven out a little bit, take the lid off and set on something heatproof on the counter, put some cornmeal on the bottom of the pot, and gently slide the dough into the pot. Put the lid on and slide back into the oven. Cook for 35 minutes without peeking! – Take the lid off and cook until top of bread is browned, about 5-10 minutes in my oven.
The oven part of this is very hot – it is like doing raku with ceramics – scary-fun! — but I would be very very careful – cast iron at 460 is very likely to burn you badly.
As soon as the bread comes out of the oven, use a butter knife to pop it loose from the bottom of the pot and put it on a wire rack (using hotpads). It should pop out very easily. Be careful since the pot is still scalding hot. Place the bread on a wire rack to cool.
This bread is very moist and dense –makes a great sandwich bread for several days (unusual for homemade bread) – it is very rustic, great with Italian meals or soup and makes the most excellent toast ever eaten (seriously!) –
Please, please, please – try this recipe – it will totally turn you on to bread making!
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