Loaf 7

This one went pretty well. I let the first rise last longer than I wanted, about 24 hours. The dough was wetter than normal but not unmanageable.

After the 15 minute rest, I placed it on greased, floured parchment, in a bowl, covered with a towel. After 2 hours I tipped the parchment upside down and let the sticky dough just peel off gently into the hot dutch oven. It definitely didn't deflate.

I covered it, put it back in the 500 degree oven and left it for 30 minutes. Then I uncovered and lowered the heat to 450 for about 20 minutes.

The result, well the rise was a little disappointing. It isn't much higher than when I put in in the dutch oven. But the color is good, it smells good, feels nice and hollow, and it crackled happily when I took it out of the oven. It's too late to cut into it tonight. We'll see how it tastes tomorrow.

Update: Not very crusty - the crust was chewy and not at all crispy. The crumb had decent holes, but was damp. The taste - more sour than any other bread I've made. Not that good. Oh, well.

I don't know what I am doing wrong. This was supposed to be drop dead simple. Maybe I let it rise too long. Maybe it fermented too much and was too damp. I don't know. I measured out the ingredients using a scale, and according to the original video, the exact measurements aren't that important. I doubt that my yeast is dead, the dough looked as bubbly as ever and rose fine at each rise.

It will probably taste fine toasted, but I am getting a little tired at having disappointing results. Especially on something that was supposed to be simple and fool proof. This latest loaf was as bad as the first one. At least with the first one I blamed the slight change in the recipe. What do I blame here? As far as I know I did everything right, except maybe let it rise too long initially.

Well, I own the pot, and the rest of the ingredients don't cost much, so there is no harm in trying again.

2nd Update: The loaf was better after 12 more hours or so. Maybe cutting into it allowed it to dry out properly. The crust is still not the shattering kind it's supposed to be. It was chewy, but when toasted it was crispier. The crumb was good - I think the lack of height on the loaf was because it spread out in the pot. Not sure why it's did so this time vs. the other times I made it.

In all, it turned out fine. Just not great.

Loaf 6

Wrong Way Goldfarb! I keep finding things not-to-do.

I'll post a picture of the loaf. Maybe it tastes good. Doesn't look too good. Artisan bread by an artisan on LSD.

1. I let it rise initially for 20 hours

2. I folded it and set on oiled, floured parchment paper. Left it to rise for 15 min.

3. I removed it from the parchment paper and shaped it into a ball.

4. Put it back on the parchment paper and lowered the paper into a glass bowl. Covered the bowl with a towel.

5. Lowered the dough, on the parchment paper sling, into the heated dutch oven after a 2 hour rise.

6. Heated the oven to 500, lowered it to 450 after placing it back in the oven.

Result:

The parchment paper didn't flatten out as it did the last time. It left crevices in the loaf. The loaf didn't brown up as much, but registered about 200 on the instant read therm, so I took it out of the oven. It stayed round, and didn't crack much, just a little on the side.

On the good side, it started to crackle audibly so maybe the crust will be ok, if a little odd looking. I prefer a darker crust though.

Taste and crumb: Will post later. Should be ready to cut by dinner time.

Next time - I guess I will skip the parchment sling. I'll still let it rise on oiled parchment and then remove it to place in the oven. One day I will get this right.

Update:

The crevice shape didn't affect the loaf much. But the texture of the crust and the crumb was like the last time I made a loaf with parchment paper in the pot. Light crust - spongey, springey crumb. Not bad, though. It had good taste, especially with butter which seemed to bring out a whole different level of flavor. I still like the crisper crust better though.

Next time - try to get the dough off the parchment paper gently and place it in the pot. No sling.

In between breads

I won't make another loaf until later in the week.

Until then, I am enjoying one of my all time favorite chocolate desserts: Natalie Houghton's Chocolate Blackout cake. It came from a book called 365 Great Chocolate Desserts, which is now out of print. My wife and I bought it over 20 years ago. The cake recipe is #1 out of 365 and the ganache icing is #2. I made a few other recipes from the book, but the cake is really outstanding. It's my favorite all-time chocolate cake. Someone posted the recipe online here.

I mentioned Wolfgang Puck's chocolate souffle recipe in my first blog post. It's here if anyone wants it. The only thing I changed was the liqueur. I found the orange liqueur to be too strong and chose plain water or Amaretto instead. Otherwise the recipe is simple, quick to make and fantastic.

The two recipes are each amazing in their own ways - but both are powerful blasts of chocolate. Otherwise they are diametric opposites. The cake is rich, dense and fudgy, the souffle light as air. The cake is best made at night and eaten the next day. The souffle is on the table 20 minutes after you say "Gee, I'd like a souffle."

The cake is sort of a hassle to make, and I don't make it often. Maybe that's why I enjoy it so much. It's a rare treat. It takes 45 minutes to assemble it and get it in the oven, with a significant amount of clean up. It's worth it though.

Challah

Made this bread with my daughter yesterday. It's delicious. Nice soft sweet crumb, thin crisp crust. I used the 4 braid recipe from King Arthur, although we did a 3 strand braid.

I let the Zoji do the work - 18 minutes of kneading, about 1:15 rise, then cut, braid and rise for almost an hour. Then 35 minutes in the oven. It was nice and brown after 30 minutes. Maybe next time I will take it out a little earlier and see if that makes the crumb even softer. I love it when challah is the texture of cotton candy.

Not complaining. This bread came out as perfect as I could have hoped for.

The bread puffed up like a balloon. There's plenty to freeze for later.

Just yum!

Loaf 5

Loaf 5 is out of the oven. It didn't go quite the way I wanted it to. I ran out of parchment paper and just had enough to line the bottom of a proofing bowl. I couldn't use the sling method.

The dough wound up sticking to the parchment paper so it was sort of a mess by the time I dropped it into the dutch oven. Even so, it looks pretty good, but maybe not as high as if I hadn't deflated it.

Instead of preheating the oven at 500 and then dropping it to 450, I left the oven at 500. I watched the video again and Jim Lahey recommends keeping the oven at 500 or even higher. The result turned out a little browner than before, almost burned looking in spots. I also have some severly toasted bubbles. When I messed up the dough trying to get it off the paper, yeast bubbles started to form. This happened to my first loaf too, and didn't affect the taste or the crust at all.

I baked it 30 minutes with the lid on, as always. I removed the lid and then checked the temp after 15 more minutes. The bread was barely 200 degrees, so I left it in another 7 minutes and checked again. It was between 205 and 210, perfect internal temp, but the loaf went from deep brown to looking a little burned during the extra 7 minutes.

The loaf came out of the oven singing louder than any bread I've baked. The crackling was audible even over the sound of my dishwasher. It's nearly 11pm now, so this bread won't be cut open until tomorrow. Maybe it's a good thing, making the bread later at night. I'm less tempted to cut it open before it cools.

Anyway I am satiated with bread for the moment. I ate the last loaf twice today (toasted and delicious) and a little bit of a challah that I baked with my daughter.

Can't wait to cut into it and see how it tastes.

Update:

Tasted good. Probably the best of the loaves so far. Unfortunately the structure was not as good. There were big holes, but they were uneven, mostly on top with the bottom part of the bread more dense. The crust was harder than loaf 2 and did not shatter. My guess is the issues arose due to the deflation and the additional heat.

Next loaf:

1. Make sure I have enough parchment paper to use the sling method and avoid ruining the 2nd rise

2. Cut the heat back to 450 from 500

3. Keep the first rise at 20 hours. That seemed to have improved the flavor.

The towel

The final rise in the towel seems to be the most problematic according to other blog comments I've read. The solution is pretty much the one given by Jim Lahey in the NYT video. Cover the towel with wheat bran, which means the final bread will have wheat bran in its crust. The same is true of those who use cornmeal or any other barrier-type product to avoid sticking.

My preference is to avoid adding anything to the crust. No seeds, no bran, nothing that is difficult to digest, for personal health reasons. Similarly I am avoiding whole wheat flour in the bread for now.

I'll post again if I find out why the towel is recommended. I can follow directions (well sort of) but I have no understanding of the science of bread making so I am baking mindlessly, adhering to the recipe instructions robotically.

Helpful sources

In googling no knead bread I've come across some terrific sites that have given me the confidence to try this technique. I am tremendously grateful. Even my partial success so far has been fun, and resulted in some of the best bread I've ever made.

The NYT video with Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey, who created the recipe/technique.

The NYT recipe, in grams.

Steamy Kitchen - a delightful page. Brought back fond memories of cooking with my youngsters.

Breadtopia - This site is just terrific. The videos are clear and concise and the depth of information very helpful.

Loaf 4

OK. Tried a 20 hour rise (and didn't mess up the water measurement).

Did the same procedure, but lightly floured the board rather than heavy flour so as not to get uncooked flour in the bread this time. I did away with the upper piece of parchment paper and just covered the proofing bowl with a towel.

After 2 hours I lifted the parchment paper out of the bowl like a sling (I read that this technique came from Cooks Illustrated), and lowered the paper and the dough into the pot.

After 30 minutes I removed the pot's cover, and set the oven timer for 30 minutes more.

However, I must have accidentally lowered the heat to 435, from 450. I realized it after about 25 minutes and raised it back up to 450. Not sure what affect this had.

The interior temperature of the bread was over 200 after about 40 minutes of uncovered cooking and the bread looked nice and brown, but not as brown as the last loaf.

We cut it open after about 1:15, and it was still damp inside. The bread was kind of spongy, squishing down when I tried to cut it. I guess that's a sign I didn't leave it to cool long enough (how can you resist cutting into this bread??? It takes superhuman effort!).

So:

1. I screwed up again and didn't cook it at the right temp.
2. I cut into it too early
3. I am not sure if the temp or the presence of the parchment paper caused the crust to be lighter than Loaf 2. It just wasn't as crispy.
4. Flavor was OK, but not extraordinary.
5. Crumb looks good - plenty of big holes.

Next loaf -

I will try to cook it at the proper temperature and leave it to cool overnight. If the crust is still light, then I assume the presence of the parchment paper had an impact on it and I can't continue to use the sling method.

I hope that's not the case. I would love to pour the dough on a board, fold it and place it on the parchment paper, let it rest the 15 minutes, deflate it, and then lift the parchment paper into the bowl for the final proof. That way I can avoid over deflating the dough while it sticks to my hands. But if the paper interferes with the creation of that terrific crust, then I will do away with the sling method.

Taste -

If the bread continues to need more taste even after I baked it properly then the answer may be in the use of a starter. My attempts at making french bread with a poolish were very successful. The bread tasted amazing. If I can figure out how to add a poolish to the recipe, I'm sure the sourdough taste will make this bread absolutely perfect.

Loaf 3

My goal was to improve the taste by letting the dough sit for 20 hours instead of 18, hoping the additional time will improve the fermentation.

Unfortunately I was distracted, or just stupid, and messed up the water measurement. After 20 hours I had goop.

Oh well.

Loaf 2

This time I used the "official" NYT version. Actually I used one where Mr. Bittman provided weights in grams. I prefer to cook by weight. Not sure if it makes a difference in reality, but it makes me feel as if there is consistency. And if something needs adjustment I can add a few more ounces of this or that and determine what the effect is.

So I weighed out the ingredients and let the dough sit for 18 hours. My kitchen is probably not consistently 70 degrees. It's between 60 and 70. I kept the bowl in the microwave oven to avoid drafts.

Again, I heavily floured a board and poured the dough onto it to fold. "Heavily" is an understatement - I put a ton of flour on the board as I was afraid it would stick, given the extra water. It folded fine. I then put it in the smaller bowl on top of floured parchment paper, covered it with parchment paper, and covered the parchment paper with a towel. I was still concerned that the dough would rise and touch the towel, and felt the upper layer of parchment paper would prevent it. In actuality the bowl is deep enough that the dough does not touch the top.

After the 2 hour rise, I lifted the dough out of the bowl, brushed off the extra flour as best I could and dropped it into the dutch oven.

The result was gorgeous. Deep brown, crisp "shattering" crust, just as Mr. Bittman described. The bottom crust is a little hard. The crust tastes great, but the bread, although tastier than the first loaf, was still a little bland. The NYT recipe had more salt than the first one, so maybe that's why it's tastier. But the crumb needs a little sourdough flavor.

Appearance-wise, this is the most beautiful bread I have ever baked. The crust is deep dark brown, flecked with flour, the crumb is full of wholes and has a sheen that I didn't realize was even possible. All it needs is a little more taste.

(one odd thing - the heavy flouring I gave the board turned up in the bread. Along the seams inside the crumb where I folded the dough there was a thin layer of uncooked flour. It didn't detract from our enjoyment of the bread but I've got to go lighter on flouring the board.)

Loaf 1

I will probably only number these loaves for the first few.

I read a few web sites, including this one: http://steamykitchen.com/168-no-knead-bread-revisited.html. "So easy a 4 year old can do it", it said. Her 4 year old son is adorable.

I was charmed, so I used her version of the recipe rather than the NYT version. Not much difference, just a little less water.

I read posts from a lot of people who had difficulty with the dough sticking to the towel. Frankly, I don't know why a towel is needed. Does there have to be some sort of "breathing" or air transfer? I would imagine that if the towel was heavily floured, as recommended, the air flow would be essentially cut off.

In any event I made her version. After 14 hours I heavily floured a board, poured the dough onto the flour, folded it and then put it in a smaller bowl to proof, on top of a well floured piece of parchment paper. I covered it with another piece of parchment paper, afraid that if I covered it with a towel it would stick.

The dough rose in 2 hours, but never reached the top of the bowl so the upper piece of parchment paper was untouched.

I picked up the dough, brushed off as much of the flour from the bottom as possible, turned it upside down (folded side up) and dropped it into the hot dutch oven.

The result was ... good, but not really worth the effort. The crust was soft and there wasn't much taste to the crumb. But it was good enough to make me want to try it again.

A new blog

Just what the world is missing - a new blog! Whoo boy.

Really, I just wanted to keep a journal of my new adventures in bread baking. I've been baking bread on and off (mostly off) for over 20 years. When my wife and I were first married we began cooking for ourselves as a way to cut down on the cost of eating out, and improving the quality of meals we ate. Restaurant costs were high, and in general the food wasn't very good. Plus we occasionally got the chance to go to decent restaurants and learned the difference between well prepared and poorly prepared food.

Through trial and error, a lot of cooking shows and a variety of cookbooks, we became competent in the kitchen. Our kitchen chores are split - my wife actually feeds our family, and I cook the oddball stuff (bread, pizza, chinese food, soup) and do some dessert baking. We are hardly gourmets, and there are probably much better home chefs than us, but over the years we have elevated our repertoire.

Bread baking was always a fascination for me. Not sure why, but maybe because the difference between good bread and the stuff in the supermarket is so dramatic. And, like most people I guess, I love bread. I grew up near a great bagel place (never knowing how extraordinary it was until I moved away) and a terrific neighborhood bakery with mouthwatering fresh rye bread. We lived near the Arthur Avenue section of the Bronx and took advantage of the wonderful loaves from the local bakeries there, and have had baguettes and other great bread in NYC from time to time.

Our first apartment in the bronx was nowhere near a good bakery, so it made sense that I would want to make great bread at home. Plus I just like the idea of making things myself. I tried, but failed, at making pizza dough, and at properly kneading and rising whole wheat bread. My first bread was more of door stop than a food product.

Eventually I gave up, and bought a bread machine, which made pretty good bread. Bread machine bread tends to be soft in texture, but sadly the best bread I made in the machine came out of a box, premeasured and pre-yeasted. I just had to add water. It was a wonderful dark rye loaf, with a soft but firm texture.

The best thing that came of our bread machines (we are on our 3rd) was the ability to make pizza dough. I've perfected (well, almost) home pizza and feel my pies are as good or better than anything made in our local pizzerias. Better still, they come to the table fresh out of the oven, rather than steamed in cardboard from a pizza shop.

Over time I stopped using the bread machine to make bread. The only machine that did a decent job of it was the first one, a Toastmaster. The second one was a Breadman, and always created a loaf with a mushroom cap on the top, with bread that's too soft to make a sandwich without being toasted first. Our current model was the most expensive, a Zojirushi Home Bakery. It also makes disappointing bread - it tastes ok, but the loaves always come out lopsided. I need to take the dough out before the 3rd rise, reshape it and then let it bake. It comes out OK, but having to be there just at the moment before the last rise defeats one of the primary positives of a bread machine - waking up to fresh bread in the morning with no overnight effort.

The Zoji makes good dough though and we use it all the time to make pizza dough. I've had good success making whole wheat bread by having the machine do everything through the end of the 2nd rise, then move it to a loaf pan for the final rise and bake it in our oven. We've also made unbelievably good french bread, using the King Arthur recipe, that calls for a poolish. I have the Zoji do everything until the dough is separated and rolled out, including the making/rising of the poolish.

Making french bread is a 16 hour process, start to finish, and requires a significant amount of "pahtchky-ing", but it's fun do do as a project with my daughter, and the results are unbelieveably good. I bought a 2 loaf perforated french bread baking pan which gives a very professional result. In fact, it's the first bread I ever made that had a professional style crust, thanks to a healthy dose of water brushed onto the loaf just before it goes in the oven.

But bread making is hard, and other things diverted my attention. Little by little I made bread less and less, although I still make pizza frequently. Until a week ago.

I stumbled on Mark Bittman's No Knead bread video on YouTube. I was searching to see if anyone had a video of Wolfgang Puck's chocolate souffle recipe (which is wonderful, just amazing) and found Bittman's choc souffle video. I then looked for other Bittman videos and found the No Knead bread recipe. It looked so easy. Frankly the bread didn't look that great on the video, a little too grey. But a quick search on google and I found that this recipe created a craze about 3 years ago.

The chance to make great bakery bread, easily and at home, was exciting. I bought a $30 cast iron pot (afraid that my rachel ray enamel dutch oven would crack in 500 degree heat) and gave it a shot.

I am not at perfection yet. The results have been terrific and I have made 3 good loaves so far, but I still have a bit of experimentation to go before I feel I have it just right.

So I created this blog to chronicle my efforts. Not sure if anyone will ever see it, but I'll leave it open just in case.