A Fool and Foolproof Bread
For the past several weeks, I've been attempting to make the New York Times' no knead bread. The article accompanying the recipe stated that even an eight-year-old could create bakery quality loaves of bread by letting the dough rise for eighteen hours and baking it in a cast iron pot.
The article also warned that the bread dough would look like a sticky mess, because it uses so much more water than traditional dough. That meant I wasn't overly concerned when I dumped the dough onto the top of my dishwasher after letting it rise overnight and watched it spread out like a pancake. The recipe stated that I should put just enough flour on my hands to prevent the dough from sticking. "Just enough," in my case, seemed to mean at least half the flour bag. I ended up with a sticky mess all over my hands and my dishwasher. When managed to get the soupy dough into the cast iron pot and baked it, my fears were confirmed. My loaf was an inch-high chewy saucer.
Undeterred, I tried again a week later. And again, my dough was a sticky mess, and I ended up with a squat, chewy loaf, not resembling anything I had ever seen in a bakery.
Last weekend, I decided to go back at the recipe one more time. After all, I had spent twenty bucks to buy a cast iron pot at Sears. As I reread the recipe, a lightbulb went off in my head. It calls for three cups of flour, and I was pretty sure I only used two cups in my first two attempts. And, sure enough, with three cups of flour, I created a light and airy loaf with a pleasingly crunchy crust.
Today, for my fourth loaf, I replaced one cup of wheat flour with sorghum flour. I'll report back on the results in about twenty hours.
The article also warned that the bread dough would look like a sticky mess, because it uses so much more water than traditional dough. That meant I wasn't overly concerned when I dumped the dough onto the top of my dishwasher after letting it rise overnight and watched it spread out like a pancake. The recipe stated that I should put just enough flour on my hands to prevent the dough from sticking. "Just enough," in my case, seemed to mean at least half the flour bag. I ended up with a sticky mess all over my hands and my dishwasher. When managed to get the soupy dough into the cast iron pot and baked it, my fears were confirmed. My loaf was an inch-high chewy saucer.
Undeterred, I tried again a week later. And again, my dough was a sticky mess, and I ended up with a squat, chewy loaf, not resembling anything I had ever seen in a bakery.
Last weekend, I decided to go back at the recipe one more time. After all, I had spent twenty bucks to buy a cast iron pot at Sears. As I reread the recipe, a lightbulb went off in my head. It calls for three cups of flour, and I was pretty sure I only used two cups in my first two attempts. And, sure enough, with three cups of flour, I created a light and airy loaf with a pleasingly crunchy crust.
Today, for my fourth loaf, I replaced one cup of wheat flour with sorghum flour. I'll report back on the results in about twenty hours.
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