No-knead bread

No-knead bread is a method of bread baking that uses a very long fermentation (rising) time instead of kneading to form the gluten strands that give the bread its texture. It is characterized by a low yeast content and a very wet dough. Some recipes improve the quality of the crust by baking the bread in a Dutch oven or other covered vessel.

No-knead bread
Bread baked using the no-knead method
TypeBread

Method

According to one version of the method developed by New York baker Jim Lahey,[1] as described in his book My Bread, one loaf of the bread is made by mixing 400 g (approximately 3 cups) bread flour, 8 g (approximately 1¼ teaspoons) salt and 1 g (approximately ¼ teaspoon) instant yeast with 300 mL (approximately 1 1/3 cups) cool water to produce a 75% hydration dough.

IngredientsGramsBaker's %
Flour400100%
Salt82%
Instant yeast10.25%
Water30075%
Formula 709

The dough is allowed to rise, covered, for 12 to 18 hours until doubled in size and covered with bubbles, then scraped onto a floured surface, given a few folds, shaped, then allowed to rise, covered, for another hour or two. It is then dropped in a pot that has been preheated in an oven at 450 °F (232 °C). The bread is baked in the covered pot for 30 minutes and, with the lid removed, for another 15 to 30 minutes until the crust is a deep brown, then removed from the pot and allowed to cool for an hour.[2]

The method uses a long rise instead of kneading to align the dough's gluten molecules with each other so as to produce a strong, elastic network, resulting in long, sticky strands. The automatic alignment is possible because of the wetness of the dough, which makes the molecules more mobile.[3] Wet doughs, which use a water weight of about 75% that of the flour (hydration), require more salt than conventional doughs, about 2% of the flour weight.[4]

History and popularization

No-knead bread is as old as flour and beer. Written references date as far back as The Compleat Housewife by Eliza Smith (1739).[5][6]

Although no-knead bread was thought to have been first described in the 1999 cookbook No Need to Knead, written by California baker Suzanne Dunaway and published by Hyperion Books, author Jeff Hertzberg notes such a method before the late 1990s in Italy.[7] One reviewer described Dunaway's cookbook as "a book that doesn’t care about kneading and still produces fantastic results!"[8] Due to the popularity of her no-knead method, Dunaway's book was re-published in 2012 by Grub Street Cookery.[9] In addition, famed gospel composer and song collector Albert E. Brumley published a recipe for "No-Knead Bread" in his 1972 song collection and cookbook, All-Day Singin' and Dinner on the Ground, with a similar baking and rising process.[10]

In 2007, Hertzberg and fellow author Zoe François published Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which uses a no-knead method of stored and refrigerated dough that is ready for use at any time during a 5- to 14-day period.

New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman described Lahey's method in his November 8, 2006 column The Minimalist. Bittman praised the bread for its "great crumb, lightness, incredible flavor [and] enviable, crackling crust."[3] Two years later, he noted the recipe's "immediate and wild popularity,"[11] and a 2009 cookbook described Bittman's column as "one of those recipes that literally change the culinary scene with discussions on hundreds of blogs in dozens of languages around the world."[12]

gollark: I had a `print` in for debugging and forgot to remove it and my server keeps logs of programs' stdout.
gollark: ABR currently does not, although it used to by accident. It's not allowed, strictly speaking.
gollark: Hmm. I forget the details, but I think it seemed pretty likely he would do it, just that he wouldn't make it clear if he did.
gollark: Probably should make it so the rules specify you can, you know, discuss the rules and discuss doxxing/stalking generally.
gollark: Specifically the "participate in"/"attempt", though.

References
  1. Lahey, Jim. "Baking the perfect loaf of bread at home". Sullivan St. Bakery. Archived from the original on 2012-07-14. Retrieved 2015-08-27.
  2. Lahey, Jim (2009). My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method. W.W. Norton. pp. 50–56. ISBN 0-393-06630-4.
  3. Bittman, Mark (8 November 2006). "The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work". New York Times. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  4. McGee, Harold (23 February 2010). "Better Bread With Less Kneading". New York Times. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  5. Gamelin, Steve. "History of No Knead Bread".
  6. Smith, Eliza (1739). The Compleat Housewife (9th ed.). J. and J. Pemberton.
  7. Kaspe, Lynne Rossetto (7 March 2014). "Episode 553 Artisan Bread". The Splendid Table (Podcast). American Public Media. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  8. Hodgman, Ann (19 May 2000). "Just give me the recipe, and shut up already!". Salon.com. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  9. Harman, Nick (21 Nov 2012). "No need to knead - Suzanne Dunaway". Foodepedia. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  10. Brumley, Albert (2013). All-Day Singing and Dinner on the Ground. Daywind Music Group. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 21 Dec 2019.
  11. Bittman, Mark (3 October 2008). "No-Knead Bread: Not Making Itself Yet, but a Lot Quicker". New York Times. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  12. Wolfert, Paula (2009). Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking: Traditional and Modern Recipes to Savor and Share. John Wiley and Sons. p. 266. ISBN 978-0-7645-7633-1.
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