Whole Wheat No Knead Bread

For a first attempt, I was surpised how things went (mostly) well.  I started with a no knead bread, because they are the simplest to make and I figured this would be a good beginning.  This was the first time I used active yeast and I’ll admit I felt like a child on Chirstmas, giddy at the site of my rising dough when I woke up the next day.  Things went relatively well throughout, with a minor set back in the end.

Having never made bread, I wasn’t sure which kind of pan to use, do I use parchment paper?, do I grease the pan?, etc, etc..   I searched many recipes and everyone seemed to have their own secret.  When the bread came out of the oven, it smelled and looked amazing.  Then I tried to remove it from the pan…totally stuck.  I ended up losing about 1/4th of the bread, glued the bottom of the pan.  Next time, parchment paper for sure…

Despite the little set back, the bread tasted great, a crunchy outside with a well-cooked doughy center.  I sliced a piece, toasted it, and spread a layer of strawberry jam over the top.  Paired with a French coffee, I was in heaven.

For those just starting out, this is a great recipe to give it a go.  Just don’t forget the parchment paper or else this will happen:

Bottomless bread… (cue sad violins)

No Knead Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup bread flour

1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 2/3 cups of luke-warm tap water

Directions:

In a large bowl (really, a LARGE bowl, don’t forget the dough is going to rise!) whisk together dry ingredients.  Add the warm water and stir until well mixed.  The dough will see really wet, but don’t worry!  Mix well, making sure all the flour is well absorbed.

Cover the bowl well with plastic wrap and let sit for 12-14 hours.  The dough will have tripled in size and will have little bubbles at the top.

Sprinkle flour on a large cutting board and slowly pour the dough onto it.  Using a spatula (so it doesn’t stick to your fingers), gently fold the dough a coupled times to fold it into a ball-like shape.  Remember, this dough does not need to be kneaded so there is no overworking to be done.  Lightly sprinkle flour over the top and cover with a clean, dry towel.  Let sit for 1 hour.

Preheat your oven, with the pan inside, to 450°F.  Let the pan heat up for about 30 minutes.  After the dough has sat for an hour, quickly remove the pan from the over, place a piece of parchment paper over the top, and lightly sprinkle with flour.  Pour the dough onto the pan and bake for 20 minutes.  Raise the temperature to 500°F and bake for 15-20 more minutes.

Remove from the oven and immediately remove from pan.  Let sit on a wire rack until cool.

Enjoy!

Love,

Julie

My Bread Adventures. BreAdventures.

I’m the kind of person that has an idea, mulls it over for about… 5 minutes and says “let’s do it”.  Some of you may or may not have read my food blog, La Belle Life, which, truth be told, I have not touched since May.  I could make excuses about grad school and lack of money, but, while those things are true, I think I was just getting bored.   Of course, I never stopped my regular food blog hunting and reading, printing and archiving favorite recipes and creating new ones in my kitchen.  But, really, in addition to lack of time and funding, I didn’t feel motivated enough – nor inspired enough –  to continue posting all the time.  And then two nights ago, I had an idea that finally got me excited.

As some of you know, I have been living in France for a little over two years now and the food here is…. well, nothing less than divine.  Some of you may be thinking about slow roasted  Boeuf Bourguignon and Coq au Vin, or warm Tarte Tatin and delicious Soufflés.  But, for me, the things I love most about French foods are the simple, modest recipes like Pot au Feu, Quiche Lorraine, Ratatouille and, of course, les pains (the breads).  The thing about France is that everything you eat, everything, is treated with the same care.  Each ingredient, each recipe, is seen as just as important as the next whether it took you 5 hours of preparation and cooking, or a short 5 minutes to throw together.

So, with all these delicious things you may be wondering, “Why bread?”   The reason is simple: what better place to attempt bread making than in France?  The Egyptians may have invented it, but the French perfected it.  And who doesn’t love bread?  I can honestly say there is nothing as wonderful as the smell that hits you when you walk into a French bakery.  The air is thick with smells of buttery croissants, fantastic baguettes traditionnelles and pain au levin, with whole grain breads, specials blends,  and pain au chocolat.

The idea itself to embark on this adventure… or BreAdventure… came to me while I was searching for cake recipes for Julien’s birthday.  While sifting through hundreds of recipes I would come across the occasional bread, as sometimes the two meet in the middle creating things like Banana Bread, which, despite itss name, has a cake-like texture.  After an hour of searching, it hit me that I had never really tried to make bread at home, not even after I got my Kitchenaid Mixer.  I think it always intimidated me because despite bread’s humble ingredients, certain kinds can be really, really challenging to make.  I then began to sift through bread recipes, saving and printing those that seemed challenging but do-able, for now.  It was then and there that I decided, I can do this.  I mean, why not?

And so, to document this “breadventure”, I created Pride and Breadjudice (I love puns… guilty.  Hot Crossed Puns… Ok I’m done…).   First post begins tomorrow with Whole Wheat No Knead Bread. Let the challenge begin.

Love and baguettes,

Julie.