I was speaking with a friend today about
bread. Although I am unable to eat bread during my detox, I feel that
it is necessary to prepare for post-purification. I plan to eliminate
store bought bread completely. Before, I always had an extra loaf on
hand in the freezer for last minute meals. No more!
By Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François
The Master Recipe: Boule
Makes 4 1-pound loaves
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1⁄2 tbsp granulated yeast (1 1⁄2 packets)
1 1⁄2 tbsp coarse kosher or sea salt
6 1⁄2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour
Cornmeal for pizza peel
The artisan free-form loaf called the
French boule is the basic model for all the no-knead recipes. The round
shape (boule in French means “ball”) is the easiest to master. You’ll
learn how wet the dough needs to be (wet, but not so wet that the
finished loaf won’t retain its form) and how to shape a loaf without
kneading. And you’ll discover a truly revolutionary approach to baking:
Take some dough from the fridge, shape it, leave it to rest, then let it
bake while you’re preparing the rest of the meal.
Keep
your dough wet — wetter doughs favor the development of sourdough
character during storage. You should become familiar with the following
recipe before going through any of the others.
Mixing and Storing the Dough
1. Heat the water to just a little warmer than body temperature (about 100 degrees Fahrenheit).
2. Add yeast and salt to the water in a
5-quart bowl or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded container (not
airtight — use container with gasket or lift a corner). Don’t worry
about getting it all to dissolve.
3. Mix in the flour by gently scooping it
up, then leveling the top of the measuring cup with a knife; don’t pat
down. Mix with a wooden spoon, a high-capacity food processor with dough
attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer with dough hook, until
uniformly moist. If hand-mixing becomes too difficult, use very wet
hands to press it together. Don’t knead! This step is done in a matter
of minutes, and yields a wet dough loose enough to conform to the
container.
4. Cover loosely. Do not use screw-topped
jars, which could explode from trapped gases. Allow the mixture to rise
at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flatten on
top), approximately two hours, depending on temperature. Longer rising
times, up to about five hours, will not harm the result. You can use a
portion of the dough any time after this period. Refrigerated wet dough
is less sticky and easier to work with than room-temperature dough. We
recommend refrigerating the dough at least three hours before shaping a
loaf. And relax! You don’t need to monitor doubling or tripling of
volume as in traditional recipes.
On Baking Day
5. Prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it
liberally with cornmeal to prevent the loaf from sticking to it when you
slide it into the oven.
Sprinkle the surface of the dough with
flour, then cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-sized) piece with a serrated
knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour
as needed so it won’t stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of
the dough around to the bottom on four “sides,” rotating the ball a
quarter-turn as you go, until the bottom is a collection of four bunched
ends. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it doesn’t need to be
incorporated. The bottom of the loaf will flatten out during resting and
baking.
6. Place the ball on the pizza peel. Let it
rest uncovered for about 40 minutes. Depending on the dough’s age, you
may see little rise during this period; more rising will occur during
baking.
7. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat
oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone on the middle rack. Place an
empty broiler tray for holding water on another shelf.
8. Dust the top of the loaf liberally with
flour, which will allow the slashing, serrated knife to pass without
sticking. Slash a 1⁄4-inch-deep cross, scallop or tick-tack-toe pattern
into the top. (This helps the bread expand during baking.)
9. With a forward jerking motion of the
wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the baking stone.
Quickly but carefully pour about a cup of hot water into the broiler
tray and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30
minutes, or until the crust is browned and firm to the touch. With wet
dough, there’s little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark
crust. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it will audibly crackle,
or “sing,” when initially exposed to room temperature air. Allow to cool
completely, preferably on a wire rack, for best flavor, texture and
slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again
when cooled.
10. Refrigerate the remaining dough in your
lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next two weeks:
You’ll find that even one day’s storage improves the flavor and texture
of your bread. This maturation continues over the two-week period. Cut
off and shape loaves as you need them. The dough can also be frozen in
1-pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the
refrigerator prior to baking day.
Tonight I topped a large Naan with Grilled Eggplant, baby kale, red romaine and Roasted Beets with Garlic. YUM!
