Now this is the way to get back to chewing food.

I remember standing in the kitchen of the Lincoln Cafe in 2007 during a lull in dinner service and chatting with Andy the sous chef about recipes we had tried recently. “Have you made ‘the no-knead bread‘ yet?” he asked me. I hadn’t. Andy swore up and down it was the best bread he had ever made, and went on and on about the quality of the crust, the ease of it, the just plain awesome taste. Two weeks later I made the bread and agreed with everything he said.

Flash forward three years and the no-knead bread is legendary. I’ve seen dozens of variations and made my own, but not since moving to Boulder over a year ago. Although I’ve gotten much better about tackling my high-altitude baking fear in the past few months, the no-knead is something I’ve been silly to ignore, since its namesake is the ease of the dough. After a few trials, I finally found the right mix of ingredients, time, and rising. Although this bread is more time consuming than most, it’s probably the best beginning loaf to do since it lacks the intimidating kneading and produces quite possibly the tastiest (and most versatile) bread ever.

My loaves are always a bit flatter than I like due to the fact that the only Dutch oven I have is very large (and has a wide cooking surface). The smaller your cooking vessel is, the tighter/higher your loaf would be, which I hope to do soon by getting a smaller Dutch oven or other baking receptacle which can handle the high heat.

—

No-Knead Bread (for high altitude)

The original (infamous) recipe is here at the New York Times. My high-altitude version is very similar, actually. Just a bit more water, bit less flour, and way more salt (because salt acts a yeast retardant, you want to slow down the rising as much as possible, especially since yeast speeds up greatly at high altitude).

Also, finding 100% cotton dishtowels can be trickier than you think. My solution was to cut up an old 100% cotton t-shirt which was clean, soft, and ready to be recycled anyway. I’ve also seen variations where cooks have used parchment paper and things turn out well, which I plan to try next time.

Ingredients

• 3¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 teaspoons fine salt (not coarse or Kosher)
• ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast (not rapid rise)
• 1¾ cups warm water
• 2 cotton dish towels (not terry cloth)

Directions

1.) Combine flour, salt, yeast and water in a large glass mixing bowl. Stir together until you have a shaggy mass of dough, and cover very tightly with plastic wrap. Let sit at least 12 hours, preferably 18, at warm room temperature (around 70º). I like to wrap the bowl in a flannel sheet or blanket and stick it on top of the fridge, or just pop the bowl in the microwave with the door shut.

2.) Once ready (the whole thing will have risen a bit and be dotted with bubbles), turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and fold over onto itself a few times, adding more flour if needed to have it come together. Cover loosely with some plastic wrap and let it rest for 10 minutes.

3.) After the dough has rested, dust your hands with a bit of flour and shape the dough into a ball, tucking the edges underneath. Dredge the towels in flour and shake off the excess. Lay one of the towels on a large baking sheet. Place the dough on top. Sprinkle with some flour, and then lay the other flour-coated towel on top of the dough. Let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.

4.) About a half hour before the dough should be done rising, put a 6-8 quart heavy pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) with a tight-fitting lid in the oven on the middle rack. Preheat the oven to 450º F (with the pot in the oven). Once preheated, check the dough and move onto the next step if ready. The dough should be pretty resilient at this stage – it won’t just completely deflate if you poke it, but spring back slightly.

5.) Very carefully remove the EXTREMELY hot pot from the oven. Remove the lid and set aside. Dump the dough into the hot pot and cover with lid. Bake 30 minutes, covered, then remove the lid for the last 15-30 minutes until golden brown and done. A good way to check for doneness is to use a probe thermometer inserted directly into the center of the loaf. A done loaf will read 190º-200º F.

6.) Let cool COMPLETELY on a wire rack. Don’t you dare slice it before it’s completely cooled! I know it’s tempting, but the texture is a thousand times better if you let bread cool completely before slicing. You can always reheat it after it’s been sliced (and add some salted butter, oh yeah) and get the same effect, but with better texture.

3 Responses to “no-knead bread (for high altitude)”