I made The NO-KNEAD Bread! Ho fatto il pane che non s’impasta !
 
This is the most excited I’ve been while cooking in quite a while. I made The Bread that has sent shock waves through the food blogging world and beyond. OK, so I’m a bit of a drama queen, but people have been very excited about it. PLEASE SEE UPDATE #2 BELOW. I learned about The Bread from Tanna, who learned about it from Lindy, who saw the recipe in the New York Times food section. If you hop from blog to blog and read the comments, you will see that the news spread like wildfire, with people doing some round-the-globe baking. Here is Tanna’s comment about the event on Lindy’s post: “This thing is around the globe as of last night Baking Soda wrote me this: Around the globe in one evening, I just got mail from a dutch baking forum and the poster announces "bread baking for dummies" in which she refers to this exact same article. I imagine there are a few fellow dutch bakers who will try this and show their results on the forum.” I emailed the links to my brother, let him experiment with the recipe to see what he thought of it, since we like the same type of bread, waited for the steam to dissipate, and then yesterday started on my own batch, which is now made and partially eaten. I followed some of the tips suggested by Ginger Pedersen, who put up a website just to document the process, and next time I want to try Aja’s multigrain variation. In the meantime here is the recipe, which is no longer available at the New York Times site unless you register, but can be found on The Wednesday Chef, along with some great commentary and photos. Right after the recipe I will tell you the “mistake” I made, which turned out not to be one at all; but first the recipe, created by Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery and published in the New York Times Food Section by Mark Bittman . No-Knead Bread 
Yields one 1½ pound loaf
Time: About 1½ hours, plus 14 to 20 hours rising 3 cups (430 g) all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast (1 g)
1¼ teaspoons salt (8 g)
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed. 1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 and 5/8 cups water (345 g) (my note: in the video he uses 1 and 1/2 cups water), and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. 2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes. 3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. 4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 º . Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When temp. reaches 450, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack. Before I got started I did a little research on “instant yeast”, and found out that it is not the same as “active dry yeast”. So I called my brother to see what he knew, and it turned out he hadn’t even noticed that the recipe did not call for “active dry yeast”, and had used 1/4 teaspoon of active dry yeast and obtained a fantastic loaf of bread, so good in fact that he was already in the process of making a second one. So I forged ahead with what I had - active dry yeast - using 1/4 teaspoon of it. After the dough had sat in its bowl for nine hours and not one bubble had appeared on its surface, I got a little panicky and moved it out of the stainless steel bowl it was in and into a smaller ceramic one. I then forgot about it for one and a half hours. When I looked again it had almost doubled and there were BUBBLES! Now, I don’t know if this has anything to do with the bowl or with the fact that more time had passed, but I didn’t care. I was excited. Not so excited though that I was about to get up a 5 am on a Sunday, just because that would have been the 18 hour mark. I got up at 8 am, when the dough and the yeast had been doing their thing for 21 hours, and oh boy, what a joyful sight and smell greeted me (second only to my dogs of course). A huge bubble-covered mass of yeasty dough. Still in my pajamas I tilted the bowl and pulled the dough out onto the floured plastic cutting board. It was not difficult to get out, but it did look very unusual. Numerous long tentacles of dough grabbed the inside of the bowl as if to resist being torn from their warm womb (is that better Adam?). Having only been awake for ten minutes, I was too groggy to remember to take a photo, but I did get this one of how it looked after it had its 15 minute nap. The only slightly difficult part came when I tried to shape it into a “ball”. It acted much like a Slinky. As soon as I took one hand away, it tried to escape. Finally, I just held it in both hands, and placed it on the floured cotton towel, trying to push the edges under. There was no real “seam” to speak of. After the additional two hour rising period it had not doubled, although it did seem to be expanding horizontally, so I decided that at 2 and 1/2 hours it would be going into the oven doubled or not, because I had to take all three dogs to Animal Care and Control for their rabies boosters and license renewal. I ended up baking it for 28 minutes covered (I couldn’t stand waiting those additional 2 minutes), then a total of 30 more minutes uncovered. I checked it after it had baked uncovered for 20 minutes, but it seemed a bit pale, so I let it bake for 10 more minutes. Lovely, isn’t it? And I did not use the right yeast, plus I let it rise for 21 hours instead of 12 to 18 hours. It may be that it needed those extra hours because the yeast I used was not of the “instant” variety, or it may be that it doesn’t matter if you let is rise for a longer time. I looked up yeast information in my copy of the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion, and this is what they say about instant yeast as compared to active dry yeast: “...... it begins to work much faster than active dry yeast (though active dry yeast will eventually catch up over the course of several hours’ fermentation).” However, they also say that active dry yeast must be “proofed”, that is dissolved in water, before baking with it. Neither my brother nor I did that, and it worked fine - go figure. Here’s a photo of it sliced, and here is how I ate that first slice - with Gorgonzola piccante and syrupy, tangerine flavored candied walnuts (more about those in a couple of days). And a glass of Gamay Beaujolais. Before you get all excited, it’s Charles Shaw’s $2.00 bottle, sold at Trader Joe’s. I love it, and it’s the first red wine I’ve been able to drink in years, without having it upset my stomach. I suppose that could be because it’s low in tannins, as compared to other reds. Thank you Jim Lahey, and Mark Bittman, and all the bloggers. P.S. Next time I’m going to add a little more salt, maybe some whole wheat, some rye? UPDATE #1 I made it with 2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour and 1 cup of whole wheat and it was great. UPDATE #2 There is a follow up article posted today, Dec 6, on the the New York Times by Mark Bittman, with some fine-tuning to the recipe, and giving metric measurements among other things. I found out about it here on Not Martha. In italiano - 5/12/2006 Non ho subito tradotto questo post per due motivi. Il primo è la mancanza di tempo e il secondo è che in Italia si puo` trovare del pane meraviglioso ad ogni angolo di strada. Anche qui, almeno a San Francisco, si compra del pane eccellente, ma solo in determinati negozi. Dunque, poichè Francesca ha chiesto di saperne di più, eccovi il riassunto di quanto sopra. La ricetta che riporto è stata creata da Jim Lahey della Sullivan Street Bakery e poi pubblicata sul New York Times da Mark Bittman . Si tratta di un pane che non viene impastato neanche per un secondo. Cresce grazie al lievito e alle molte ore di “gestazione”. Appena è uscito l’articolo, la ricetta ha fatto il giro del mondo tramite i food blog. Per vedere tantissimi commenti a proposito qui negli USA, andate qui e qui, per non parlare poi delle innumerevoli email che ha ricevuto il New York Times. Pane Senza-Impasto 
Se ne ricava una pagnotta di circa 600 gr.
Tempo: Circa 90 minuti e in più da 14 a 20 ore per la lievitazione 400 430 g di farina “all-purpose” oppure di farina per pane*
¼ di cucchiaino (circa 1,3 1 g) di lievito “istantaneo” *
1 1/4 cucchiaini di sale (circa 6 o 7 8 g.)
Farina di polenta o semola, se serve. 1. In un recipiente grande mescolare la farina, il lievito ed il sale. Aggiungere da 380 a 400 ml 345 g. di acqua e mescolare. L’impasto sarà ruvido e appiccicoso. Coprire il recipiente con la pellicola per alimenti e lasciar riposare in una stanza calda, circa 21 C., per almeno 12 ore, ma preferibilmente per 18. 2. L’impasto è pronto quando la superfice è ricoperta di bolle. Infarinare leggermente il ripiano da lavoro e poggiarvi sopra l’impasto; spolverare con una piccola quantità di farina e ripiegare su se stesso una o due volte. Coprire leggermente con la pellicola per alimenti e lasciar riposare per circa 15 minuti. 3. Usando appena quanta farina basta per evitare che l’impasto si appiccichi al ripiano e alle mani, delicatamente e velocemente dargli una forma rotonda. Cospargere un tovagliolo di cotone con abbondante farina, semola o farina da polenta; poggiare l’impasto sul tovagliolo con le ripiegature sotto e la parte più liscia in su e spolverare di nuovo con la farina, la semola o la farina da polenta. Coprire con un altro tovagliolo di cotone e lasciar crescere per 2 ore. Quando l’impasto è pronto sarà più che raddoppiato* e non riprenderà immediatamente la forma quando viene tastato con un dito. 4. Almeno mezz’ora prima che l’impasto sarà pronto, accendere il forno a 235 C. Mettere nel forno un tegame pesante con un coperchio, che possa contenere da e ch6 a 8 litri (di ghisa, smalto, di Pyrex o di ceramica) di modo che il tegame si riscaldi insieme al forno. Quando l’impasto è pronto, levare il tegame dal forno, facendo MOLTA attenzione a non bruciarsi. Far scivolare la mano sotto al tovagliolo e riversare l’impasto nel tegame, con le ripiegature in su (sottosopra insomma); può essere che sembrera` pasticciato, ma non importa. Scuotere il tegame una o due volte se l’impasto non è ben distribuito; si aggiusterà mentre cuoce. Mettere il coperchio e cuocere per 30 minuti, poi togliere il coperchio e cuocere per altri 15 a 30 minuti, finchè la pagnotta non sara` bella marroncina. Togliere dal tegame e far raffreddare su di una graticola. * Osservazioni e spiegazione delle cancellature: 1. Non avevo il lievito “istantaneo” nè sapevo cosa fosse. Facendo delle ricerche ho scoperto che non è quello in polvere (cioè granuloso) in bustina che si usa comunemente per fare il pane, ma che è una varietà meno comune che fa cresere la pasta del pane molto più velocemente. Poichè mio fratello aveva provato la ricetta prima di me, usando il lievito comune granuloso (che qui si chiama “active dry”), e la pagnotta gli era riuscita benissimo, io ho fatto lo stesso. Comunque, forse perchè non è mai 21 C. a casa mia d’inverno, ho dovuto fare lievitare l’impasto per circa 20 ore prima che apparissero le “bolle” (e anche perchè non mi volevo alzare alle cinque del mattino di domenica) e poi per altre 2 ore e 30 minuti per l’ultimo periodo di lievitazione. Ho cotto la pagnotta per un totale di 58 minuti. 2. La farina “all purpose” non è proprio quella apposta per il pane, ma può essere usata per farlo e non so a cosa corrisponda in Italia. 3 Sia per i miei gusti che per quelli di mio fratello, mancava il sale. Quindi consiglio di usarne di più. 4. Durante le due ore di riposo il mio impasto non si è raddoppiato, non so se per la temperatura dell’ambiente e se per il lievito usato. Comunque non mi è sembrato un problema. 4 Vorrei scoprire come fare per farlo diventare più “acido”. In questo momento sto facendo raffreddare una seconda pagnotta fatta con 2/3 di farina bianca e 1/3 di farina integrale e un po’ più sale, ma l’impasto è cresciuto meno dell’altra volta. Nota dell’ultimo momento: ho assaggiato questa seconda pagnotta e mi piace molto di più della prima. Credo che l’aggiunta di altro sale e di un terzo di farina integrale siano state una buona idea. Dal sito indicatomi da Julie nel suo commento sembrerebbe che le conversioni che ho calcolato erano errate. Ho usato una bilancia, ma non tutte le bilance sono create uguali e una tazza di farina, dipendendo dal metodo usato per riempire la tazza, può avere pesi diversi. Ho appena saputo che oggi (6/12) è uscito un secondo articolo di Mark Bittman, sul New York Times, con alcuni aggiornamenti, tra cui le misure in grammi che ho di nuovo corretto sopra. Dice inoltre che si può usare qualsiasi lievito, che per il secondo periodo di lievitazione ci vogliono da 2 a 3 ore, che il recipiente può anche essere più piccolo, che si possono aggiungere altri ingredienti tipo semi, olive, noci, formaggi, ecc. nella fase iniziale e che fino a 50% di farina integrale funziona molto bene. http://web.mac.com/tannajones/iWeb/My%20Kitchen%20In%20Half%20Cups...Second%20Helping%20/My%20Kitchen%20in%20Half%20Cups...Second%20Helping/3068D2B9-F0E6-4E3D-8CF3-2EEB01CD1848.htmlhttp://www.lindystoast.com/2006/11/minimalists_sul.htmlhttp://www.aresrocket.com/bread/http://jaffamudpies.blogspot.com/2006/11/bread.htmlhttp://wednesdaychef.typepad.com/the_wednesday_chef/2006/11/jim_laheys_nokn.htmlhttp://www.sullivanstreetbakery.com/http://www.howtocookeverything.tv/htce/AboutBittman/index.htmlhttp://www.amateurgourmet.com/the_amateur_gourmet/2006/11/more_blogging_a.htmlhttp://slinky.org/http://www.amazon.com/King-Arthur-Flour-Bakers-Companion/dp/0881505811http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/dining/06mini.html?_r=2&ref=dining&oref=slogin&oref=sloginhttp://www.notmartha.org/archives/2006/12/06/no-knead-bread-some-more/#commentshttp://www.notmartha.org/http://www.sullivanstreetbakery.com/http://www.howtocookeverything.tv/htce/AboutBittman/index.htmlhttp://www.lindystoast.com/2006/11/minimalists_sul.htmlhttp://wednesdaychef.typepad.com/the_wednesday_chef/2006/11/jim_laheys_nokn.htmlhttp://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/11/holy_bread.htmlhttp://kitchenography.typepad.com/shapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5shapeimage_2_link_6shapeimage_2_link_7shapeimage_2_link_8shapeimage_2_link_9shapeimage_2_link_10shapeimage_2_link_11shapeimage_2_link_12shapeimage_2_link_13shapeimage_2_link_14shapeimage_2_link_15shapeimage_2_link_16shapeimage_2_link_17shapeimage_2_link_18
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