Would you invest 8 hours to eat THIS?
This is what it looks like inside … under all that butter. 🙂
Some years ago, I ran across an article about no-knead bread. Well, it sounded too good to be true, but I thought I’d give it a try. I had the Dutch oven (my Le Creuset) and, after reading the warning about needing to replace the phenolic knob due to its temperature limitation, I spent the $15 for a metal knob and shipping. So, I was all set.
But I put it off … until now.
I used the recipe Eva (of Kitchen Inspirations) posted this past February. Other than having to add some more flour to the dough, since it was more like a batter after the 4 hour fermentation, I got a great tasting loaf of bread that looked a lot like the ciabatta that I made years ago in my now defunct bread machine. (NOTE: I’ll be increasing the flour to 3 1/2 cups/ 525 g next time.)
The only drawback is the waiting time. It takes at least 6 hrs before you can put the bread in the oven to bake, 45 minutes to bake and a good hour to cool and cut into.
I guess you could put it together the night before and then shape and let rise for 2 hrs the next day. It’s something to think about. One thing I DO know though, I will be making this bread again.
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 
I keep thinking this bread is too good to be true! Must give it a try.
I thought the same thing. Try it with the higher amount of flour as I noted. It’s surprisingly good. Other recipes I’ve seen didn’t use the red wine vinegar, just flour, water, yeast and salt.
Thank you for the shout out and link Maria, I’m so glad it turned out despite the modification you had to make. I recently made that recipe and it was fine, the dough is a lot shaggier than regular bread dough but definitely not batter. I wonder what the difference was. I use unbleached white all purpose flour. Your pics look fantastic. Bread freezes very well so if you made three or four loaves at once you could freeze the extras!
I’ve made ciabatta and this was closer in consistency to the ‘poolish’ after the overnight fermentation than anything resembling dough. It literally “poured” onto my work surface. I made it with regular all purpose flour. I spooned it into a cup rather than weighing the flour so I wonder if I used less than needed. I’ll have to try weighing the flour next time.
Personally I prefer weighing, it’s more accurate. I also like grams better than ounces — I was taught both but I can get my head wrapped around metric more than imperial!
I had several no-knead bread recipes in my inbox that I have been saving for at least 2 years. Thanks to your post, I got inspired and just bought the metal knob! Let’s see how long I’d keep it before I actually try… LOL. Your bread looks SO good! Totally inspired now. 🙂
I waited at least a couple of years before I got around to using the metal knob and making the no knead bread. I hope you try it sooner than that.