Good evening and welcome to the What’s for Dinner Cafe. Today we’re celebrating our anniversary. This series premiered on August 5, 2006. The hosts were tvb, Cookiebear and Kate Petersen. The mission: share recipes and encourage others to talk about food. tvb wrote:
Good evening, fellow repasters and thanks for opening what three hungry kossarians hope to make a regular Saturday this time diary---recipes and cooking without the trolls. There are always so many good recipes posted here day and night that I have personally made and each of us hope you have tried some of ours so the idea became to draw them out some and get you to share more by sharing what we make for our families and ourselves.
In early 2008 Asinus Asinum Fricat (now posting as Patric Juillet) began regularly wowing us with his creations and culinary advice as well as coordinating the hosting schedule. ek hornbeck took over as ringleader the following October and carried the WFD torch until September ‘09. Last October yours truly put the band back together after a few lonely weeks for our Saturday night foodies club when ek dropped out of the picture. And, I’m proud to say that we’re still sharing.
You might have noticed that I’ve returned the version number to the title. I’m hoping that it’ll make it easier to catalog and keep track of topics. Or, maybe not, but I like the idea of reminding ourselves how long we’ve kept a good thing going.
So, to all our hosts, from the very first, to anyone contemplating sharing a recipe or custom in the the future, I offer an old Irish toast:
"May your glass be ever full. May the roof over your head be always strong. And may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead."
Congratulations everyone and here’s to many more weeks of sharing good food, recipes and friendship! Now, go pour yourself your favorite beverage because we’re going to get to why we came - the food. I’ll wait. Take a sip, put your feet up, and let’s get to it...
I became fascinated with yeast as a child. As far as I was concerned, the best treats were made of dough. My mother was an avid baker. She taught me to knead during the summer between fifth and sixth grade. My father was remodeling our kitchen, so he moved the stove and refrigerator to our basement. It was a hot summer, but the deep basement of our old farmhouse was nice and cool. I don’t think it had ever dawned on my mom what a nice place it could be to bake in before then.
And bake we did. Pastries, breads, sticky buns...
At the time, I was active in 4-H. Our county fair was the second week in August. I decided I was entering all the yeast categories, not that there were all that many, but you get the idea. I even entered fancy baked goods. Everyone else in fancy brought decorated cakes that were so large, you could serve a wedding reception. My tree shaped cinnamon rolls drizzled with a confectionary sugar and water mixture didn’t impress the judges.
Most kids would have went home in tears. I had a few, but it didn’t take long to knead my bruised ego away. I’d be back. Over the next several years I continued to bake. I even won an award (a dinky pin and a certificate really) for outstanding achievement in yeast one year before I graduated high school.
And then something happened. I went away to college and became more interested in football games, dates and bar hopping when I wasn’t pouring over ways to explain variables in economic models. Fast forward some years. Enough stories of my childhood culinary adventures came out that MrLear decided to coax out a few loaves of bread, one at a time. My birthday and Christmas presents became kitchen tools: baguette pans, pizza stone, a Kitchen Aid...
For years now I’ve been baking up a storm. You name it, I bake it. I even buy caraway seeds by the pound because we make so much rye bread. And then, damn if something else didn’t happen a few months ago. I found an article I downloaded a couple years ago, but never tried. It was Mark Bittman’s original article on a no-knead, bread-in-a-pot technique and a recipe from the Sullivan Street Bakery in New York.
It got me wondering. It just couldn’t be that simple, could it? Several days later when I visited my local library, I stopped by section 641 and checked out My Bread by Jim Lahey, founder of the Sullivan Street Bakery. From the introduction to his book:
“The article, written by Mark Bittman, had an immediate impact: a cascade of Internet traffic that resulted in home bakers all around the world giving it a shot---and reporting great success.
<snip>
“That’s just what I always wanted. I wanted to do whatever I could to help bread matter more, for people to fall in love with bread and I did when I began baking two decades ago. The object of my deepest affection, especially early on, was the rustic, deep-flavored bread of the Italian countryside.”
emphasis mine
Amen brother. That sure sounds like a What's for Dinneridea to me.
I don’t care if you’ve never made a loaf of bread before, you MUST try this. It’s utterly amazing. No wonder this no-knead method of baking has acquired an almost cult-like following. You can put a loaf of rustic bread on your table every day. It only takes a few minutes of time and a few pennies for the ingredients. Watch this video demonstration by Bittman and Lahey.
Yes, you need a dutch oven. One that’s four to five quarts is perfect for this recipe. Buy one at a yard sale if you don’t already have one. Don’t even worry about why it works.
The Basic No-Knead Bread Recipe by Jim Lahey
Ingredients | Measure | Weight |
bread flour |
3 cups | 400 grams |
table salt |
1 1/4 teaspoon | 8 grams |
instant or other active yeast |
1/4 teaspoon | 1 gram |
cool (55 to 65 degrees F) water |
1 1/3 cups | 300 grams |
wheat bran/flour for dusting |
| |
Mix all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Add water and incorporate by hand or with a wooden spoon or spatula for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Lightly coat the inside of a second medium bowl with olive oil and place the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest 12 hours at room temperature (approx. 65-72°F).
Remove the dough from the bowl and fold once or twice. Let the dough rest 15 minutes in the bowl or on the work surface. Next, shape the dough into ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not a terry cloth one) with flour, wheat bran, or cornmeal; place the dough seam side down on the towel and dust with flour. Cover the dough with a cotton towel and let rise 1-2 hours at room temperature, until more than doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 450-500°F. Place the pot in the oven at least 30 minutes prior to baking to preheat. Once the dough has more than doubled in volume, remove the pot from the oven and place the dough in the pot seam side up. Cover with the lid and bake 30 minutes Then remove the lid and bake 15-30 minutes uncovered, until the loaf is nicely browned.
In a nut shell, the long, slow rise has the same affect on the ingredients as kneading. The blazing hot dutch oven simulates a bakers oven - it’s very hot and lid traps in the steam, which contribute to a good rise and a great crust.
Over the last several weeks, I’ve made this bread and several variations. I’ve added wheat and rye flours, cheese, herbs, cocoa powder and dried cherries, unsweetened coconut and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Everyone of them has been better than the one before. Every one of them has been consumed with gusto in lightning time. This bread brings smiles to people’s faces. I’m hooked.
Of course, I’ll still make breads that require kneading. But as Alton Brown says, “that’s another show.”
A few pictures as proof positive, that anyone can make this bread in an ordinary home oven. It weighs about 20 ounces. Similar loaves sell for between $4 and $5 at local stores.
Fresh out of the oven
Cooling for a few moments
Our upcoming What’s for Dinner schedule is as follows:
version | date | host | featured topic |
v5.2 | August 7 | commonmass | Texas barbecue |
v5.3 | August 14 | Garrett | tomaotes |
v5.4 | August 21 | ninkasi23 | zucchini |
v5.5 | August 28 | mayim | |
v5.6 | September 4 | | |
v5.7 | September 11 | Fe Bongolan | cooking with cast iron |
v5.8 | September 18 | noweasels | Vermont Chicken Pie Suppers |
v5.9 | September 25 | | |
v5.10 | October 3 | | |
Please leave a comment below, or contact me at the address in my profile, if you would like to host one Saturday evening.
Once again, thanks for stopping by and making this series the wonderful collection of people and recipes that endures and hopefully inspires others.
What are you having for dinner this evening?