SWEET SATURDAYS: For the love of bread

I've finally found a bread recipe that I'm super happy with! I have tried copious amounts of different recipes, so this is a big thing for me. It's that good, I've been making it every Saturday for the last three weeks.

This is my kind of Bread recipe, it tastes awesome, and you don't have to be in the kitchen for hours kneading every few hours, you can leave it, forget about it, while time works it's magic. Let me warn you though, you will have to start it the day before you are wanting it, as the first rise is 12-24hrs. It's so worth it!

I've been adjusting the flour (Plain - Wholemeal) ratio with the goal to see if it can be made with all Wholemeal flour. Below are photo's of the different ratios I've tried so far.

 

2 cups White Flour, 1 cup Wholemeal Flour

1 ½  cups White Flour, 1 ½ cups Wholemeal Flour

1  cups White Flour, 2 cups Wholemeal Flour

I found this recipe over on Pinterest, but for some reason I did not 'like' it or pin it, so I can not find the original blog post to give credit to this awesome blogger (if you know, please let me know).

AMENDED March 3 2012: Great news, I found the original source!  http://annastable.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/rustic-artisanal-no-knead-bread.html

 AWESOME BREAD

3 cups Flour

¼ teaspoon dry yeast

1 ½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cup warm water

In a mixing bowl add all the flour, yeast and salt. Using a spoon blend the dry ingredients.

Pour 1 ½ cups of water and mix. Pull together the dough using spoon.

Scrape any excess flour from the bottom and sides of bowl, making sure the ingredients are well incorporated and form into a ball. The dough will have a stringy texture.

Place a piece of plastic wrap on the bowl to avoid the dough from drying out. Allow to rise in a warm dry, and draft free place for at least 12 hours and up to 24 hrs.

Dust a large piece of foil or parchment paper with flour to prevent the dough from sticking during it's second rising. Scrape the risen dough onto the floured surface.

Sprinkle some flour on the dough to prevent it from sticking to your hands. Lightly pat down the dough with your hands to form a circle piece of dough measuring approximately 25 cm.

Fold both side edges to the center of the dough, take the top edge and fold into the center, doing the same with the bottom edge of the dough.

Turn the dough and place the folded side of the dough onto the floured foil or parchment paper and dust with flour to prevent sticking.

Loosely cover with a clean tea towel, Place in a warm and dry place and allow to rise a second time for 2 hours.

Place the ceramic casserole dish with it's cover on the second rack from the bottom of your stove's oven. Preheat the oven to 250.c. Dust the smooth side of the risen dough with flour to prevent it from sticking to the bottom while baking.

Once the oven reaches the required temperature. Remove the pot from the oven and take the cover off (be very careful, the pot will be HOT, make sure you use oven mittens to prevent burning your hands). Place the dough, folded sides down and cover. Bake for 30 minutes at 250.c

Remove pot from oven with oven mittens and take off cover. The bread should have a golden crust and sound hollow when taped (while still hot).

Cool the bread in the pot for a few minutes until the bread sinks off the sides and remove with a spatula and oven mitten. Allow to cool on a cooling rack and cut once cool.

Enjoy.

I did take step by step photos of the process, which I will upload in a post soon.

AMENDED March 3 2012: Slap my wrist, I still have not uploaded the step by step photos. I will, but in the mean time, you can see Anna's step by step photos here:  http://annastable.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/rustic-artisanal-no-knead-bread.html

Wishing you all a fantastic weekend. xx

Linking with: Sweet Saturdays