Sunday 14 June 2009

crusty matters

I have flowerpress to thank for this little piece of baking inspiration: my very first loaf of bread. The 'no knead' type made famous by Jim Lahey from the Sullivan Street Bakery in NY. It's so easy even I can make it. The trick is to plan ahead to give it enough time to work its magic (without you doing any work). For me that meant some simple maths: 18 hours of sitting plus 2+ more hours of sitting (the bread that is, not me) plus 45 mins in the oven = I need to make the dough about 5pm the day before I want it ready. And you also need to have a cast iron pot to cook it in the oven with (mine is a Le Creuset in cobalt blue - the colour is important you know ;)

It tastes really good too. I chose to roll it in a bit of polenta at the end which is why it looks a bit grainy and this gives it a subtle roasted corn smell too which is wonderful. I think I could even get the hang of it and bake bread on a regular basis. Oh and the recipe is Jim's too. He shared it with the NY Times about 3 years ago because he wants people to know how it easy it is to make gorgeous crusty bread at home. Now how lovely is that?

8 comments:

  1. yes, i love this bread.
    and another version:
    after the 19hrs of sitting, just grab small handfuls and roll out really, really thin. then heat up a large non-stick frypan, bang in the flat bread and voila! naan... and it is soooooooo gooooooooooood. you will definitely make this again, too.

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  2. Yummo. Both versions sound so good.

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  3. Oh I love the smell and taste of the freshly baked pan... yum!
    You cook it in the le creuset!? Would a red one do? I always want to try but can never get round to it...

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  4. oooh - it looks delcious - and i love the polenta addition. i am loving this whole no-knead bread thing going on at the moment - it is perfect for melbourne winter! i am absolutely going to try this - thankyou! and an excellent excuse to finally lash at on that le creuset perhaps:)

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  5. Thanks for that flat bread recipe Kirsten!
    Hope whoever tries these bread recipes has fun. I'll be making more.

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  6. I make a similar bread and it comes out lovely and crusty with a turkish bread consistency. I'll definitely try Jim's recipe. Thanks, yum!

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  7. Oh good, thanks, we've been getting into a bit of bread making around here, so we'll give this one a go, and right at the moment, sitting around for 18 hours sounds like a good plan!!

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