No Knead You Need Bread

Whole wheat (épeautre) bread using

flour milled at the farm up the road.

 

Have you ever been intrigued by a recipe? Before the internet age often my bedtime reading included reading recipes as it was up there with literature as it had artistic merit which generated my imagination beyond the table and chair and or bed which I sit licking my lips. 

As the years have gone by I find myself watching cooking videos versus reading cookbooks a few days ago I came across "Jenny Can Cook" & her straightforward recipes, her humor, and a bread recipe that made me question my wildest memories of baking ... no kneading?
I had to give it a try. 

My earliest bread making days were when I was in my early twenties living in a monastery. During the times when I wasn't praying or in meditation, or sleeping I was assigned to work in the kitchen with Jack the monk although he looked more like Jack the Giant with a full head of hair. Jack and I saw cooking on different levels, he was pragmatic and ran the kitchen like a business, I was a kid who was let into a candy shop but who was a strict vegetarian, with an Abbot who ate raw hamburger with an uncooked egg on top. I read recipes to be inspired but never followed them, and then prayed my strongest prayers that what I was making would turn out. It never occurred to me that if what I made flopped sixty-plus faithful people in my ability to cook might go hungry. The funny thing is when the Abbot asked me if I could cook I said yes, first non-truth told the second was when he asked who could cut hair and I raised my hand and was assigned as the monastery's hairdresser too. Monastic life is based on love and forgiveness, I certainly put that to the test.

Following Jenny’s No knead bread exactly.

One of my favorite things to do in the monastery's kitchen was to make was bread and cinnamon rolls while pretending in my head that I was Julia Childs in front of a TV camera, in the monastery we only watched the news in the evening, so this was my form of entertainment and yet I do not remember Julia ever praying to God that what she was making would turn out. I swear I would hear God say to me, "Corey, focus, write what you are doing so that the next time you bake your Hail Mary Bread you do not need to call on me."

How dare that upstairs person!

Nothing ever flopped, the bread rose, the cinnamon rolls made mouths water and I miraculously stayed out of trouble serving tofu.

Anyway, Jenny Can Cook’s homemade bread is an answer to anyone who finds making bread daunting no matter how many prayers or glasses of wine one needs to consume.

Jenny’s no knead bread is flawless 

s i m p l e

to make is

is an understatement.

 

A gluten-free bread made with chestnut, quinoa, and buckwheat tastes very earthy.

I used Jenny's recipe only I used one teaspoon of yeast since the flour on both of these was heavier.

Jenny Can Cook recipe and videos below.

No-Knead Bread

Jenny Can Cook

Ingredients:

• 3 cups (360-390 g /12 3/4 ounces) all-purpose or bread flour (aerate flour before measuring - See How)
• 1/4 teaspoon yeast, active dry or instant (1 g)
• 1 teaspoon salt (6 g)
• 1 1/2 cups hot water, not boiling (354 mL) - I use hot tap water - about 125-130° F
• (about 2 Tablespoons extra flour for shaping)

Instructions:

1. Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in water until it’s well combined.
2. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 3 hours.
3. After 3 hours dough will become puffy and dotted with bubbles. Transfer it to a well-floured surface and sprinkle dough with a little flour. Using a scraper fold dough over 10-12 times & shape it into a rough ball.
4. Place in a parchment paper-lined bowl (not wax paper) and cover with a towel. Let stand on countertop for about 35 minutes.
5. Meantime place Dutch oven with lid in a cold oven and preheat to 450° F. My oven takes 35 minutes to reach 450°.
6. When the oven reaches 450° carefully, using oven gloves, lift the parchment paper and dough from the bowl and place gently into the hot pot. (parchment paper goes in the pot too) Cover and bake for 30 minutes.
7. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and parchment paper. Return, uncovered, to oven, and bake 10 - 15 more minutes. Let it cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

METRIC: The standard for weighing flour is 1 cup = 120 grams. But when I weigh one cup I get 125-130 grams. Please decide what works for you.

No Dutch Oven? Didn't Turn Out? Other Questions? Click here.

Want It Faster? Click here for my 2-HOUR No-Knead Bread.

Aerating and Sifting is Not The Same: Click here to learn more.

 

Thank you Jenny! 

 

PS Do not ask me for the recipe of the Hail Mary Bread/ cinnamon rolls as it is one of the sacred mysteries that  remains buried within me bringing me faith when I am in doubt. How did I ever dare to bake cinnamon rolls for breakfast for a retreat of over a hundred people? I am not even a morning person... and I lived in a monastery that woke up with bells calling us to prayer. 

 

 

 

Comments

[Jeanne]

Oh I love your postings so much. I love to hear about your days in the monastery and I love all you share with us. You are an absolute delight
Sending much love and many blessings.
Love Jeanne

[Debra Paper]

Hi Corey, did you replace the flour with buckwheat and quinoa to make it gluten free? I like baking GF. Also, would you please post your yogurt cake recipe? Unfortunately, I have misplaced it and my sons have LOVED it over the years. Thanks, all my best, deb

[Corey]

Debra, Yes I replaced the flour with chestnut, quinoa and sarrasin/buckwheat flour. I used a teaspoon of yeast instead.
I will repost the yogurt cake recipe.

[Kathie B]

Uh oh, are Farmboy Husband and I ever in trouble here!

We actually add EXTRA gluten to our bread dough, and find kneading to be physically and emotionally therapeutic for working out life's stresses (especially the past four years!).

E.g., Portuguese papo seco rolls: http://www.inolongerlikechocolates.com/21-01_calendar_jan.htm

[Kathie B]

And here are our Bolos lêvedos (Portuguese muffins), which are fried on a griddle or in a cast-iron frying pan:
http://www.inolongerlikechocolates.com/21-09_calendar_sep.htm

[Marilyn]

Oh yummmm!
I have a huge weakness for bread and your baking escapades make me drool.
I have a recipe sitting out now for cinnamon rolls, which I have never made. I think they will be in the oven sometime this week.

[Susan]

Isn't this the best? I make an einkorn flour one with exactly ssme measurements. I will try in a Dutch oven.

Everything is normal if I can cook

Blessings from Saltspring

[Anna]

Ohhhh, I’m salivating like Pavlov’s dogs. I will definitely make this bread! Thank for sharing the recipe with us. I can only imagine what a delight and bright light you were in the lives of those monks!

[Nina]

I recently discovered Jenny’s blog as well. Many wonderful recipes and videos. All ad free! I can’t wait to try this bread.

[RebeccaNYC]

I just recently started making cinnamon rolls...I kind of wish I hadn't. They are so much fun to make and so yummy....oh now I want to make some more. I've also begun learning how to make Puff Pastry...with limited success. But it's SO MUCH FUN, so I keep trying.

My husband Steve has been making bread for a few years, and no knead was one of the first ones he made. He used the Mark Bittman recipe that appeared in the NYTimes and is truly no-knead. I would come home at night after a show to an apartment that smelled as close to heaven as I could ever imagine...such a wonderful welcome home after a long day!

Jenny's recipe looks very easy to do, and I hope people will try! I would say that folding the bread over 10-12 times is as close to kneading as you can get without actually calling it kneading. And the kneading part is fun! What a great way to get out your frustrations at being stuck at home!

And lastly....What would we do without my ancient cast-iron Dutch Oven? So many wonderful things have been made in it over the years! I think I paid $5 for it at a yard sale a million years ago. I remember hauling it home thinking "I'll probably never use this thing". It's sitting on my stove right this moment, waiting for me to think about what to make for dinner tonight. Best $5 I ever spent.

[Paulette]

OMG this is going to be my go to bread recipe forever! I love, love, love it! Thanks Corey for your amusing story and for finding Jennycancook!
Love your blog, sorry about having to cancel your Spring Shopping tours but we will all be back at the markets when the time is right. Fingers crossed!
Stay safe and well and please lovingly pinch little Gabriel’s cheeks for all the Grandmere’s around the world missing their grandbabies. Merci!