Kelly the Culinarian: Stand mixer Sunday: Whole wheat bread

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Stand mixer Sunday: Whole wheat bread

I might be in love with this no-knead recipe. It's just so easy. I've been trying different combinations of stuff and different types of flours, and it always works.

My newest venture was using whole-wheat flour. I've never worked with it before, but it's been quite the success. The key to this is to sift all the ingredients together. It really makes a difference in the texture and gets out the huge chunks of whatever in the flour. Ick.

So here's the standard recipe for a whole-wheat no-knead loaf. Believe me, you'd pay a pretty penny for this at the store.

1 cup regular flour
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 and 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 and 5/8 cups water

Whole-wheat flour really sucks up water, so you may need a little more. Anyhow, mix together all the ingredients listed above until it forms a shaggy, sticky dough. Put in a warm corner at least overnight, preferable 18 hours or until the dough is foamy with bubbles on top.

Pour the dough out onto a floured surface and work enough plain flour into it to keep it from sticking to your fingers. Fold over the dough three times and put in some plastic wrap to rest for 15 minutes. Then take out and form into a loose round loaf. Place in a floured cotton cloth to rise until doubled, about two hours.

At least a half hour before baking, place a casserole, pyrex or other heavy dish with a lid in the oven and heat to 450 degrees. When you're ready to cook off the loaf, remove the dish and place the loaf in the dish, then shake to settle the loaf.

Put it in the oven with the lid on for 25 minutes. Then, remove the whole loaf and place on the oven rack for another 15 minutes to allow it to brown all over. A nice egg wash glaze would help with this one too.

1 comment:

Cynthia said...

Yeah that no-knead bread recipe is really fantastic.