Friday, August 3, 2018

Colorado no-knead bread

Matt's mom has had trouble with bread at >5k feet elevation. After doing some research, I have now made my first no-knead dough and made my first high-altitude bread! Besides sticking to the pan a bit, everything worked pretty much as intended.

3.5 c cool or warm water
3/4 t yeast
1 T honey
4 c bread flour
2 c whole wheat flour
1 T salt
3/4 c caramelized walnuts, whole or coarsely chopped
3/4 c raisins
3/4 c olives, whole or coarsely chopped
cloves from 1 head roasted garlic

Mix the water, yeast, and honey together in a big bowl (or stand mixer) until the yeast and honey are dissolved. Add the flours and salt, and mix (using a wooden spoon, dough hook, and/or your hand) until combined and beginning to get elastic. The dough will be too wet to knead normally, but that's ok. Cover tightly with spray-greased plastic wrap and let rise on the counter for 4 hours until doubled.

Gently deflate the dough and split in half. For each half: spread a little bit of oil on a cutting board, place the dough on the board and press to spread it out a bit, press the fillings on (one with walnuts + raisins, one with olives + garlic), stretch and fold the dough over the fillings to enclose and incorporate, place the dough in a medium spray-greased bowl, and cover tightly with spray-greased plastic wrap. Let rise on the counter for 30min then continue rising in the fridge for 2 hours until almost doubled.

Put a large dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 450F for half an hour. Take out the (hot!) dutch oven, take off the (hot!) lid, dump in the first batch of dough, replace the (hot!) lid, return to the oven, and turn the heat down to 425F. Bake covered for 30min then uncovered for 10-15 min. Transfer to a cooling rack and bake the second batch the same way. The first loaf stuck to the pan a bit, and the second loaf stuck to the brown paper we put down—maybe parchment or grease is the answer? Regardless, let cool at least a little bit before eating.

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