Food blogging: the no-knead bread recipe we use (c. 2022-03-25)

[packbat]

This recipe is based on the one in this recipe post from Kitty Unpretty on Tumblr (cw: meat, dairy), which in turn is based on a more elaborate bread recipe by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë Francois. Those recipes use volume, though, and we have a kitchen scale, so the following is all weights, measured in baker's percentage: whatever mass of flour you choose is 100%, and all other masses scale accordingly.

(Dairy is mentioned below, but all other described ingredients are vegan.)

Ingredients:

• 100% all-purpose flour. Flour quantity will determine final loaf size - its weight will be approximately 150% of the weight of the flour.
  • Whole wheat flour behaves differently, but the same proportions of flour, water, yeast, and salt work fine. We do not have specific recommendations for other ingredients in that case, through.
• 1% salt.
• 0.5-1% active dry yeast.
• Optional herbs and spices (quantities of these are very imprecise):
  • 0.5% garlic powder
  • 0.5% onion powder
  • 0.25% oregano
  • 0.25% rosemary
  • 0.25% rubbed sage
  We presume other herbs would also work best around 0.25%; we have not done a great deal of experimenting.
• Other optional add-ins like cheese or diced and sauteed onions, for which we have not determined any specific amount; we wound up near 5% both the time we tried the one and the time we tried the other, and both times that seemed fine.
• We added carraway seeds a couple times, once at 0.25% and once at 0.5%; we didn't find them overwhelming either time.
• 80% water. (Note 22-04-09: tried a loaf at just under 90% and it still worked, but was extremely sticky in the form-into-a-ball stage.)

Procedure

1. Combine dry ingredients and optional extras in a reasonable-sized container. Stir to mix.
2. Add water and stir to make a wet but solid dough. Adjust with water or flour if too dry or wet. (Note 2022-04-08: It may be that adding water in splashes and stirring in between will result in better mixing and incorporation.) (Note 2022-04-09: We've had success anywhere from "hydrated but solid" to "glisteningly wet and soft but not liquid" - practice will hopefully help you get your eye in.)
3. Partially cover the bowl (e.g. a lid with one corner cracked). Let dough rise until glutenous and somewhat risen (maybe 2 hours). (Note 2022: It doesn't have to double in size - and actually, if you want, you can reach in, pull up the edges, and fold them over to the center a couple times to build up more gluten.)
4. Dust with flour and form into a ball, using more flour as necessary to reduce stickage. (We do so by stretching the surface of the dough downwards and squishing it together at the bottom, among other manipulations.) Plop this ball in cast-iron skillet.
5. Cover the ball in the skillet using plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel cover and let rise 1 hour. During rise, preheat oven to 450°F/230°C (Gas Mark 8? Stufe 5? please do your own conversions, we cannot be trusted); our oven takes about half an hour to reach this temperature, so we start preheating a half hour after shaping the ball.
6. Optional: immediately before inserting to bake, use a bread knife to cut a steam vent across the top of the loaf.
7. Bake until browned - about 30-35 minutes. To confirm loaf is done after removing from oven, knock on the underside - it should sound hollow.
8. Let cool to room temperature before slicing. (We always cool on a rack, but we will trust your judgment here.)

Total time: ~4 hours plus cooling.

As the ingredients list implies, it's fairly easy to make this vegan. Presumably the loaf can be shaped in some other fashion, but we haven't tried it. The cast-iron skillet is also presumably unnecessary - Kitty Unpretty makes reference to a loaf pan, and the magazine article describes using a pizza peel to slide it onto a pizza stone.

In our experience, if sealed up in a ziplock bag or similar, the loaf should remain good for a few days at room temperature. (We would eat it within three, to be safe.) We're told that bread freezes well, but we have not tried freezing this.

Our first many loaves were underhydrated (67%) and had a slightly crumbly texture; they were fine to eat alongside soup or chili, but not well suited to sandwiches. Our last three loaves (80% hydration) had more of an artisan-loaf texture, and served well as sandwich bread.