Wednesday 26 March 2014

:: recipe : easy no knead bread ::

Here's another well-used and much-enjoyed recipe from our home, following hot on the heels of yesterday's Scroggin Slice. One thing I miss very much about Switzerland and France is the bread. It doesn't pay to dwell on it too much because the thought of all those fresh baked loaves of different varieties, the baguettes, the chocolate croissants...sends me into a bit of a spin of "wants" ;o) In fact, you can still buy the NZ type of pre-sliced -lasts-forever-bread in Swiss & French supermarkets but it's generally only used for toasted sandwiches or specific purposes...not so much for the everyday use of bread. 

Anyway, I like to avoid buying bread in the supermarkets here unless necessary, so we make our own. Most Sunday mornings we have our Swiss tresse for breakfast, but for the general day-to-day bread, the following recipe is my go to. Not having a mixer anymore to do the kneading, this no-knead recipe works perfectly!

This recipe takes about 3 hours from start to finish and makes two loaves or several buns (maybe 16?!)

No-knead bread

3 cups of lukewarm water
1 tbsp of dried/instant yeast
1 tbsp of salt
6 1/2 cups of flour (either all white flour or 5 cups of white flour & 1 1/2 cups of wholemeal)
Seeds (if you want them) - pumpkin, linseeds, sunflower seeds...

Pour the 3 cups of water into a large mixing bowl
Sprinkle the yeast over the water and leave for 5 minutes
Add the salt, flour and seeds and mix together. The dough should be still a bit sticky - but it doesn't matter too much if it's a little dry or on the wetter side.
Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 2 hours
When the dough has risen and pretty much doubled in size, heat the oven to 200 degrees C.
Cut the dough in half, not handling too much, just smoothing into a loaf shape and pop it into a loaf tin lined with baking paper. Repeat with the other half. You'll probably need a bit of flour on your hands and sprinkled over the dough if it's too sticky. Make three slashes with the knife across the tops of the loaves.
Let the loaves rise while the oven heats up, for about 20 minutes.
Pop them in the oven on the mid-lower rung for approximately 35 minutes.
Once looking well cooked, remove from oven, sit for about 10 minutes. Take out of loaf tins and leave to cool on racks until you can handle them enough to cut some slices to enjoy with butter and jam ;o)

2 comments:

  1. Any bread that doesn't involve kneading is a winner in my book! I miss European breads so much...even M&S baguettes were amazing! xx

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  2. This looks delicious! The recipe sounds super similar to our daily one - no knead is a total winner! I've never done ours in a loaf tin before so will give it a go :) Also we love the flavour of the seed combo's - so yum! x

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