No Knead Bread- Worth the Wait?

"No Knead Bread"

I've been experimenting quite a bit with my new pot, Limon. I made some braised apple cider chicken, beef stroganoff, and now... the thing I've been waiting to make... BREAD. After school yesterday, I mixed up the dough, which literally took 5 minutes to do. I was confused. I'm used to kneading for about 1.5 hours!.. well.. my bread machine does the kneading now :) But yes, I left it aside for a good 18 hours and woke up early this morning to bake it. I just wake up early these days, it's strange. I run on very little caffeine, sleep at a decent time and wake up at 5:30. At around 6... I threw the dough onto my countertop with a ton of flour and tried to form a neat mass... that didn't happen.. a lot of it ended up on my fingers... I gave up kneading and threw it into a pan to do the second rise. I was impatient and didn't let it double in size as it should, and right when i dumped it into the pot, it flattened out significantly. I'm also pretty sure I under baked it... out of excitement. I threw it back into the oven after eating like 5 pieces. Bread is bread... and I love bread!

After 4 hours of "rising"

My favorite thing to bake is bread. I've always been trying to make that perfect french crusty bread. Never really got there. I tried the hot stone technique, spritzing, steam, ice, yea... no. It just didn't work! This bread was amazing. I think this might be the only way that I could get this type of crust at home! I put a bit of whole wheat flour with dried rosemary and italian spices, and the flavor came out great. The texture was bit chewy, there were beautiful holes in the middle, and the crust definitely can't be good for teeth. I will try next time to make a more uniform loaf and maybe put some hash marks on top before it bakes... and it doesn't taste so yeasty (I hate how my regular bread tastes like the flour or yeast... I think aging it for 18 hours makes the flavors more "store bought.") I think I will make one with beer next. I currently have a tri tip roast going in my slow cooker. I didn't know what else to do with it. I used beer as the liquid. Needless to say... my apartment smells amazing right now.. with the bread.. and tri tip stewing away :D

Slightly Underbaked! 

Google No Knead Bread for the recipe (I also watched the video,) it's basically 1.5 cup water 1/4 tsp yeast, 3 cups flour ( I did 1 cup bread, 1 cup AP, and 1 cup whole wheat) , 1.5 tsp salt. A 5 qt cast iron or heavy duty oven safe,  pan with lid is also needed.

I swear the more I cook with that pot, the stronger I will get! It's such a pain to take it in and out of things... and the hardest part about cleaning it.. isn't the gunk.. it's holding the pot.

Up Next: A truly homemade tri tip sandwich.. just a few more hours in the slow cooker... :D

Other Things I've Made This Week... 

Beef Stroganoff 

Braised chicken in Apple Cider 

The completed chicken dish! My first meal made with Limon :)