I have my first attempt at Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread currently doing its yeasty thing on my counter at home, but I’m perplexed not to be able to find a thread on the 'dope about it - this bread is taking the food blogging world by storm.
So have any other dopers tried it yet? This is also the first time I’ve baked anything while measuring by weight instead of volume (don’t tell my pretend chef-boyfriend, Alton Brown).
I’ve done it, and it’s great. I do it by weight, and use 15 oz of flour to 12 oz of water. I’ve done it with a little bit of rye in the mix (2 oz rye, 13 oz AP flour), I’ve done it with a sourdough starter, I’ve done it with 1/2 sourdough 1/2 regular yeast, and they all come out pretty well. No dismal failures.
It’s great, as I’ve tried time and time again, but could never develop a good crust and this method is the first time I’ve made a simple loaf of white bread that I would be proud to serve to anyone. I’ve spread this recipe to a few friends, and they loved it!
I’ve been making this bread about 3 times a week since I first tripped across the recipe about a month ago.
I hope it turns out so I can start messing with it - adding different flours and flavorings, but I figured I should try it straight first. I’m happy to hear the recipe is adaptable.
It’s a very forgiving recipe, I’ve found. I wanted to experiment with the hydration levels as, like many other people have reported, the 1 5/8 suggested in the original recipe turned out a soupier dough than what was shown in the video. So I tried 15 oz of flour with 10, 11, 12, and 13 oz of water, and all the breads came out fine. 12 oz seemed just right to me, while still being a bit on the wet side that is recommended for the proper crust formation and maintaining the humidity level in the dutch oven.
I want to try a couple loaves with some potato flour or flakes in the dough, and see how that comes out. Would also like to give oats a shot. You have to be aware of the gluten content of various flours and keep that in mind when figuring out how much to substitute for AP. I found 5 oz of rye 10 oz AP flour to be a little bit heavy for what I was going for, but 2 oz rye and 13 oz AP gave it just the right amount of rye bite to make the bread more flavorful.