Kneadlessly Simple?

"And wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart."     Psalms 104:15

While I was cleaning out my fridge to make space for new and healthy foods...i came across this....sandwich buns from 6 MONTHS ago!!!   Look how fresh and soft it still looks!! 

This CANNOT be normal, right?  6 months later and still no mold or hard as a rock??!! I checked the packaging for a list of ingredients and well, after picking up my jaw off the floor, I decided I will NOT eat all these chemicals or feed it to my children!! 

I was hoping and praying that making bread would be simple and well, IT IS!!! 

I could not believe how many easy bread recipes are on the web!  I came across many knead-less bread recipes and decided to try making it.  

And voila.....HOMEMADE delicious and healthy bread!! 

Not that I'm an expert on bread-making and only been making it for a few weeks....I cannot tell you how simple it really is.  I make both white bread and wheat bread....and will NOT go back to buying chemical-induced bread again!!  

Here are a few recipes I have tried.  I hope you will try it too!! 

Artisan Bread

Adapted from ”Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François

• 1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
• 1 1/2 tablespoons COARSE salt (kosher or sea salt)
• 3 cups lukewarm water
• 6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough (*you can replace about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of white flour with any whole grain flour with great results).
• Cornmeal




1. In a large bowl, mix yeast and salt with 3 cups of warm water. Add flour, and stir to combine completely. Cover dough with lid (but not airtight, gases need to escape).  Let dough rise in a warm place for at least two hours, until it rises and collapses (up to 5 hours – or even overnight won’t hurt it). 

 2. When you are ready to use it, throw a small fistful of flour on the surface and use a serrated knife to cut off a piece of the size you desire. (The authors recommend a 1 pound loaf – which means cutting off grapefruit-sized piece of dough). Turning the dough in your hands, stretch the surface of the dough and tuck in under. The surface will be smooth, and the bottom with be bunched. 

 3. Dust a pizza peel (or any flat surface --such as a cookie sheet) with cornmeal. (This prevents sticking, and adds a nice, rustic crunch. You can use flour instead, but you’ll need to use a very generous dusting). Allow dough to rest on the pizza peel in a warm place for 40 minutes – longer (up to an hour and a half) if you use some whole wheat flour in place of the white, or if you make a larger loaf. 

4. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450 degrees with baking stone (or overturned baking sheet) inside on the middle rack, plus a shallow pan on the top rack. Throw a small fistful of flour over the dough, slash it 2-4 times with a serrated knife (in a cross, a tic-tac-toe, or a fan), and slide it into the oven, onto the baking stone. Throw 1-2 cups of tap water into the shallow pan, and quickly shut the oven door to trap steam inside. Bake for 30 minutes, or until crust is well browned and bread sounds hollow when you knock on the bottom. 

              5.  Store the remaining dough for up to 2 weeks.  Each time you take out a batch to bake,
              let it sit in a warm place for 20-30 minutes.  Then bake at 450 degrees for 30 mins.

Watch the authors on youtube showing how to make the bread:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcG4PpG1LcQ&feature=related

KING ARTHUR BREAD RECIPES:

King Arthur's Flour recipes are phenomenal!!! I tried a few:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/bread