When I first read Hadassah’s story about bread baking with Alan a few years ago, I was so sorry I missed it. I was really intrigued by no-knead bread. I kept it in the back burner and it took a few months to finally try it out for myself. I wanted to make an olive bread, my favorite kind, so I found a recipe similar to Alan’s but that left out the salt. My plan was to make it for Shabbat, but as I am prone to skim through recipes without reading the whole thing (I know, rule number 1, read through the recipe) the 18 hour rise time passed me by and on Friday morning after I already put the ingredients in a bowl, I discovered this bread would not be ready for Shabbat.
Instead of chucking all the ingredients into the garbage I covered the bowl and stuck it in the fridge in the hope of something halfway decent for Sunday night. To my surprise, it was the best bread I had ever made!
This bread looked and tasted like it came from a bakery, I could not get enough of it and I couldn’t believe how easy it was. The following week I tried Alan’s recipe, starting it on Thursday so I could have it for Shabbat. FYI – I used half whole wheat flour and added roasted garlic and rosemary. No one could believe I made the bread.
Now, fast forward a few years and I am a sourdough girl all the way, but for those of you just stepping foot in the bread baking world, I highly recommend you start with these no-knead bread recipes that use just a little bit of yeast.
This is the first bread I ever made other than challah and I still think about it. It doesn’t always look as pretty, but it always tastes amazing. If you want to go sweet or plain or just add some garlic and herbs and use this Classic No Knead Bread recipe. Remember to start the bread with at least 18 hours for it to rise, but it can rise even longer in the fridge.
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After you master the crunchy loaf, you might want to try this pizza dough. I make a big batch of this regularly and then freeze the extra dough balls. I use it for pizza and also for garlic flatbread. I have tried many other recipes for pizza dough and nothing compares to this one in taste, so it’s just lucky that it is also the easiest. This recipe is from Jim Lahey owner of Manhatan’s Sullivan Street Bakery is the author of My Bread and now My Pizza.
NO KNEAD WHOLE WHEAT PITA BREAD
If it could work for pizza it might work for pita. I now make a batch of this pita every other week and it just sits in the fridge for me to make as much fresh pita as I need each day for up to two weeks. This recipe is half whole wheat.
I did try a few No-Knead Challah recipes, like this one, and they were good, but not quite challah. Still good for a light and fluffy no-knead bread, maybe better as a loaf bread.
The real deal for no knead challah finally happened a few years later, the only thing to remember is it needs even more time, so start this one on Tuesday.
I also tried a 100% whole grain bread from Mark Bittman. This one was more of a loaf bread so I couldn’t quite get the crust.
Here’s another great one, add some cheese to your bread. Make sure to do something different so everyone knows it’s a dairy bread, any hard cheese will work.
For something more interesting try this chocolatey bread. Once you remember it is not a dessert and not sweet you will love it.
I haven’t tried to make a no knead bagel yet, but I have heard great reviews for this bagel recipe, watch the video and give it a try.
Do you have any tips for bread baking? Especially the whole grain and No Knead varieties?
Just to be clear you make the dough and keep that for two weeks and bake the pita fresh as needed.
I will fix the links above but here it is for the pita http://www.joyofkosher.com/recipes/no-knead-whole-wheat-pita-bread/
which pita are you speaking of when you said you make it and keep it in the fridge for 2 weeks – is the recipe available at this website?
I love baking and bread is by far my favorite thing to bake. I also love to bake bread on an open fire – in a dutch oven with parchment paper. once you make one or two loaves it really isn’t much different than baking in an oven as long as you think of your dutch oven like an oven that needs heat all around it.
I must say, I love baking and cooikng and am not to shabby at either, but bread-making is something that has completely evaded my capabilities as of late. I keep making what my roommate likes to call “failbreads”. Although I’m hoping my yeast was just old. I bought some new yeast last week and am determined to bake a decent loaf of bread! Will definitely be trying this recipe.
I’ve tried making a variety of bread recently at home, and these are the perfect recipes to continue experimenting with!
I make no-knead bread all the time and follow some of the recipes from Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois’ books Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and their follow up Healthy Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I bake on a stone rather than in a Dutch oven and get a tremendous crust. I often make a rye bread that tastes so close to deli rye with lots of caraway. Also a black pumpernickel with toasted walnuts and dried fruit, whole wheat olive oil, cornmeal, honey-whole wheat for sandwiches, toasted millet and even quinoa bread. Sure I still do regular breads (my family vetoed no-knead challah), but we never buy bread any more. It’s all homemade.
Thanks for the review of these recipes. I’ve been saving the No-Knead Olive Bread recipe for when I have time. I love to bake bread but arthritis in my hands is making the kneading difficult. This recipe looked really promising and your review has motivated me.
Yum! I actually tried the no knead bread last week and i was also surprised at how good it came out! I baked it in a Dutch oven and the crust was so thick and crunchy and the inside was chewy. So delicious. I did wonder what it would be like if I made it with whole wheat, now I know!