No knead Bread

Lionel

did a loaf tonight. It really came out great, however the bottom was really burnt. I'm going to try another one tomorrow night I'll drop the temp. down to 425 with lid on for 20 min. and then lid off for 10 plus min.

Fidel

Did you put the dutch oven directly on the plate setter? That will lead to a burned bottom. I made that mistake the first time I did a loaf.

Put some spacers in between them and you'll get better results.

Lionel

I used about a 1/2 inch spacer. the DO was smoking hot when I started. tomorrow I'll try just heating up the DO for about 20 min.

Broc

Many on-line sites instruct us to have the DO [or better yet, the cloche] heating to "screaming hot" when tossing in the no-knead dough.

I have had better luck with preheating to 440F, then choking back the temp immediately after closing the dome... let it drop to 375F-ish.

Pull the lid @ 20 minutes, then let it bake another 20.

Aim for an internal temp of 205F.

Whenever I have tried to use temps above 450, 500 and higher, I get burned bread.

In my kitchen oven, I bake two loaves at a time in cloches. In the Egg, I use a Le Crueset dutch oven or, better yet, bake directly on the pizza stone which has been raised with "feet" above the plate setter.

Tip -- When baking on the pizza stone, use a stiffer dough.

Tip -- When baking on the DO or cloche with lid, use a much more saturated, slack dough.

Tip -- For better tasting bread, pre-ferment the night before, then finishing mixing the dough the day of the bake.

Tip -- For better tasting bread, baste the bread with real butter immediately upon removal from the oven/Egg... this also softens the crust

Tip -- For bread which stays fresh longer, add 1 Egg/loaf, 1 T of butter per loaf and replace half the water with milk.

Tip -- For enriched flavor, replace 20% of the flour with rye flour.

Tip -- Shift the flavor even more by adding 1 T of molasses to the dough during mixing.

Final Tip of the Day -- No matter what they say, your bread will have better crust, crumb and texture, if you do some kneading. The complete no-knead technique gets you only 80% of the way.

Remember the 80-20 rules. You get 80% of the way with 20% of the effort. To get to "100%," ya gotta add the extra 80% of the effort!

Happy Baking!

~ Broc

:huh: :ermm:

Grillin&Chillin

Broc,
I agree with all of your suggestions. I also burned the bottom when using a 450 plus degree temperature.
I like to add about 4-5 oz beer and reduce the water proportionally. Gives a nice flavor.