Aww man.. I pulled one of the most beautiful loaves of bread I've ever made out of the oven earlier tonight, a golden round of walnuts and wheat. It had been awhile, but I broke out the "No-Knead Bread" recipe I've mentioned before; you know, the one from the NYTimes that helped to get me on this baking kick earlier this year.
Per usual, I modified the original recipe a bit - partially on purpose and partially by accident (no harm, no foul). I just cut off a slice and it's pretty good; not my best ever, but pretty good.. and, as I mentioned before, it's oh-so-pretty. Here you go:
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1/2t rapid rise yeast
1/8c warm water
1T honey
1 1/2c white bread flour
1 1/2c whole wheat bread flour
1 1/2c warm water
1 1/4t salt
1/2c walnut halves (shelled)
more flour for dusting
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1. Place the yeast into a large mixing bowl and stir in the 1/8c of warm water and honey; let this mixture sit for a few minutes while the yeast froths back to life.
2. To this, add in both the flours, the salt and the final 1 1/2c of warm water. Note that I usually add the salt after I've added the flours because I don't want to take the chance of deactivating my yeast by dumping them with a hyper-sodium environment up front.
3. Take a wooden spoon and mix everything in the bowl into a wet dough; it will be still be very sticky once everything is combined! This is actually desired; the extra liquid in the dough will allow the chemical reactions needed for tasty bread to happen much easier compared to a consistency you might be used to.
4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for at least 18 hours, at a warm room temperature; the inside of your oven would probably be a good choice (make sure it is OFF!). For this particular instance, I let my dough rest for about 40 hours because I didn't have the time/desire to bake it yesterday. ;)
5. The dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles (and if you waited 40 hours it most certainly will be ready), which have been generated by the metabolic action of the yeast. At this point, lightly flour a clean and level work area, and place the dough on it. I find that keeping a bowl of water nearby and dipping my fingers in it throughout this process helps from me sticking to the dough (as much).
6. Fold the dough over on itself a few times; and in each instance, throw some of the walnut halves into it until you've used up the full 1/2c. At the end, the walnuts should be evenly distributed throughout the dough (but don't worry about it being perfect).
7. Cover the now-walnuted dough loosely with the plastic wrap - right there on your work surface - and let rest for about 15 minutes while it "sets itself up"; it will be easier to work with for the next step.
8. Dip your fingers into the water bowl (again, to keep them from sticking) and shape the dough into a ball as quickly as possible by curling the circular edge of the dough under itself; the visible portion of the ball should be smooth, while the underside will have a "seam".
9. Generously coat a cotton towel with flour and drop the dough onto it, seam-side down; dust the top with more flour. Cover with another cotton towel (loosely) and let rise for another 2-3 hours. Again, due to the timing of other things going on today, I let this particular batch go for more like 5 hours.
10. At least half an hour before dough is ready, preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and place your 6-to-8 quart baking vessel in it while it comes up to temperature; the baking vessel should be a heavy covered pot, made of cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic - it is important that it can retain heat well.
11. When the dough is ready (finally!), remove the baking vessel from the oven - be careful.. it's going to be HOT! - and flip the dough from the towel into the pot, seam-side up. Don't worry too much if it looks like a mess; shake the pot once or twice to straighten it out a little, but any residual "imperfections" will, soon enough, become "character".
12. Cover the baking vessel with its lid and bake for 30 minutes. Once done, turn the oven up to 450 degrees and let the pot sit for 10 minutes more, lid still covering the pot.
13. Then, remove the lid and let the loaf bake - and the outer crust develop - for 30 minutes more at 450 degrees. At this point, the bread should be beautifully browned, with some highlights of off-white flour stuck to its exterior. Cool on a rack and rock this thing with some good cheese.. or simply by itself.
** Note that you might have to play around with the baking times and temperatures, depending on your oven and other environmental variables. For example, I've heard that some folks raise the temperature to 475 or 500 degrees in the last step to get their preferred level of crust. Baking bread is, for sure, a learned skill; the subtleties of technique will develop over some trial-and-error (and, therefore, oh-so-satisfying when you get it right).
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Warm bread from the oven has no match!
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