No Knead Bread Experiment #1

While I may (plan to) only update this blog a few times a week, that's not indicative of how much I cook. I try to make something every day, even if it's as simple as french toast with leftover bread, or pancakes. My update schedule will be in the pattern mentioned previously to try and give myself time to build a buffer of bread to write about, and partially to give myself time to do things other then write about bread and bake. This is a long-winded way of saying that I made the bread in this piece on the 14th and not the 15th, when I posted this.

I've decided to experiment with no-knead bread some more. This time, I decided to use significantly less water then is called for. The next part of this will be with much more water. I was of course reasonably certain what the outcome of both variations would be. Nevertheless, I decided it was worth attempting.

I used 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of water, an 8th of a teaspoon of yeast and a teaspoon of salt. This made a very stiff dough. I put it into a container to rise for 14 hours, in which time it nearly tripled in volume. Normally that would be a good sign, but I was slightly worried. I put my bread into a clear container for rising, and saw only a few small bubbles in the dough through the side of the container. Normally in a bread with a well formed crumb I'll see many large and medium sized bubbles along the sides of the container. Unfortunately I neglected to take pictures, an oversight I will not repeat. After it was done rising I folded the dough four times, noting it was significantly tougher then normal. This was not in and of itself reason for concern as it was a much denser dough by design. I put it on a greased piece of plastic wrap, itself another experiment, and let it rise for a final two hours before cooking it. I scored the top immediately before I put it in the oven to try and maximize the oven spring.

 Not the prettiest loaf of bread I've ever made, but certainly not the worst looking one. I cut it open and well, it was about what I expected. Medium sized openings on the top of the loaf, and a closed inner crumb. Sorry for the poor quality of the crumb picture, it's roughly a third of the way towards the middle of the loaf.

GRADING:
Crust: C
Crumb: C
Taste: B
Overall: C+