We got an email from another No Knead Bread Fan, Lucy from New Bedford, MA. She showed us her ultra geeky method of getting her dough to rise in a drafty, New England house- put it on top of the hard drive!
Me and the girls threw it together last night and then looked for someplace warm in this drafty old house of ours. Then I remembered I have an external hard drive that runs very hot. I’ve used it in the past to germinate little pots of seeds, and so I thought – why not?
Thanks Lucy, I’ll be sure to do this next time I makeathebread!
Freakin’ genius.
Oh, that’s hilarious, and I absolutely love it!
I tried this bread after much bad luck with bread. I am not a skilled yeast baker, but this loaf was a snap. I was off on the timing slightly and it still worked just fine.
On my 2nd try I added 1/2 c ground sunflour seeds (10 sec in a cleaned coffee grinder–stale bread first works great to clean it out) and 1/4 c ground bran.
I hightly recommend this substitution if you are looking for something a bit heartier than white bread, but less heavy than whole wheat.
THANKS for the recipe
PS Buying seeds bulk and grinding them yourself saves the wholefoods 300% markup and packaging.
That’s really smart. We also learned that you can basically throw ANYTHING into this bread. Nuts, cheese, olives…
Another thing you can add/substitute: whey
After making some basic ricotta cheese I froze the leftover whey in ice tray cubes. Now I take a few out of the freezer and substitute 1/4 of the water with whey when I make bread. Adds a slight sourdough taste to the bread.
Just in case, some links on cheese -
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese_course/Cheese_course.htm
http://www.playingwithfireandwater.com/foodplay/2008/03/the-ritual-of-r.html
Some great suggestions here. I’ve found if i put the dough in my oven, with only the oven light on overnight, it works well.
I made a video for Gardenfork on Jim Lahey’s Sullivan Street Bakery No Knead Bread:
http://tinyurl.com/3c4m6c
thanks, eric. gardenfork.tv