I am not afraid any more... Of bread making...

Bread making scares me. I have tried several times, using a bread machine, kneading it by hands and using food processor. None has come out great. A few were okay, but never so great that made me want to try the same recipe again. Bread making is one of my mother's hobbies. She started taking classes when I was in junior high school, and kept going to classes for at least 7-8 more years. Every time she came back from her classes, she would bring back new tools and bags of specialty flour, chocolate paste, cinnamon paste, etc. and her bread is the best kind I have ever tasted. She makes regular sandwich bread, dinner rolls, French bread, German bread... You name it. Whatever you see in the specialty bakery, she can make. I asked her for recipes, and I tried it myself. But for some reason, the result is always disappointing. My mother told me it is because of the kind of flour I am using, and I do not have a good kneading machine. I gave up bread making all together a while ago and decided to just purchase them at markets.

Recently, I came across recipes of NO-KNEAD BREAD. I have heard about this NO-KNEAD BREAD in the past, but never paid any attention because bread without kneading... Come on, it cannot be good. I was so skeptical, I did not even read the recipes. But I saw it mentioned in one of my favorite blogs, and in a book I was reading. So I went to the original source of 2007 New York Time Magazine, and read a few more articles related to this bread. I also checked a few YouTube posts. And it sounded and looked promising. So I gave it a try.

It is always exciting and anxiety provoking to try a new recipe. But cooking is 90% confidence. It was helpful to see YouTube posts, because when I was mixing ingredients and saw how wet it was, I was a bit scared. I did not take any pictures because I started this in the evening on my working day in-between making dinner, doing laundry, and giving bath to Ely. The good thing about this bread making is that it is so labor conservative. My hands-on time with this bread was about 30 minutes all together. But it takes a long time to make it. From the time I mixed the ingredients to putting a piece in my mouth took 26 hours. It needs slow-rising for 12-18 hours, preferably more. And then another 2 hours right before you put it in the oven. So I started it at 8pm on Tuesday, and finished at 10 pm on Wednesday.

The result?

Unbelievable. It is unbelievably amazing because how little effort it took from me to make this rustic bread. This is indeed an artisan bread where the more you chew it, the tastier it gets. This is not a fluffy white bread. This is the bread to savor each chewing, and if you eat a lot, your jaw gets tired but you would still want more.

I took the bread out of the oven at 9pm. The kitchen and living room smelled wonderful. It was time for us to go to bed, so I wrapped it loosely with a baking paper, and let it sit on a rack to cool down. It was very hard to resist my desire to cut it, but the recipe said to wait for at least one hour. When I took it out from the oven, the bread was making this tinkering noise. Ely was also excited to see this bread out of the oven, and I told her to put her ear close to it because it was singing. She was disappointed that we could not eat it and we had to go to bed. Soon after, my husband came home, and I heard him in the kitchen un-wrapping the baking paper. He came in the bedroom, and said, “that bread looks great!”. It was 9:40pm. Ely was still up. So we decided to cut it and taste it. It tasted like a French Bread from a fine bakery. Tonight, I am making a creamy potato-vegetable soup to go with it.

Here (this, this and this) are some links to the recipe I used. I will make this bread again soon (this weekend?), and will take some pictures and post them here. It is important to leave it for one hour after you take it out of the oven. The crust is very hard when it is just out of the oven but softens while it rests.