No need for no-knead
The recent no-knead bread phenomenon caught me off-guard. Obviously there's something about baking bread that really appeals to a lot of people, but there also seems to be this collective fear of the process that inhibits folks from taking the plunge. Perhaps breadmaking, like skiing and Spanish, is better to learn when one is young and fearless. When that recipe was published in the NY Times--trumpeting foolproof steps and delicious results--the word spread like wildfire and suddenly people that had never put hand to dough before were convinced to give it a shot. Of course, with the no-knead recipe, they didn't even have to put hand to dough!
Am I sounding a little snarky? I don't mean to. I'd like to think I support just about anything that gets people in the kitchen cooking. I tried the no-knead recipe, and I thought the crust it produced was lovely. But it wasn't any easier than any other bread recipe I've tried, and I'm suspicious that its rampant popularity is due in large part to the savvy wordsmithing at work in the article (a "truly minimalist" recipe that "will blow your mind," etc.) rather than actual convenience. The thing still takes 24 hours to make, after all. Not exactly a 30-minute meal.
May I gripe just a bit more? I wish people were more excited about embracing culinary challenges, instead of backing away in fear unless a recipe purports to be so easy that a child can do it. What's wrong with a challenge? After all, it's just bread. What annoys me about no-knead bread is that it's not foolproof, not particularly easy, speedy or tidy, and yet people are willing to try it because it is presented as being all of those things. What's so scary about kneading, anyway? And why won't people give David Lebovitz a break already? Since when did no-knead bread become a sacred cow?
Ok, rant over. I suppose this is what I want to say: bread baking can be hard, and time-consuming, and frustrating. You should still try it anyway. Do not be paralyzed by the prospect of failing. Like I said, it's just bread.
Yes, baking bread is a demanding exercise. Dough is not unlike an irksome friend: asking for too much of your time, your space, plus comfort and warmth and affirmation. They both also benefit from the occasional beat-down. When you make your own bread, there is a small but real chance that you'll invest a lot of time into the process to produce a stunted, hard, dried-out piece of rusk that only the most desperate and diseased pigeons will consent to peck after you toss it out your window. But doesn't that risk always exist in cooking? I've messed up pretty much everything at one time or another. I burned microwave Cream of Wheat just last week, for the love of God. So what? The next time will be better.
Baking bread - with kneading, without it, whatever - is one of the most deeply rewarding culinary maneuvers. The process lets you bear witness to an amazing transformation: a shaggy mass of dough becomes a smooth, soft oval that feels like an earlobe, which then becomes that proud, golden loaf that magnetically attracts swarms of people with its heavenly scent as it emerges from the oven.
I had a breadmaker for a while, but it didn't float my boat. The sensual process of mixing and kneading disappeared and in its place the machine just spat out alien, cuboid loaves of bread with no discernible top or bottom. Like the breadmaker, the no-knead recipe produced a fine result (with a nice crackly crust to boot), but I quickly realized that this newfangled process wasn't going to be my cup of tea. It felt weird and sterile and sad to have such little contact with the dough throughout the rising.
One of my all-time favorite breads to make is challah. Now that I've spent this entry complaining about everybody wanting everything to be TOO DARN EASY, I will tell you that challah does fall on the quicker and easier end of the breadmaking spectrum, if you are quivering and frightened at the prospect of heaping bread-based failures upon yourself. The result is fabulous: a loaf that's moist, eggy, yeasty, richly hued, and slightly sweet. It's not such a great companion to garlicky salami or smelly cheeses (believe me, I've tried), and it won't keep more than a couple of days, but my goodness, challah toast is spectacular. And you won't suffer from any stress worrying whether the crust will come out crispy crunchy, because it ain't never gonna happen, sister.
Am I sounding a little snarky? I don't mean to. I'd like to think I support just about anything that gets people in the kitchen cooking. I tried the no-knead recipe, and I thought the crust it produced was lovely. But it wasn't any easier than any other bread recipe I've tried, and I'm suspicious that its rampant popularity is due in large part to the savvy wordsmithing at work in the article (a "truly minimalist" recipe that "will blow your mind," etc.) rather than actual convenience. The thing still takes 24 hours to make, after all. Not exactly a 30-minute meal.
May I gripe just a bit more? I wish people were more excited about embracing culinary challenges, instead of backing away in fear unless a recipe purports to be so easy that a child can do it. What's wrong with a challenge? After all, it's just bread. What annoys me about no-knead bread is that it's not foolproof, not particularly easy, speedy or tidy, and yet people are willing to try it because it is presented as being all of those things. What's so scary about kneading, anyway? And why won't people give David Lebovitz a break already? Since when did no-knead bread become a sacred cow?
Ok, rant over. I suppose this is what I want to say: bread baking can be hard, and time-consuming, and frustrating. You should still try it anyway. Do not be paralyzed by the prospect of failing. Like I said, it's just bread.
Yes, baking bread is a demanding exercise. Dough is not unlike an irksome friend: asking for too much of your time, your space, plus comfort and warmth and affirmation. They both also benefit from the occasional beat-down. When you make your own bread, there is a small but real chance that you'll invest a lot of time into the process to produce a stunted, hard, dried-out piece of rusk that only the most desperate and diseased pigeons will consent to peck after you toss it out your window. But doesn't that risk always exist in cooking? I've messed up pretty much everything at one time or another. I burned microwave Cream of Wheat just last week, for the love of God. So what? The next time will be better.
Baking bread - with kneading, without it, whatever - is one of the most deeply rewarding culinary maneuvers. The process lets you bear witness to an amazing transformation: a shaggy mass of dough becomes a smooth, soft oval that feels like an earlobe, which then becomes that proud, golden loaf that magnetically attracts swarms of people with its heavenly scent as it emerges from the oven.
I had a breadmaker for a while, but it didn't float my boat. The sensual process of mixing and kneading disappeared and in its place the machine just spat out alien, cuboid loaves of bread with no discernible top or bottom. Like the breadmaker, the no-knead recipe produced a fine result (with a nice crackly crust to boot), but I quickly realized that this newfangled process wasn't going to be my cup of tea. It felt weird and sterile and sad to have such little contact with the dough throughout the rising.
One of my all-time favorite breads to make is challah. Now that I've spent this entry complaining about everybody wanting everything to be TOO DARN EASY, I will tell you that challah does fall on the quicker and easier end of the breadmaking spectrum, if you are quivering and frightened at the prospect of heaping bread-based failures upon yourself. The result is fabulous: a loaf that's moist, eggy, yeasty, richly hued, and slightly sweet. It's not such a great companion to garlicky salami or smelly cheeses (believe me, I've tried), and it won't keep more than a couple of days, but my goodness, challah toast is spectacular. And you won't suffer from any stress worrying whether the crust will come out crispy crunchy, because it ain't never gonna happen, sister.
Labels: bread
posted by cindym at 4:01 PM
8 Comments:
I have made a lot of no knead bread in the last month and a half.
I continue to practice my favourite regular wholewheat bread in the background too and it gets better every time I make it, much to my dismay since I was kind of fond of the little heavy non-risen brick-like loaves I used to produce when I was less practised.
Personally, I find the no knead bread suits me best, because I find its timing of doing and waiting fits in perfectly with the hours of my lifestyle. I have just started experimenting with different flours, I no longer cook it in a dutch oven, I am slowly making the bread my own.
And unlike some others, I find it hugely forgiving too. I feel like the recipe has de-mythecised bread baking for me to some extent, I now make it without ever looking at a recipe, I make it without worrying about exact times, numbers of kneadings, tempperature of the water used to mix the flour and all the things I used to worry about when making a loaf of bread. And yes, once you've made 15 loaves, its really fast to make. The no knead recipe has set me free. I just can't knock it.
Great....now they're going to start a thread against you too!
Hiya Sam -
Point taken. And no-knead has definitely changed a lot of people's minds about making bread at home, which is very cool. I've been thinking about this post a bit this weekend and I suspect my issues with no-knead are rooted more in the language used in the article than anything else (since I've only made it once...unlike you and DL!), and I don't think I did such a hot job of describing that. Now I'm curious, what do you use in place of a dutch oven to get that fabulous crust? :)
DL - i'm sorry, but that thread cracks me up! though i suppose it's a good thing overall that people are getting passionate about bread, right? better than not having any opinion at all...
We just finished devouring a nice whole wheat loaf that we made after reading your post. We are highly suggestible people.
I made the no-knead bread several times and although I really like the crumb, I think it is messy and takes a lot of time.
Kneading for 5 minutes just isn't that big a deal if it gets some bread in the oven in a couple of hours instead of having to plan 20 hours in advance!
David sure did push some buttons!
we used to bake fresh bread every night in our co-op back in college. Now we use a bread machine. Not ideal, but definitely convenient and less time-consuming. Now that the majority of my time is filled with earning a living or recuperating from such (as opposed to throwing frisbee, reading useless film theory, and wondering from whence my next bong hit would come), it's a viable option.
There was a rash of nude bread baking at the co-op for a while, but I avoided the end product due to a (unreasonable?) fear of body hair in my bread.
-Roger
My question about "no knead" is, if you don't knead it with your own two hands, how do you get the love into it?
I made bagels today! They aren't even gross! The holes kind of caved in, so I suppose you need to interpret "bagel" expansively to say that's what they are, but do me a favor and interpret "bagel" expansively. Thanks.
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