No Knead Bread

I finally got round to trying out the no knead bread recipe that everyone has been making. Supposedly it’s the easiest recipe ever and it just can’t go wrong. Unless you are me :(

I bought white whole wheat flour recently and thought this bread would be great to try it out on. I used all white whole wheat flour instead of the white flour called for in the recipe. All through the almost 24 hour process I kept thinking that it wasn’t going to turn out well. The whole time it never really looked like bread dough and remained a bit sticky. But I popped it in the oven anyway and kept my fingers crossed. When it came it out it looked okay, but when I cut in to it, it was stodgy inside. And the taste? Yuck! It went in the bin.

Determined to get this to work, I mixed up a second batch this time using only 1/3 white whole wheat flour and 2/3 white flour. I almost made it with all white flour, but at the last minute decided it was just too unhealthy and removed a cup of white flour from my bowl and added back a cup of white whole wheat flour!

This time it actually looked like bread dough throughout and I was a lot more optimistic! I underbaked it a bit because I was scared that it might burn. It came out really nice, but probably with a less crispy crust than if I had just left it in the oven for as long as I was supposed to!! Anyway, it was tasty and soft on the inside and with a crisp crust. And yummy!

I kind of like the kneading part of making bread, but this is definitely a great recipe if you want home baked bread, but don’t want to spend much time in the kitchen. I would like to give it another go and hopefully improve it again, but it won’t be today. It’s supposed to be 34C (94F) and I don’t fancy the oven on for an hour at 450F when I’m not allowed the windows open (because our building is getting water blasted before it gets painted later on in the week).

To eat alongside our bread I made some soup. It’s New England Clamless Chowder from Vegetarian Soups For All Seasons by Nava Atlas. It’s a creamy soup filled with potatoes and sweet corn with tofu instead of icky clams. As with Lesley’s Tofu Noodle soup (which is adapted from a Nava Atlas recipe) it calls for salt free seasoning and baked tofu which I didn’t have so I fried my tofu along with the same spices from the tofu noodle soup and it turned out so good. I also switched a third of the corn for edamame. It was really yummy and I would definitely make it again.