On baking bread

Recently I started making bread again. With the cooler temperatures we've been experiencing in NY, it's bearable now to use the oven and what's better than a fresh baked bread you made yourself?

Although NYC may have great places to eat, it's not easy to find good French bread. You know, the kind that uses only water, salt, yeast and flour and has a thick crust that crackles when you bite into it.  Something with a bit of chewiness, and that just tastes damn good.

Cannelle Patisserie has some nice looking loaves, and I'm sure Epicerie Boulud, Bouchon, Sullivan Street Bakery have good breads too, but most places have appallingly bad bread that has too many additives. Not only is there lack of crunch, but the whole thing is pasty white and stays moist for way too long (i.e. there are preservatives, or it's high in fat which helps keep it "fresher" longer). Surprisingly I found a pretty ok baguette at Fairway Market on the Upper East Side. Fairway also has a pretty nice cheese selection just like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. Unfortunately the only NYC locations are in the UWS, UES, and Red Hook, Brooklyn. I'm hoping that a Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, or Fairway opens soon near Jackson Heights.

Though I haven't baked for Alice Waters like this woman who wrote about it in the Atlantic Monthly...I did find a quick and easy, No Knead recipe in Alice Waters' Book entitled "In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn by Heart". The recipe (in the book and) below is adapted from Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery. I recently made a loaf using all purpose flour, and today I started one using 100% whole wheat flour. I can't wait to try it tomorrow, after a 14 hour rising period.

No Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.