…and she never bought bread again!
- Apr, 01 2011
- By Julia
- Savoury Baking
- 2 comments
Fresh homemade french-style bread and brown butter.... all with almost zero effort
The other day, as I took a break from all this web-site mumbo jumbo that’s been filling my days, I grabbed a sandwich and turned on the FoodNetwork (what else?). Chef Michael Smith’s Chef at Home was on tv, and he was making soup – ugh. I don’t know if I’ve ever confessed to you that I hate soup? Yes, I have been told many, many times by countless people that this makes me a freak of nature – and I am totally ok with that. And before you write in to ask, yes, I hate pretty much ALL soups. The smell of soup alone makes my gag reflex start twitching. As for the exception? Really really good, homemade French Onion Soup is the exception. I’ve even made it myself, though not often. I also do like Fruit Soups, but let’s face it, that’s really nothing more than a smoothie you eat with a spoon, so I’m not sure it really qualifies as soup at all. But I’ve gotten a bit off topic here, so….
To serve along side his soup, Chef Michael was also making his No-Knead Bread. I’ve heard of no-knead breads, and it’s something that’s been on my “to-try” list, but I had reservations that it would be tasteless or blah, and there were so many other yummy things to make with flour that I never got around to it. However, as I listened to him talk about his recipe and how the lengthy 18-hour rise time gives it real flavour, I started to perk up. He went on to talk about how he tried different methods of baking the bread, attempting to get an authentic baguette-style loaf with that signature crisp crust and chewy interior. Now I was all ears, on the edge of my seat, waiting to hear his secret (bake it in a pot with a lid!) and see him cut into the fresh loaf of bread at the end of the show and see if it really looked like a baguette. I even sat through the soup-making portion of the show for it, and I was rewarded – it looked like the real deal. Then he made this intriguing Brown Butter to spread on the slices of fresh bread. I love the flavour that browned butter lends to things like financiers of a simple pasta sauce, but I had never thought of it as a spread. Inspired by these discoveries, I raced upstairs and decided the new website could wait a few more minutes while I got some bread started.
It took all of 4 minutes to get everything measured out and mixed together. All that was left to do was cover the bowl and wait…. for 18 hours. Then I would see if this no-knead stuff lived up to the hype. This also gave me lots of time to brown some butter and let it cool down
Fast forward 18 hours……
tick.tock.tick.tock.
The next morning, I looked inside the bowl of magical bread dough and was surprised at the changes that had taken place since the night before. It looked very bubbly, not at all the way traditional kneaded doughs look. I followed the next step, and turned the dough out onto a floured piece of parchment paper. Using my spatula, I shaped it into a rough loaf shape, similar in shape to my cast iron roaster (the pot I would be baking it in), covered it with a floured towel and let it sit for another 2 hours. When the timer went off, I put my roaster & lid into the oven & let it all pre-heat (another part of the secret) to 450˚F. When everything was nice and hot I simply removed the floured towel, lifted up the dough, parchment paper and all, and gently lowered it into the pot, then covered it with the lid and put it back into the oven. 30 minutes later, it was time to remove the lid and let it bake for another 15 minutes. When the loaf was finally done, I was impressed – it certainly looked like a decent loaf of bread and the crust was very crisp, that had a deep hollow sound when I tapped it. I just had to survive another 20 or 30 minutes of waiting until I could cut into it.
When I could no longer fight against the smell of fresh-baked bread wafting throughout the house, I grabbed my favourite bread knife and sliced off a chunk of bread. It looked exactly like the perfect French loaf – with that beautiful uneven crumb and distinctive chewiness that I remember of bread in Paris. The first bite was heaven – this bread had actual flavour! I didn’t realize how much I missed authentic French bread until that moment, and now that I knew it took almost no effort, I knew I’d never have to miss it again.
Authentic French Bread texture and crumb
For a second opinion, I took half the loaf & some brown butter over to my friend Shannon – who regularly makes bread from scratch. She & I have often discussed our different views on what’s “worth the time & effort” of making from scratch and what’s not. We have completely different opinions: I can’t really be bothered with the whole knead-rise-knead thing of regular bread, but will make fresh pasta from scratch at least once a week. Shannon, on the other hand, feels intimidated by the idea of making fresh pasta, but will peel and slice pound upon pound of fresh ginger and tend to it as it simmers away on the stove for 12-14 hours before straining it and tossing it with sugar and letting it dry – just so she can have homemade candied ginger to snack on, and ginger syrup for flavouring drinks and desserts. That said – it is, hands down, the most incredibly divine candied ginger I have ever tasted in my life. But you won’t be catching me making that anytime soon – so I guess I’ll just have to get her to do a guest post here on Always Leave Room for Dessert and give you the recipe herself {hint hint}! Anyway… as for this no-knead bread and brown butter, it was a hit with her and her kids, and I left with a promise to send her the recipes.
Since that day, I make a fresh loaf of bread every few days, and the results are the same every single time. It’s so good, in fact, that I can’t see myself buying a loaf of bread ever again. This recipe, with it’s whopping four ingredients (five if you make the butter to go with it), is way too easy to make – there is absolutely no reason I can think of that anyone should ever have to live with tasteless, bland bread ever again…. unless of course, you don’t have the 20+ hours of time to wait.
So, here you have it, Chef Michael Smith’s recipe for “No-Knead City Bread”, as he calls it, as well as the Brown Butter Spread, which I highly recommend you try. The only person who will regret it will be the bakery department at your grocery store.
Brown butter spread - nutty and flavourful
(If you would like to see his recipes for no-knead multi-grain bread (AKA “Country Bread”), or alternate baking instructions for a softer crusted bread, please see the full page at FoodNetwork.ca)
Ingredients
For 1 normal loaf of City Bread
- (426 grams) 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour
- 1/4 teaspoon of active dry yeast
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- (370 ml) 1 5/8 cups of warm water
Brown Butter
- 4 sticks of room temperature butter (sixteen ounces or 454 grams)
Directions
- Whisk the dry ingredients together thoroughly. Add the water and stir until a wet dough forms. Continue stirring until the dough incorporates all the loose flour in the bowl, about 60 seconds in total.
- Cover the bowl with a towel and rest in a warm place for 12 to 18 hours. It will double in size, bubble and long gluten strands will form. Lightly flour your hands and the work surface then remove the dough from the bowl. Quickly form it into a ball. Thoroughly flour a cotton towel and rest the dough on it. Cover it with another floured cotton towel.
- You may also rest the dough on a non-stick ‘Silpat’ mat and cover it with just one towel. Rest the dough a second time. In 2 to 3 hours it will rise again and double in size once more. A half an hour or so before the dough is ready preheat your oven to 450 degrees. You may use cast-iron, steel, enamel or ceramic.
- When the dough has fully risen slide your hand under the towel and quickly invert the delicate dough into the hot pot. Shake the pot a bit to settle it then place the lid on the pot and start baking.
- Bake for 30 minutes with the lid then remove it and bake for 15 minutes more.
** Note: rather than rest the dough on a ‘Silpat’ mat or towel and then turn it into the pot, I chose to let it rest on a sheet of parchment paper, and then lowered the whole thing (paper & dough) into the hot pot to bake. I found it makes for super easy clean-up and less risk of knocking all that lovely rise out of the bread. JH
Brown Butter
- Toss one stick of butter into a small saucepot and heat it until it melts. Because butter contains as much as twenty percent water it will begin to steam and foam. Once the water has evaporated the foam will subside and the butter’s temperature will begin to rise past the boiling point of water. The milk fat solids that make up one or two percent of the butter will then begin to brown.
- Continue heating as the butter begins foaming a second time. Swirl it gently, watching the color, until it turns golden brown and releases the aroma of toasting nuts. Immediately pour the browned butter into a bowl to stop it from browning further. Cool to room temperature. Be patient this will take at least an hour.
- Whip the remaining butter in a stand mixer then drizzle in the room temperature brown butter. Whip until fluffy. Makes 2-1/2 cups.
Viola-pie-ola
I’ve been wanting to try this for awhile! But I feel like I need to put together a spreadsheet to calculate “if I want to eat freshly-baked bread at 6pm on Sunday, then I need to pull it out by 530pm so I… “. And if another baker takes a train heading due west at 2pm…
One of the days! I think the kids would love it!
Julia
LOL – yes, Vi, I won’t lie to you…. there is some math involved. But this bread is totally worth it!