Kalamata Olive No-Knead Bread

I like how we're leaving ourselves lots of room for improvement on becoming bloggers who post regularly. I know you, Katie, are busy, and I'm kind of busy myself. I had to take a test today! On a Saturday! About ethics and professional rules! While homecoming was going on and drums were pounding!

Anyway, getting to the point of my post, do you remember when the NY Times no-knead bread recipe was all the rage? I don't quite understand why it's not all the rage anymore...are people not wanting fresh bread anymore? Has kneading become the new fitness?

A smart lady named Nancy Baggett took the recipe and made an entire book with different kinds of no-knead breads. It's basically variations on the same theme as the NY Times recipe: mix together a wettish dough, let rise for hours and hours, punch it down or stir it up a little, let it rise again but for fewer hours, bake in a hot dutch oven in a very hot oven. Nancy Baggett gives lots of explanation for why it works and different amounts of time for the rises and I do recommend the book to people who would want tens of recipes for no-knead bread. I'm a person like that, but I understand that not everyone has the same obsessions.

I made this bread long ago, for my mother's 60th birthday party. It was maybe the thing I got the most compliments on—which is slightly annoying, because it is the thing that took the least amount of work. Still, a compliment is a compliment.

Kalamata Olive No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Kneadlessly Simple

4 c. white flour or white bread flour
1 tsp. sugar
3/4 to 1 tsp. yeast
2 c. ice water
1 c. kalamata olive halves
also good with: 3 tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
A DUTCH OVEN
LOADS OF TIME BEFORE YOU WANT TO EAT THE BREAD
cornmeal

The day before you want to eat bread, stir all the ingredients together in a bowl. The dough will be stiff, but not as moist as the NY Times version, if that's a helpful barometer.

Brush the top of dough with oil, or spray with oil, cover with plastic.

Now, a choice: if you want lots of flavor, let it sit in the refrigerator for 3-10 hours. This step isn't mandatory.

If you refrigerate the dough or not, you must let the first rise happen at room temperature for 18-24 hours.

After the first rise, stir the dough—gently—until it's mostly deflated. Spray the top with oil again, cover with plastic again.

Now, another choice, it may sound familiar: if you want lots of flavor, refrigerate for 4-24 hours.

Second rise: room temperature until the dough doubles in size. This is what it'll look like:


Look at all those air bubbles! That means the yeast has been working! Look how stringy and gluten-y the dough is! Waiting works! Imagine how long I'd have to knead the dough to get so much gluten!

Now: turn on your oven to 450º with the dutch oven inside. When it gets to the desired temperature, take the dutch oven out, put a few teaspoons of cornmeal on the bottom of it, and throw the dough in there. Here you could brush the top with some water and sprinkle with salt, if desired.

Bake with the cover on for 55 minutes. Then remove cover and bake another 15-20 minutes. THe center of the dough is supposed to register 209º—or you could stick a skewer in it and see if only a few crumbs come on. Now, just to make sure, bake a little longer.

Because I realize it might be a touch confusing, here are the steps, with optional steps in parentheses:

mix dough
(refrigerate, 3-10 hours)
first rise: 18-24 hours
stir, gently
(refrigerate, 4-24 hours)
second rise: until doubled in size, about 2 1/2 hours at room temp
bake

Result:



Wow, right? Insides:


Even though the rising times seem fussy, they don't have to be. If you think about it, it just makes your breadmaking more flexible, and this is great if you're looking for flexibiliy. If you're just looking for fresh bread within a day, you might just want to get some flour on your hands and some muscle on your arms and knead.