I can’t remember where or when I ran across the concept of no knead bread, but something caused me to remember it yesterday and I went in search of more information. The #1 google result is this NYTimes article/recipe. I also found the video below which does a decent job of outlining the steps involved. There’s not that much too the recipe, makes sense being the whole point, but it’s not quick. You don’t have to put much work in, but you do have to wait, 18-20 hours from the time you start until you’re eating warm fresh bread out of the oven. It’s a little cooler than ideal in my apartment so both the overnight and 2nd rise were a little less than desired/expected, but it didn’t seem to hurt the final results too much. I’d imagine the toughest part of the process for most people is going to be coming up with a heavy oven safe pot/casserole to cook it in. I ended up going with a 4 qt Corningware French White caserole with a Pyrex lid. If I had my choice I’d probably go with a cast iron dutch oven as I would expect a little better browning on the bottom of the bread and wouldn’t have to worry about it being delicate (and could crank the heat up a bit more safely,) but I was pretty happy with the results. Take a look for yourself in my Gallery

Score another one for Alton Brown, Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes, received rave reviews tonight along side Garrett’s leg of lamb, which also comes with a recommendation for Alhambra Halal Meats at 24th and Folsom. There’s something satisfying about making a request to a butcher and watching him walk in to the meat cooler and come out and go over to the band saw with a whole carcass, this is the place to go for meat. As for the mashed potatoes round 2 was much better than my practice attempt. The main differences were using a garlic press to puree rather than mince it and being a little more generous with the salt. I’ve never had better, though I wasn’t much of a fan of them in the past. Other highlights included Tartine bread and cake. The bread has become a fixture at our dinners.

Well i ate my first attempt at making pizza for a late lunch today. I was bascially working off of the process presented on the Good Eats eppisode Flat Is Beautiful. (Alton Brown is going to be at Joseph Beth’s tomorrow night and i’m planning on going.) When i went to make the dough late last night i didn’t have the recommended type of flour, high protein/bread machine, and used all purpose instead. I think that made some difference, but nothing major. The main problem was the dough was a bit dry. I’m guessing the reason behind this is that was while hand kneeding the dough i had to flour my hand and the board periodically adding small amounts of flour to the dough, but several times. So i think there ended up being too much flour for the moisture in the dough. It wasn’t anything major and it all turned out more than edible. On a scale of 1-10 it was probably a 6. Take a look at the results in the gallery. The other half of the dough is in the frige waitinf for supper some night this week. Meyer’s had some high protein flour on sale today when i did my shopping rounds today so i’m going to make another pass at it sometime soon after i figure out how to address the dryness, which shouldn’t be too hard. It’s definitely cheaper than ordering and probably a lot better for you.