There are many recipes for no knead bread on the internet, and this is my favourite so far. It is a mixture of wholemeal and white bread flour, with lots and lots of seeds. It is perfect for open sandwiches. As a household of two, I cut the fresh loaf in half, wrap one half in foil and put it into the freezer. The other half will last for three meals, and is lovely topped with butter (or equivalent), cheese and tomatoes. Because there is no fat in this bread, it tends to dry out, so by the third day I need more moisture-rich toppings. Ideal options are eggs mashed in mayonnaise with chopped cherry tomatoes, use peanut butter and cover with slices of banana, or toast and top with mashed avocados. I am sure you can come up with more options here.
The texture of this bread is not light and fluffy as you would get with hand-kneading the dough, but if you have never made bread before, this is an ideal starting point. The other advantages are that you can use normal baking flours (I have not tried this yet myself as I still have some bread flour), and you use very little instant yeast, so when it is hard to buy these things during the current MCO in Malaysia, you can make a little go a long way. Keep to a ratio of 400g flour to 300g water as your starting point, and play around with the ingredients to suite your taste.
Post Script………… It is now June 2020 and I have had plenty more opportunities to make this bread. Here are some things I have learnt:
1. Using a white bread flour makes for a much lighter, less dense, loaf. So, your mixture of white and wholemeal flour is just a matter of taste.
2. I now make a much wetter mixture to leave overnight, as this mixture produces a better rise (often left for 15 hours at room temperature). Then I will tip the dough onto a floured work top and add just enough flour to allow me to form a round ball of dough, and leave for another 2 hours.
3. I discovered dried mulberries recently and add a couple of tablespoons of these. The dried mulberries dissolve into the dough and produce a pleasant extra taste and sweetness to the bread.
4. No two loafs are ever the same, but they are always edible!
Recipe
300g wholewheat flour
100g white flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
25g rolled oats
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon flax seeds
300ml water (room temp) + a little extra.
Method
Start preparing the dough in the evening, any time after 7 pm. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients, then stir in the water. You may need to add a little extra (1-2 tablespoons) to achieve a moist, but not soggy, dough. Cover the bowl with Clingfilm and leave overnight at room temperature.
Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work space. Gently fold in more flour so you can form a ball which does not stick to your hands. Place ball of dough on baking paper and put into a bowl or colander (covered) to rise for 2 hours.
Put a lidded metal casserole dish into the oven, and switch on for 230C. For my oven, I need to do this 30 min before the dough is ready for baking.
When the dough has risen, remove hot pot from the oven and quickly place dough inside. Put the lid on and bake the bread for 30 min.
Remove lid and continue baking for 10-15 min, until brown on top.
Carefully remove bread from the pot and allow to cool completely before slicing.
The video I present here was made for my friend, to encourage her to have a go at this. It was not intended for mass distribution, so apologies for the quality but I think you have everything here to get you started.
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