Monday, September 13, 2010

Peasant Style Pot Bread

I checked out Kneadlessly Simple from the library. I had to wait several weeks because it is an extremely popular book and there were others waiting to get their hands on it too. I HIGHLY recommend the book. You'll want to make every recipe; these breads are enticing and you can practically smell the bread out of the book. I wish this book had a scratch 'n sniff feature. I've limited myself to making one loaf every week to ten days or so because otherwise I run around like a mad woman.

This recipe has a crispier crust than the Almost No Knead bread but I think the flavor of the Almost No Knead is better. Both have moist crumb and are definitely better than what you could buy at your local grocery store.

It's so easy I want to call these ridiculously simple recipes. You probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen. The beauty of these recipes is that you make them work to your schedule and not the other way around. There's time in the fridge which is any where from 3-10 hours. Then the rise at room temperature, any where from 12-18 hours or 18-24 hours; and then the second rise which can be done at either temp for 1.5 to 2.5 hours or the accelerated rise at 1-2 hours, or the extended rise of 4 hours in the fridge. It really works around your schedule, really it does.

My only modification would be to reduce the salt slightly. Some tasters found it slightly salty especially vs. the Almost No Knead Bread.

If you click on the title of this post the recipe is available on A Chow Life, a wonderful blog. She wrote the whole recipe out -- it's rather long -- so I would prefer not to rewrite it.

8 comments:

Stella said...

Whoa, that looks like good bread, Nirmala! Seriously. I haven't made bread for so long, since I've started my no refined sugars diet. Maybe I should try to do something like this whole grain?! Yeah...

Katerina said...

Bread is a basic food for humans. I think it would be great if every home could make its own bread. Yours look really crunchy and delicious.

Lawyer Loves Lunch said...

This looks stunning! Once again, your bread baking skills make me totally envious. One of these days, I'm going to attempt bread again instead of just oggling at your bread pictures! :)

Julie M. said...

Love this Nirmala! That bread looks beautiful and you're right, I can almost smell it through the computer! I've heard this is a great book before, I definitely need to track it down at my local library. Hope you're having a great week!

A SPICY PERSPECTIVE said...

Love bread! You do seem to have a real handle on bread making--something I'm still working out!

Simply Life said...

wow, that looks perfect!

Kulsum@JourneyKitchen said...

Peasant food it my thing. Totally. But that bread oh girl that bread makes me weak to my knees.

FOODESSA said...

Nirmala...this bread seems to be perfect for my list of first time breads...which hopefully will get a try sometime in the next few months. Yes, imagine...I've never made bread...yikes!

BTW...I want to thank you for having introduced yourself on my culinary blog. It's been a nice visit.

Flavourful wishes,
Claudia