Refrigerator Bread
This has quickly become a favourite in our house. It is in the fridge all the time and we use it for basic bread, pizzas, naan, pita... almost any thing. I have stolen the recipe from Jeff Hertzberg's book "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day"
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| The dough is ready for the fridge |
1. Start with 3 cups of warm water
2. Add 1.5 tablespoons yeast and 1.5 tablespoons of salt to the water in a 5-quart
bowl or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded container . Don’t worry about getting it all to
dissolve.
3. Mix in the 6.5 cups of flour by (I replace a cup to a cup and a half of the white flour with whole wheat) . Mix with a
wooden spoon, until uniformly moist.Don’t knead!
This step is done in a matter of minutes, and yields a wet dough loose enough
to conform to the container.
4. Cover loosely.. Allow the mixture to rise at room
temperature approximately two hours, depending on temperature. Longer rising times, up to
about five hours, will not harm the result. You can use a portion of the dough any
time after this period. Refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and easier to
work with than room-temperature dough. We recommend refrigerating the dough at
least three hours before shaping a loaf. And relax! You don’t need to monitor
doubling or tripling of volume as in traditional recipes.
5. Prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally
with cornmeal to prevent the loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into
the oven. (I use parchment paper then you don't need to use cornmeal)
Sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour, then
cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-sized) piece with a serrated knife. Hold the mass
of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick
to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on
four “sides,” rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go, until the bottom is a
collection of four bunched ends. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it
doesn’t need to be incorporated. The bottom of the loaf will flatten out during
resting and baking.
6. Place the ball on the pizza peel. Let it rest
uncovered for about 40 minutes. Depending on the dough’s age, you may see
little rise during this period; more rising will occur during baking.
7. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat oven to
450 degrees with a baking stone on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray
for holding water on another shelf.
8. Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour,
which will allow the slashing, serrated knife to pass without sticking. Slash a
1⁄4-inch-deep cross, scallop or tick-tack-toe pattern into the top. (This helps
the bread expand during baking.)
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| The Finished Product |
9. With a forward jerking motion of the wrist,
slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the baking stone. Quickly but
carefully pour about a cup of hot water into the broiler tray and close the
oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is
browned and firm to the touch. With wet dough, there’s little risk of drying
out the interior, despite the dark crust. When you remove the loaf from the
oven, it will audibly crackle, or “sing,” when initially exposed to room
temperature air. Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire rack, for best
flavor, texture and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will
firm up again when cooled.
10. Refrigerate the remaining dough in your lidded
(not airtight) container and use it over the next two weeks: You’ll find that
even one day’s storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. This
maturation continues over the two-week period. Cut off and shape loaves as you
need them. The dough can also be frozen in 1-pound portions in an airtight
container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.
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