bread - Easy No-Knead Artisan Bread (using whey)

By tinathorn

Ingredients

• 3 cups warm water,
• 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 cups flour (32 oz, to be precise -- if you can weigh your flour)
• 1 Tbsp salt, and
• 1.5 Tbsp instant yeast

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from everydayhomemaking.com

Preparation

Step 1

Mix to make a shaggy dough (lesser amount of flour if you tend to scoop flour and thus pack; more flour if you tend to sprinkle or lightly spoon your flour into your cup). See basic recipe for specifics. I used whey from my yogurt making for one third of my liquid.

Keep the dough in a large bowl or container with loose cover; it will rise at least double--close to triple, so use a big container! I used a Tupperware 2-gallon canister; because it's clear, I could see the rise (and I marked the dough line with a dry-erase marker when I first put the dough in, so I could track the rise).

At this point, I left my dough on the counter overnight, then refrigerated two hours.... but you can simply leave it out to rise about two hours and then refrigerate 2 hours to a week. The longer it refrigerates, the more of a sourdough-type tang it will have.

When ready to bake, use floured hands to pull off about 16 oz of dough (easier if you sprinkle the whole dough top with a bit of flour). Shape as desired on parchment and loosely cover to let it rise to double, about an hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven/baking stone to 450 F. Slash tops of loaves as shown to allow for rise, then transfer loaves to baking stone (I use a flat-edged cookie sheet as a bread/pizza peel for the transfer).

Put a pan with at least a cup of water into the oven -- on a lower or bottom rack; spritz loaves with water if desired. Then close oven quickly to create steam. The steam is what gives you the chewy, European-style crust -- crackly and crisp on the outside, softer inside.

Bake at 450 for 25-35 minutes. Cool on rack.(I lower my temp to 435 because my oven runs way hot.)

For rolls: Pull off smaller dough amounts; shape and rise as directed. Bake 20-25 min.