Almost-No-Knead Baguettes

This recipe was in the King Arthur Flour Baker's Catalog earlier this year. It makes enough dough for four loaves, so I have halved the recipe successfully. (Also, who can manage EIGHT CUPS of flour?!) I've made it three times successfully without a baguette pan.

Apologies to you high-elevation people for another bread recipe...

"Better is half a loaf than no bread" -- John Heywood

3 cups lukewarm water
8 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 tablespoon table salt or 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast
(or, by weight:)

24 ounces lukewarm water
34 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 tablespoon table salt or 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast

Directions
1) Find a large (6-quart) bowl or bucket, for dough storage in the fridge. Lightly grease the bowl or bucket.
2) Place the water directly into the bowl or or other large container.
3) Add the dry ingredients to the water, and stir to combine. Mix until there are no dry spots; the texture of the dough should be fairly soft.
4) Knead the dough gently for a few minutes, by hand; it'll be very sticky. Or knead for 1 or 2 minutes in a stand mixer. Cover the container, and let the dough rest at room temperature for 2 hours.
5) Refrigerate overnight, or for up to 7 days.
6) To bake bread: Scoop out a scant 1 pound of dough (about ¼ of the batch, about 14 ½ ounces). Place on a greased work surface.
7) Shape the dough into a rough, slightly flattened oval, cover with greased plastic wrap, and let rest for 15 minutes.
8) Fold the dough in half lengthwise, and seal the edges with the heel of your hand. Flatten slightly, and fold lengthwise and seal again.
9) With the seam side down, cup your fingers and gently roll the of dough into a 15" log.
10) Place the log seam-side down onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, or into the well of a baguette pan.
11) Cover and allow the baguette to rise till it's very puffy, about 1 1/2 hours. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 450°F.
12) Slash the baguette three or four times on the diagonal.
13) Spritz the baguette heavily with warm water, and bake until a very deep golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Rustic Dinner Rolls

I made these super crusty rolls last Saturday. We couldn't wait, and had them warm out of the oven. They were not quite so awesome at room temperature, but reheating is easy.

The biggest caution is that there are a LOT of proof/rise cycles. I think I started these around noon, and had them out of the oven around five-thirty. Nothing bad in terms of hands-on time, but this is in no way a mix-it-and-forget it dough.

Next time I would totally double the recipe. The four of us ate three each while they were still warm. (oink!)

Makes 16 rolls. Published November 1, 2008. From Cook's Illustrated.

Because this dough is sticky, keep your hands well floured when handling it. Use a spray bottle to mist the rolls with water. The rolls will keep for up to 2 days at room temperature stored in a zipper-lock bag. To re-crisp the crust, place the rolls in a 450-degree oven 6 to 8 minutes. The rolls will keep frozen for several months wrapped in foil and placed in a large zipper-lock bag. Thaw the rolls at room temperature and re-crisp using the instructions above.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon water (12 1/2 ounces), room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
2 teaspoons honey
3 cups plus 1 tablespoon bread flour (16 1/2 ounces), plus extra for forming rolls
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour (about 1 ounce)
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt

Instructions
1. Whisk water, yeast, and honey in bowl of stand mixer until well combined, making sure no honey sticks to bottom of bowl. Add flours and mix on low speed with dough hook until cohesive dough is formed, about 3 minutes. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature 30 minutes.

2. Remove plastic wrap and evenly sprinkle salt over dough. Knead on low speed (speed 2 on KitchenAid) 5 minutes. (If dough creeps up attachment, stop mixer and scrape down using well-floured hands or greased spatula.) Increase speed to medium and continue to knead until dough is smooth and slightly tacky, about 1 minute. If dough is very sticky, add 1 to 2 tablespoons flour and continue mixing 1 minute. Lightly spray 2-quart bowl with nonstick cooking spray; transfer dough to bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

3. Fold dough over itself; rotate bowl quarter turn and fold again. Rotate bowl again and fold once more. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 30 minutes. Repeat folding, replace plastic wrap, and let dough rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

4. Transfer dough to floured work surface, sprinkle top with more flour. Using bench scraper, cut dough in half and gently stretch each half into 16-inch cylinders. Divide each cylinder into quarters, then each quarter into 2 pieces (you should have 16 pieces total), and dust top of each piece with more flour. With floured hands, gently pick up each piece and roll in palms to coat with flour, shaking off excess, and place in prepared cake pan. Arrange 8 dough pieces in each cake pan, placing one piece in middle and others around it, with long side of each piece running from center of pan to edge and making sure cut-side faces up. Loosely cover cake pans with plastic wrap and let rolls rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes (dough is ready when it springs back slowly when pressed lightly with finger). Thirty minutes before baking, adjust rack to middle position and heat oven to 500 degrees.

5. Remove plastic wrap from cake pans, spray rolls lightly with water, and place in oven. Bake 10 minutes until tops of rolls are brown; remove from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees; using kitchen towels or oven mitts, invert rolls from both cake pans onto rimmed baking sheet. When rolls are cool enough to handle, turn right-side up, pull apart, and space evenly on baking sheet. Continue to bake until rolls develop deep golden brown crust and sound hollow when tapped on bottom, 10 to 15 minutes; rotating baking sheet halfway through baking time. Transfer rolls to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.

Our favorite thin-crust pizza dough

1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
1/4 ounce active dry yeast
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, honey and 1 tablespoon of the oil, stirring to combine. Let it sit until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.

Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour and the sale, mixing by hand until it is all incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Continue adding flour 1/4 cup at a time, working the dough after each addition, until the dough is smooth but slightly sticky. You might not use all the flour.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth but still slightly tacky; about 3-5 minutes.

Oil a large bowl with the remaining oil. Place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to double in size, about 90 minutes.

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This is best used on the day it's made. It does keep in the fridge overnight (make sure you leave a LOT of room) but gets very sticky.

We make pizza about once a week. I preheat my stone for an hour in a 425 oven.