So I decided to try the no-knead bread recipe. This dough is sticky stuff! I hope the loaf turns out well. As I write this, I am waiting for the final rise on the bread.
Unlike your traditional loaf of bread, no-knead bread is never kneaded or smooshed around. The prupose of the smooshing is to lengthen the gluten strands within the dough so they will heal back together, make longer gluten strands and a better rising, stronger bread.
The idea behind no-knead bread is that if the dough is given enough time to sit, then gluten strands will do that chemically, not physically by being smooshed and broken (kneaded). It just takes longer.
This is my first try & this is the dough after having sat for 20 hours.
You goop the very wet dough out of the bowl (I had to use a rubber spatula to help shape it) and onto a well-floured surface. Then I "shaped" the dough, which just kinda blobbed around and put it inside of a dutch oven lined with a floured cloth inside. This way, the bread will appear nice & "rustic," just like my friend in France had been making. Maybe...
We'll see how it looks in another hour. Right now, it looks like a puddle in a pan.
