no knead to worry bread

[waynebergman]

Made my first loaf of bread today and the bread turned out pretty good. I used the No-Knead (to worry) Bread recipe from this site and it seemed very straight forward. Nice video helper on site here also for handling the wet dough. Thanks for that!
Couple of questions....1/4 teaspoon yeast.....and 2 teaspoons salt to the 15 oz of floor seemed like a lot of salt. Has anyone else tried this with less salt? I may think its a bits salty just from comparing ratios from this recipe to others and it seems like a lot so I was expecting it to taste too salty. The bread is very good but maybe a bit too salty. Just Me? If I go with less salt does this effect texture or anything besides taste?
This bread kind of tastes like a sourdough. Is this method of no-knead method doing anything to the end taste that gives it this flavor or is it just my imagination? Thanks wayne

[Archena]

Re: no knead to worry bread

I'm not sure but I think I remember a discussion of that being a misprint. Regardless, it shouldn't matter if you reduce it. If you are only finding the bread a bit salty try 1 tsp. If it's overbearing, try 1/4 tsp. Nothing in a yeast bread should need that much salt even in a sweeter bread.

Salt is used both to enhance flavor and to balance other flavors but I don't remember there being anything in that recipe that would even possibly need extra salt. It should not effect texture at all. (Not in a yeast bread - a chemically leavened bread is a different animal.)

About the other, I don't remember the recipe well enough. Would you link it, please? I have it in my head that it's a straight forward yeast bread, not a sourdough or a sweet.

[waynebergman]

Re: no knead to worry bread

thanks Archena for helping me on this....the link here http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html is what the forno bravo site has based its recipe on I believe.I dont have the link to the forno bravo recipe but it was from the free downloads here on this site. I had printed it out a while back and cant remember what download it came from....wayne

[Archena]

Re: no knead to worry bread

Okay, found it. (It's in the Hearth Bread's ebook).

I don't see any reason for so much salt. It won't aid in leavening - yeast eats sugar - and there's nothing there to counter-balance so I don't see any reason not to cut the salt down. I wouldn't omit it altogether since it will enhance the flavor which will help in such a simple bread.

It tastes sour because the resting phase is actually a fermentation phase. Longer will probably make the taste stronger but otherwise I can't think of a way to get rid of it altogether since fermentation is replacing rising and shortening the time will likely effect texture as well as flavor.

Once you are really confident with the recipe you might try honey or vanilla to mask the tang. If you do, increase the salt somewhat (probably not to 2 tsp) because then you will actually need it for balance.

Hope this helps.

[Archena]

Re: no knead to worry bread

Um, you are using sea salt, right? If not, there's little wonder that it's salty - table salt has a much finer grain so a tsp of table salt is anywhere from 2 to 3 times as much as a tsp of sea salt.

Still a lot of salt to my mind but not nearly as much as 2 tsp of table salt would be.

[brokencookie]

Re: no knead to worry bread

To control the "sourdough" taste, reduce the rise time. I have found that 18 hrs produces a bread that is too sour for my taste. 8 to 10 hrs works well for me.

[waynebergman]

Re: no knead to worry bread

Thanks Brokencookie and Archena....I like the sour taste so times will stay the same for my next batch. Just wasn't sure on why it had this taste but I like it. The"It tastes sour because the resting phase is actually a fermentation phase" helps me to understand this, thanks Archena.
To answer your question about the salt, yes I am using sea salt. Because the salt is in a coarse grinder I thought I would weight 2 teaspoons of reg salt as it by volume would be closer to recipe. I weighed this and then matched that weight with my coarse ground sea salt.....complicated explanation for what I can see now to just go with less salt.......wayne

[Archena]

Re: no knead to worry bread

No prob!

Our of curiosity, what's the shortest time you've been able to let it ferment and still get good results, BC?

[brokencookie]

Re: no knead to worry bread

No prob!

Our of curiosity, what's the shortest time you've been able to let it ferment and still get good results, BC?

Most of the time is for gluten development since kneading is not used for this. I have had success with as little as 3 hrs, but I used a bread flour. With an AP flour I find that 6 hrs is about the minimum.

[Archena]

Re: no knead to worry bread

Thanks. I may try it sometime.