MUST SHARE THIS! fat-dairy-sugar-free, no-knead whole wheat bread!!!

THis is incredible bread. It is a white bread recipe but I adapted it to white whole wheat...and to not having a pizza slide nor cornmeal. Next I am going to try it with freshly ground ww flour. The original version was printed in our newspaper, and it's from a book by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois called "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day." This is half the recipe. This makes 2 little fat loaves, about the size of small cantaloupes.

If you want bread on, say, Saturday, start this process Friday after lunch.

3/4 TB yeast
3/4 TB kosher salt
2 cups white whole wheat flour (like King Arthur)
1 1/4 cup organic unbleached all-purpose flour

In large covered container - I used a glass salad bowl with snap-on lid - dissolve salt and yeast in 1 1/2 cups + 1 TB lukewarm water. Stir in flour - dough will be soft and conform to the shape of the container. If it doesn't, add more water 1 tsp at a time until it does (with ww flour, more water is usually required). Do not knead. Cover loosely with parchment paper or towel and let rise and then fall, 2-5 hours. When it's flat on top or fallen, cover tightly and refrigerate overnight. Or you could freeze it at this point.

When ready to bake, dust a piece of parchment paper with flour. Uncover the dough and dust it with flour. Dust your hands, too, and pull out a chunk about the size of a grapefruit. If you cut it off, use a serrated knife. Don't knead, but shape the dough into a ball, stretching and turning until it is rounded on top and bunched on the bottom. Dough will be super sticky, so keep coating hands with flour - but do not try to incorporate the flour into the dough. Place dough ball on the parchment paper and let rest, uncovered, for 40 min.

Cover and refrigerate remaining dough for up to 2 weeks. It tastes more "sourdough" the longer it's refrigerated.

As soon as the dough is set to rest, place oven rack in middle of oven and put a pizza/baking stone on middle rack; put empty broiler pan on bottom rack. Turn the oven on to 450. In 40 min., when dough has rested (it won't rise much - you'll ask yourself why you are bothering to bake a frisbee), stone will be hot enough. Dust top of dough ball with flour. Make 3 1/4 inch slashes in top of dough with serrated knife. Take stone out of oven, slide parchment paper (with dough on it) onto the stone, and pop into the oven; pour 1 cup hot tap water into broiler pan. Bake until loaf is well browned and no longer soft to the touch - recipe says 30 min, for me it was around 25. And if you take it out and cut it and it's too doughy in the middle, you can pop it back in the oven at 450 and bake some more. It's *that" forgiving.

This sounds lengthy, I know, but it's actually really fast and simple when you do it. And it is THE most amazing bread I have ever tasted - it's like the classiest French bread and with organic butter...oh man. Ds and I almost finished the loaf.

you can also make sticky buns with this, and pizza dough, and all kinds of stuff. I love that it has no sugar nor fat nor dairy.

[krysmh]

Sounds yummy!

Do you think it would work with all whole wheat flour? And could I add fat? lol

[WI Mama05]

Oooohhhh! I'd LOVE to try this!

Originally Posted by krysmh

Sounds yummy!

Do you think it would work with all whole wheat flour? And could I add fat? lol

I can say with a certain amount of confidence that it would probably work well with all white whole wheat. But I have not yet tried it with whole grain hard winter wheat. I usually grind it myself, but I copped out and used store bought for this recipe.

I wouldn't add any fat though...until you bake it. It is INCREDIBLE with butter.

[jenny_islander]

WOW. This sounds like the perfect bread if I want to get serious about baking all our bread!

I would like to try this today or tomorrow, but I probably won't be able to get to the store. I have white "Better for Bread" flour and some whole-wheat flour, but not a lot of either at the moment. Could I use a mixture?

Originally Posted by jenny_islander

WOW. This sounds like the perfect bread if I want to get serious about baking all our bread!

I would like to try this today or tomorrow, but I probably won't be able to get to the store. I have white "Better for Bread" flour and some whole-wheat flour, but not a lot of either at the moment. Could I use a mixture?

I did. I used 2 cups white whole wheat and 1 1/4 cups white flour.

[jenny_islander]

So I could switch regular supermarket whole wheat flour out with the white whole wheat flour cup for cup? What exactly is white whole wheat flour? I don't think I can get it locally.

EDITED so it actually makes sense.

Originally Posted by jenny_islander

So I could switch regular supermarket whole wheat flour out with the white whole wheat flour cup for cup? What exactly is white whole wheat flour? I don't think I can get it locally.

EDITED so it actually makes sense.

Yes, I bet you could use regular whole wheat the way I used white whole wheat. King Arthur's is the only brand I know that has white whole wheat - it is lower gluten and softer, finer flour - more like white flour, but it's 100% whole wheat. It's perfect for cookies and cakes and stuff.

So you could do maybe 2 cups regular whole wheat and 1 1/4 cups white.

[krysmh]

I use white whole wheat in just about everything. I think it's the same thing as whole wheat pastry flour, if you see that anywhere.

I'm planning on trying this bread soon.

I tried it today, using 2 cups white and 1 1/4 cups store bought whole wheat - not the white whole wheat. We'll see!

I really want to do it with freshly-ground flour, but I have just run out of time lately.

[QuiltinGramma]

can't wait to try this soon!

dh loves artisan breads and they're expensive in the store. We used to go to a little Italian shop and get a loaf, but I haven't found anywhere to buy some since we moved besides the grocery store and they're just not as good.

Must try this recipe! Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by diamondintherough

dh loves artisan breads and they're expensive in the store. We used to go to a little Italian shop and get a loaf, but I haven't found anywhere to buy some since we moved besides the grocery store and they're just not as good.

Must try this recipe! Thanks for sharing.

Then I bet you'd like this.

i just made this and can't get over how yummy and easy it is! i used all whole wheat freshly ground and it was perfect. mmmmmm!