Virgin No More II: The Results « Lunchbox Chronicles

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Virgin No More II: The Results

July 10, 2008

As I used Chichajo’s recipe for No Knead Bread, I also followed her recommendation that less water be used. Instead of using 1 1/2 cups water, I used 1 1/4 cups. I made two batches. One with 1 1/4 cups water and the other with 1 1/2 cups water. After 8 hours, the dough looked like this:

It was so wet it was hard handling the dough and I just couldn’t make the surface smooth and taut as Chichajo said.

Since I was too impatient to wait for 12 more hours, I took a chance and popped the whole thing in the oven after only 8 hours, like SteamyKitchen did. After about 50 minutes in the oven, the one with 1 1/4 cups water looked like this:

The bottom was a bit burned. The second looked like this:

Both turned out to have very crispy, love inducing crusts. For some reason, the crusts were shiny, as if eggwhites have been slathered over them. The inside was holey and very very chewy. So chewy that cousin G commented that it was like eating bubblegum. Cousin M the Bald said it reminded him of French Baker’s baguette.

Of the two, the one with less water turned out to be lighter and less chewy. The one with more water was denser and the holes smaller. My jaw would literally get tired chewing it. But despite the chewy issues, I would do another attempt, but with some changes.

Next time, I will let the dough rest for up to 20 hours as recommended. I will use the 1 1/4 cups water version. And I will not put the pot in the bottommost part of the oven.