Tried a no-knead loaf after 6 weeks of wrestling dough, never going back

I spent two months fighting with hand kneading every weekend. My shoulders ached and my counter was a flour disaster. Last Tuesday I finally tried a no-knead recipe from a blog my sister sent me, the one with just 3 cups of flour, water, salt, and a tiny bit of yeast. The dough sat in my fridge for 18 hours and it doubled in size like magic. After baking it in my cast iron pot at 450 degrees, the crust cracked perfectly and the inside was so airy it felt like a different food. The flavor was tangier too, way better than my sore-arm batches. I'm curious if anyone else found that the long rest beats any amount of elbow grease, or did I just get lucky with this batch in Chicago humidity?

1 comments

1 Comment

sean_perry16d agoMost Upvoted

Man, hell yeah. My buddy Pete was the exact same way, swore by hand kneading for years. His arms got built but his bread was always dense as a brick. Then his wife made him try the no-knead thing and he wouldn't shut up about it for a month. Said he threw his old dough hook in the back of a drawer and never looked back. The real kicker was when he brought a loaf to a barbecue and this old Italian guy asked if he bought it from a bakery. That sealed it for him. I think the long rest just does something your hands can't, no matter how much you beat the dough.