Hey guys, welcome back to Basics with Babish
This week I'm a little under the weather,
But that's not gonna stop me from teaching you how to make bread.
A process that takes a little more than plain old flour, and turns it into something delicious
You can actually eat.
Let's get down to basics
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All right, so we're gonna start off with Jim Lahey's now-famous: No-Knead bread technique
this is gonna start with
400 grams of bread flour. Bread flour has a higher protein content and, it's going to help us develop better gluten in our bread
To this we are going to add one gram, or 1/4 teaspoon, of any kind of yeast, instant or active dry
We're gonna whisk these together with our cute little whisk and then we're going to add about 10 grams, or one and a half teaspoons,
Of kosher salt. If you use table salt, keep it at 10 grams,
But use more like three-quarters of a teaspoon
Then to this we're going to add one and 1/3 cups of room-temperature water. And here's where the easy part starts.
We're going to gently mix the whole affair together, until a rough ball of dough forms.
No kneading as they say. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours, or until it
looks like this. Lacy, filled with big beautiful bubbles, and reeking of
Fermentation. And we're going to turn this out onto a very heavily floured work surface
Now in this step we're just trying to punch it down and shape it
We're not trying to work any of the flour into the dough. So make sure that you're not needing it
we're just grabbing the corners and pulling them in towards the center until we have a heavily floured smooth and taut top to our
Loaf once you've got a large round smooth surface start pulling the dough in towards the bottom
Shaping it into a little pool as it's called and placing onto some flour
Parchment paper and now we're going to heavily dust and clean kitchen towel
I hope I don't have to stay clean
But you know
Don't be a monster use a clean towel and flour it liberally so it does not stick to the dough because it's going to cover
The dough for the next one to two hours or until it has grown by about 50% not quite double during this time
we're preheating our oven as hot as it can go with a
cast-iron Dutch oven inside of it for at least an hour
Then we are cutting our parchment paper down to size for easy droppage scoring the top of the loaf with
Pattern you like using a bread knife or a razor blade and dropping below rectly into our preheated cast iron then right before we cover
It in place in the oven we're going to spray it down. Liberally with plain old water
this is gonna help the ovens spring as it's called or the
Rising that the bread does in the oven with a little grimace at how hot our oven is
We're and make this guy for about 30 minutes removing the lid and giving it one last spritz of water
But halfway through the baking process at the end of which we are going to be
Rewarded with a site that looks a little bit like this and trust me
There are very few sensations in life finer than smelling the bread that you've made from scratch emerge from the oven
But we've got to be patient and let this guy cool completely before digging in about two hours
I know that's a long time to wait
But you will ruin the texture of your bread if you cut into it too early now
There are a thousand different factors that can change the size of the holes and the crumb of your bread to the brownness of its
Crust to the largeness of its oven spring but the no need method is a very reliable way to end up with a delicious loaf
Almost every time we'll cover the trickier techniques in the bread part two. But for now it's time to move on to another easy riser
So to speak that's right
Focaccia with a recipe adapted from bone Appetit into the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook affixed
We are dumping 850 grams of bread flour followed by 2 and 1/2 cups of room-temperature water
We're gonna mix those on low speed for a few minutes while they're mixing
We're going to combine a half a cup of water measuring about 105 degrees Fahrenheit with a whole packet of active dry yeast
along with a small pinch of sugar
This is just gonna give the yeast a little bit more to eat. Whisk those together
Let them stand at room temperature for about 5 minutes until foamy and add them to the shaggy ball of dough you have forming in
Your stand mixer as the extra water is fully absorbed
We're going to add in 2 tablespoons
Of kosher salt and then knead with the dough hook on medium speed for about 5 minutes when you're done
You're gonna be left with this very sticky dough, but do not fear. That's what we're after focaccia dough is usually very hydrated
So it has an open airy crumb we're gonna let it rise in a large
Generously oiled Bowl covered in plastic wrap for about 2 hours or until it has doubled in size
Now to continue encouraging gluten formation
We're going to fold the dough onto itself a couple times by pulling it away from the edges of the bowl
This might not look like much but it actually does a lot then we are hitting an 18 by
13 rimmed baking sheet or half sheet with about a half a cup of olive oil
This might seem like a lot but you could actually do even more than this and it would only make your focaccia better
We're gonna fold the dough onto itself a couple more times again to encourage gluten development and then it's time to start shaping it
Into the size of the pan. It might show some
resistance and spring back on you if it does oil it and cover it with plastic wrap for 15 minutes to let the gluten to
Relax, you might have to do this one or two times, but you will find by the end of this process
It will easily be coasts into the edges of the pan. Once you've got the pan filled out
it's time to generously oil the top of our dough cover once again in plastic wrap and
Ferment overnight in the fridge about 12 hours as you can see here. Mine is really large and bubbly
I kind of over fermented it so I'm popping bubbles and pulling it away from the sides of the pan so it doesn't stick in
the oven and then with oiled fingers
I'm placing those characteristic dimples on top of the focaccia
Hitting it with a little bit of olive oil and letting it come up to room temperature
Under plastic wrap about an hour while it's doing that
we are preheating our oven again for a full hour at
450 degrees Fahrenheit for giving this guy one last drizzle of oil and a generous sprinkle of big
flaky
Bolden's salt and popping it in the oven for about half an hour until it looks like this it should pull away from the pan
Pretty easily if you oiled it properly
If not, just try to get under there with a sharp spatula and scrape it off. Just like our other loaf of bread
We're letting this guy cool completely on a rack about an hour and a half before finally cracking him open first
We got to admire it a little bit. I mean look at it you made this
Well, I made this but you'll make the one that you make and if you think about it, that's pretty cool
This stuff works great for big fat Italian sandwiches like a praise a and prosciutto eaten with cheese or meats
and it's a pretty impressive relatively forgiving way to enter the world of bread baking but my favorite way to eat it is with
even more oil that is cut into strips like you get in a restaurant and dipped into a waiting pool of
Extra-virgin olive oil salt freshly ground pepper and what the hell some grated Parmesan cheese
I mean, we're making bread here not zucchini noodles. We might as well do it right
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