In a fit of chronic I-haven't-got-the-time-and-frankly-I-can't-be-bothered-ness, I tried an experiment with our weekend loaf. Normally I make a 'sponge' by mixing about one third of the flour with roughly half a pint of yeasty water and whatever else I'm adding, (olive oil, sea salt, sunflower seeds, whatever). It bubbles up nicely and later I add the bulk of the flour and adjust the dough to the right feel, before kneading for the prescribed ten minutes. Actually I don't time myself anymore as I can tell when it's ready. But I did wonder what would happen if I simply mixed it all up and let it rise, adjusting the flour and NOT kneading at all, finally letting it rise again in the loaf tin. So I did. And this is what emerged. No, not two fat ginger cats...
A perfectly acceptable loaf, which did taste a little different (more cakey, Andy said - more yeasty, I thought). It was a bit sloppy in the tin, but has a nice crust.
Later I Googled 'no knead bread' as I was sure I wasn't the mad inventor of this, and found that there is indeed a very famous method, as practised by certain Mr Jim Lahey in New York. But you know, I've read through it, and compared to mine, it sounds a bit complicated...
We had a weekend visitor - he turned up unnanounced in the kitchen.
We had a weekend visitor - he turned up unnanounced in the kitchen.
He didn't seem to like his water tub accomodation though, so after having his picture taken we popped him into next door's pond. I can't remember the last time I saw a newt. I don't know whether to feel joy at having seen one again, or despair that they seem to be so scarce. Let's stick with joy, shall we? After all, it is Monday.
