Pokerface?
You won’t need that, because in this brand-new recipe you’ll start right away with a really good hand. And trust me – you will win this fermentation poker game: “all-in” and with a full house (of bread lovers).
So here we go with the first new #brotokoll creation since my vacation end of February. Your patience will be rewarded in a very special way: Are you ready for a recipe double feature? No matter if you belong to team sourdough or team yeast water: Take ist easy – Bake it easy … and just adapt the recipe super flexibly according to your work- and family-week-schedule!
Bake it Easy
“Nomen est omen” – as the recipe’s name already discloses: minimal effort and maximum output – also for bread-baking newbies.
No knead – not bad
Even if the required kneading-time for our #brotokoll Open Crumb Series has already been quite short – this time we’ll eliminate it totally (all ingredients will just be mixed lump free – starter, flour, water, salt: all together at the same time!). We’ll let time do the whole thing. Remember that retarded and over a long time fermented bread is not only better and healthier in terms of digestibility – also flavor wise you are entering a whole new world (this is the reason why no “quick’n rapid” breads will ever get access to #brotokoll).
How to, What and Why?
The main focus of this recipe was simplicity. This is what folks often (or mainly?) seek in no-knead breads. Not to forget: flexibility. So, no knead means that time will do most of the required work (simplicity). The goal of this recipe was to even shorten the waiting time after mixing until we let our dough peacefully rest in the fridge. You might have other things to do than spending a couple of hours performing sets of stretch & folds (flexibility). But … and this is obvious: at the end (having already minimized all efforts) don’t we still want a nice ovenspring and a fluffy airy crumb? Sounds like an overkill? Check this out:
Step 1: Flour power
One key for a brotokollastic (what a word) result on this “Bake it easy wave” is a strong flour. Due to the quite long (as for sourdough over 40 hours vs. yeast water over 60 hours) fermentation, we would run a risk of weakening our gluten-network if we used weak flour. The price we’d have to pay: dense crumb and poor oven spring. But we said: No knead … and not “No way”. That’s why I chose a strong and lovely flavorful flour combination that will make this bake super easy for you. Ensuring both, ovenspring and a fluffy crumb.
Step 2: Starter
Poor starter – poor oven spring. That is valid also for no-knead breads. That’s why a certain refreshment of (whatever you’ll choose) both sourdough (we build the levain in the same way like for our Open Crumb Series) and yeast water-starter (Poolish) is highly recommended. You’ll find all the details in the recipe below..
Step 3: Dough-strength & Dough-structure
In order to cut down waiting time to just 45 minutes, until we’ll be able to leave the dough in the fridge, we’ll have to build up some dough strength quite quickly. Our magic tools? Strong sets of stretch & folds and lamination. Even if stretching & folding at the very beginning of bulk fermentation don’t have a big impact (mostly none – as there is too less gas generated – for a deeper dive into that topic, check out Trevor Wilson’s Open Crumb Mastery), we’ll succeed in stabilizing the dough with two strong sets of stretch & folds plus lamination in intervals of 15 minutes. As we want to end up with an airy result, we’ll still have to give our dough a bit of structure. No worries and mostly important: no hurry. We’ll do that with a single fold after 12 hours.
Ready set go – Bake it easy
+40 hours vs. +60 hours. Sourdough vs. Yeastwater. Whatever you’ll choose: Take it easy – Bake it easy !!
Happy baking!
- 223 g Breadflour available at bongu.de
- 65 g Wholemeal Breadflour available at bongu.de
- 70 g Levain or Yeastwater Pre-dough of your choice, see recipe instructions
- 215 g Water cold
- 7 g Salt
- 4 g Oliveoil
TA (Hydration) 177 (77%) Ingredients
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In order to build up the indicated amount of levain (70g) you should feed/refresh your starter 3-4 times. For the last feeding (this is supposed to be the levain building) apply a ratio of 1:2:2 (Starter: Flour : Water).
Use your levain at an age of 4 to 5 hours (let it rise at an ambient temperature of 25 degrees Celsius). Within that time it should have at least doubled in volume.
I highly recommend using the same flour for building the levain, as you are using it for your usual sourdough feeding. Check out my sample feeding-schedule in the recipe "Lime story".
35g Wild Yeastwater (active)
So, you are Team yeastwater? For the first stage of your pre-dough (yeastwater Poolish) mix half of the indicated flour amount (roughly 18g) with half of the indicated yeastwater amount (18g) and let it ferment at 25-27 degrees Celsius within a high bin or container for roughly 8-12 hours, until it doubles in volume (depending on the power of your yeastwater, this step may take more or less time). Now add the remaining flour (18g) and yeastwater (18g) to your yeastwater Poolish and leave it (again in a high bin or container) well covered for 6-12 hours in your fridge. In the next morning remove it from the fridge and let it acclimatise at room temperature until the volume has doubled.
65g Wholemeal Breadflour
70g Levain or Yeastwater-Poolish
215g Water
7g Salt
4g Oliveoil
Mix all Ingredients lump free, put the mixture into a greased container and let it rest well covered for 15 minutes.
The indicated recipe quantities are for 1 loaf of 580g.
Option sourdough: Check out my sample levain-building timetable at the recipe Lime story.
Option yeastwater: HERE is your guide for an easy set up of a powerful wild yeast water.
Do you have specific questions or issues? Contact me via the contact form. I am happy to help you.
