Bread Baking - Day 2

As promised, the continuation of the final stage of baking of the "No Knead Breads."

I never bother to clean out my cast iron pans because it's just flour in the bottom and I don't use these pans for anything but making bread.

Dust or brush out with a good dry brush.

Add about a tablespoon of oil and wipe out with a dry paper towel.  You don't want a lot of oil in the pan, just enough so the wet dough doesn't stick.

I bake two loaves at a time because I have a Viking oven that is nice and wide.  Position your lids slightly askew, if using the Lodge pans, so you can grab onto the side handles on the top and lift off when you are ready to toss bread into hot pan.

All four loaves that I dumped out of their rising bins on to this floured vinyl mat.  Use lots of flour on your counter and hands and form loaves into nice balls, cover with a light towel and let rise.  No kneading required.  Just shape them into the nice round shape making sure there's enough flour under them so they don't stick.

I have an over sized scoop/scraper which is made for lifting pie crusts that I use to lift the dough and transport the dough to the pans.

30 minutes and this is what you turn out of the pans!

Here are the finished baked loaves of bread.  The one loaf on the left is the 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 regular white flour plus pecans, dates and cinnamon sugar.  I had some burning on the bottom and I think this might have been due to the sugar in the mixture.  I might recommend dropping the temperature in the oven to maybe 425 if you are going to be doing only a loaf that has any sugar in it.  I might also extend the baking time for another 10 minutes to compensate for the lower temp.

One of the white flour loaves - nice and no burning.

 Cut this loaf open for lunch.  Beautiful texture and oh so yummy with mayo, roast beef and tomato!

Whole Wheat and White

This is a look at the inside of the nut, half and half flours and dates.  The texture is good and the flavor was terrific even if a bit burned on the bottom.  For recipes refer back to my last posting.

Give this great bread a try.  The only down side to making bread this way is it gets eaten way too fast!

And, yes, I have doubled a batch and baked it all at one time in a super large 13 qt. Le Creuset dutch oven with a s/s lid top and it came out great - super bread and super sized!    Any questions, drop me a note.  Enjoy!