Problem with 1st attempt at No-Knead bread

E

ellieh

Well-known member
I made my first attempt at the NY Times recipe for the subject bread measuring the ingredients exactly. After 12 hours (in a warm room) the dough looked very soft but I dumped it out on a floured board anyway and there was water in the bottom of the bowl and the dough was so soft it just looked like a soft blob.

I put it back in the bowl and 3 hours later it had doubled again but was wobbly like jello and there was still water on the bottom of the bowl.

What did I do wrong? This looked so easy and I'm disppointed in this first attempt.

eleanorarlene

 
I've made this several times, and it is very gloppy, but

I've never noticed any water in the bottom of the bowl. Did you bake it anyway? I turn it out of the bowl onto a towel with lots of corn meal to rise again. Then I dump the whole thing in the casserole which has been preheated. It turns out like a thing of beauty.

 
No-Knead bread problem.

It was so sloppy and there was about 1/4 cup of water in the bottom of bowl. There was no way I could fold it 2 times as indicated in the recipe as it was laying there in a big wet blob.. I threw it out. I'm very discouraged as I followed the recipe exactly.

 
For your next time....

..... do exactly what you did, but after you mix the ingredients, let the bowl sit for 30 minutes or so at room temperature, then go back and mix with your hands the dough again, you can even use a spatula to make sure the bottom part is well mixed, without too many dry chunks of flour/water remaining.


this will ensure that the flour gets properly hydrated and your end results will be much better.

Several things can affect how the flour and water interact, the brand of the flour, the humidity of your environment - by allowing this initial 30 min and going back to mix the dough again, you should have no problems

 
I am a bit puzzled....

... you said it is a no-knead recipe, but calls for folding twice. Does it say when to fold it?

is the recipe online so you could post a link?

 
Ellie, I wonder if your flour amount was off? I just scoop...no shifting, etc

Mine is too damp to fold and knead the few times they mention, but there definitely isn't any water.

I now use a piece of parchment sprinkled with wheat bran and flop it into a pie pan for the second rising. Then I lift the thing and transfer it to the hot pan. When it's all done, I can just lift out the parchment. Works perfectly.

Too perfectly, I'm afraid. Warm, crusty, crunchy bread...I have ZERO willpower.

 
Also, I would just check a few other versions of this recipe to confirm your amounts. There have

been updates, especially on the lack of "saltiness" in the original. I now use 1.5 tsp of sea salt.

 
Thank you for all your suggestions especially the parchment one and looking at different versions of

the recipe. I'll try again.

 
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