No- Knead @ Sea

Galley Wench

I have a few questions about strech and folding.

1. For whole wheat sourdough how much time should be allowed between foldings?

2. Should my dough pass a window pane test if I am folding instead of kneading?

3. Can any recipe adapted to strech and fold?  If so does all the streching and foldinf and resting time create a problem of ovr proofing if I add in enough time for a good rise?  Will the yeasts be over popullating the dough by the time it rises if I take the time to strech and fold it over a period of 3 hours instead of a straight kneading which would take 20 min.? 

Well, I made those baguettes I'd been craving. Simple really -- I just did the NYT / Sullivan Street bread scaled down to make three 8-ounce baguettes. Well, I also substituted 10% of the white flour for whole spelt, because I had some on hand, brought the hydration down to 75% and folded it twice before going to bed.

They were very tasty, almost buttery, and the crust was perfect. Crunchy and full of flavor. Crumb was nice too, with the irregularly shaped , though not cavernous, holes I was hoping for.

Man, though, were they butt-ugly.

Hi, guys. I am mightily frustrated this afternoon following my third bad experience with cold-start baking of no-knead bread. I know I've made it work a few times, but when it goes bad, it's a mess. Basically, the bread bakes into the pan and cannot be dislodged without destroying the loaf altogether. I've tried it with two different baking vessels, both of which work great when preheated to blistering temps. I have had the same experience with traditional loaf pans - even when I oiled the heck out of them first.

When you make this, how much starter do you use, at what hydration? How vigorous is your starter? The first time I tried this, I used way too much starter, I think 80 grams.   In the morning my dough had obviously risen and tanked.  Last night I used 6 grams of 60% hydration starter.  AFter 13 hours it had done very little. Since I don't want to go another day without bread, I just added a bunch more starter and will watch it like a hawk.  At 180 grams I probably used too much!

The first time I baked a no-knead loaf in a cold oven, it came out perfect. It was made with bread flour. I don't remember if I greased the pan, or what the oven temp was.

The next 3 loaves have stuck big time. They were -

whole meal spelt, greased with butter, baked in corningware

bread flour, greased with butter, baked in pyrex

multigrain, greased with safflower oil, baked in stainless dutch oven

I think the formula/recipe was fine on this, but the dough was either a bit overproofed or underkneaded. How's that for confusing? :D

I was visiting with my sister in Wisconsin, and we joined several other family members for a July 4th get-together at my cousins' cottage. I decided to bring bread for my contribution and thought it would be best if baked fresh. So the night before I started 2 loaves each of white and whole wheat NYT No-Knead bread. In the morning, I folded each loaf and placed in an oiled ziploc bag. The bags were carefully placed in a soft sided picnic-cooler-on-wheels.

I just got this book from the library. Has anyone tried any of the recipes? Any opinions on the book or the techniques she uses?