Does anyone else get annoyed, or at least have mixed feelings, when no-knead bread comes out better than what you get by mixing to develop gluten?
I'm happy to get the better oven spring and more open crumb, but I just wish I could have done it the old fashioned way.
No knead has its limitations. If you want good oven spring, ferment correctly. If you want openness, up the hydration.
Perhaps you would be so kind as to elaborate a bit.
I wonder whether vigorous hand kneading is really old fashioned. It may just have become popular in mid 20th century cookbooks under pressure to (a) imitate tight-grained commercial loaves (b) finish fast.
If I'm doing a lower hydration bread I usually still do a little hand kneading, just to dial in the right texture. But overall, yeah, I'm making better and more varied bread than I was 30 years ago, with less work. There are still plenty of chores to use up my excess energy.
Annoyed? Well, at first I was because I wanted my hand made loves to be so much better, but they are not so I learned to love No-Knead because they are so beautiful that they make me look good! LOL
Today is national sandwich day (11/3/19) and we required at least one loaf of a neat rectangular sandwich bread. All things considered, I find that easier by kneading. I think "no-knead" is one tool in the breadmaker's kit.