No Knead Recipe Variations
| Menu of No Knead Videos: | |
| â–º Cranberry-Pecan |
â–º Seeded Sour |
| â–º Parmesan-Olive |
â–º Steel Cut Oats |
Here are some of my favorite No-Knead bread recipes. Each is distinctly different from the others, touching on some of what’s possible with this simple and hugely time saving bread baking method.
(Note: If you’re brand new to no knead bread baking, I strongly encourage you to give the basic no knead recipe a try first before moving into the variations.)
In each of the videos you will see I’m using sourdough starter as the leavening agent. The use of sourdough starter is usually my preference in baking but as the written instructions indicate, you can just as easily substitute instant yeast for the starter by mixing 1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast in with the dry ingredients and leaving out the sourdough starter entirely. It’s that simple. I don’t want to see anyone deprived of the luxury of this bread experience if instant yeast is your preference for leavening.
As always, feel free to play with different flour mixes and ingredients to come up with your ultimate bread masterpiece.
Please leave your comments, questions and experiences at the bottom of the page.
December 14th, 2007 Update: Check out Kendra’s recipe for cinnamon raisin bread below. It sounds awesome. Thanks Kendra!
Also, see the post by Joanne Polayes with her variation of the cranberry pecan recipe.
July 2008 addition: Definitely check out Carolyn’s No Knead Sourdough Lavender Bread. Wow, well done Carolyn!
Jan. 27 2009 addition: For a great looking focaccia recipe, see Hedy’s post. And a little above that, Toni offers her focaccia variation which includes whole grains.
Feb. 9, 2009: See a Newfoundland favorite by Janet Kelly. Thanks Janet!
March 31, 2009: Donna Wakefield has discovered that baking with keifer for both leavening and flavor produces excellent bread. Her posts start here and continues above under her name (“Donna” and “Donna Wakefield”).
Dec. 22, 2009: Mike Owens suggests this no-knead variation: “I blend up some frozen spinach with the water and add to the flour. Then when I fold in thirds I add some grated Gruyere cheese to each fold and I do the trifold twice. It is fantastic. Hope others like it as well. Makes my lunchbox ham sandwiches more interesting.”
Cranberry-Pecan Extraordinaire
(makes 1 loaf)
1/2 cup (2 1/2 oz.) whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups (13 oz.) all purpose or bread flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries
1/2 cup pecan pieces
1 1/2 cups purified water
1/4Â cup sourdough starter or 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
(Read paragraph near top of page for instant yeast version of this recipe)
- Combine the flours and salt
- Mix the starter into the water until mostly dissolved
- Mix the water/starter solution into the dry ingredients
- Mix in the pecans and craisins
- Cover bowl with plastic at let sit at room temperature for 18 hours
- After 18 hours turn dough onto well floured surface and gently flatten enough to fold dough back onto itself a couple times to form a roundish blob. Note: This folding stage can be accomplished within the bowl, speeding up the process even further and leaving less of a cleanup.
- Cover blob with plastic and let rest 15 minutes. During this rest period, coat a proofing basket or towel lined bowl with bran flakes.
- Gently and quickly shape blob into an approximate ball and place in proofing basket or bowl.
- Cover with a towel and let rise for 1-2 hours depending on room temperature.
- As gently as possible, flip the dough into a Dutch oven or ceramic (e.g. La Cloche) baker preheated to 500F degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove cover and bake an additional 15 minutes at 450 degrees. See Great No-Knead Baking Techniques for more tips.
- Allow bread to cool completely before slicing and eating. Warning: this most difficult step requires superhuman discipline and restraint.
You may have to adjust the baking times and temperatures to adapt to the various weights and materials of different baking containers.
Seeded Sour
(makes 1 loaf)
This recipe holds a solid spot on my “all time favorites” list. It is adapted from the George’s Seeded Sour recipe in Nancy Silverton’s Breads from the La Brea Bakery book.
1/4 cup (1 oz) rye flour
1/2 cup (2 1/2 oz) whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups (13 oz) all purpose or bread flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 1/2 tsp. quinoa
3 1/2 tsp. millet
2 Tbs. amaranth
1/2 Tbs. poppy seeds
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup sourdough starter or 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
2 Tbs. yogurt
Seed Topping Ingredients:
1 Tbs. amaranth
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 1/2 Tbs poppy seeds
2 Tbs. anise seeds
1 1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
Combine all the dry ingredients (except the topping ingredients) and then add to that the combined wet ingredients.
The rest of the baking steps are the same as those listed above for the Cranberry Pecan bread.
As shown in the video, I coat the proofing basket with the combined topping ingredients so they stick to the dough during the final rise.
Parmesan-Olive
(makes 1 large loaf)
This recipe makes one amazing loaf of bread. It’s great for special occasions, and considering the price of ingredients, you may want to reserve it for special occasions. Use fresh parmesan cheese and it’s likely you will not find this loaf’s equivalent in any bakery. They would have to charge too much!
1/2 cup (2 1/2 oz.) whole wheat flour
2 2/3 cups (13 1/2 oz.) bread flour
1 tsp. salt
7 oz. grated fresh parmesan cheese
2/3 cup pitted kalamata olives (cut in half lengthwise)
1 3/4 cup purified water
1/4 cup sourdough starter or 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
Follow the same steps as those listed above for the Cranberry Pecan recipe. Combine the dry ingredients (including the cheese) then add to that the combined wet ingredients and then stir in the olives. The ingredient measurements are a little different than usual as the cheese is salty to start with and the dry mix takes more water than usual.
Steel Cut Oats
(makes 1 loaf)
It’s amazing what the addition of a mere half cup of steel cut oats can do to enhance and vary the quality of a basic loaf of no knead bread. During the long fermentation period, the grains soften and swell to give the bread a wholesome and satisfying flavor and texture.
Simple enough to whip together in a heartbeat and interesting enough to become a regular in your no knead rotation.
3/4 cup (3 oz.) whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (3 oz.) steel cut oats
2 1/4 cups (10 oz.) bread flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup firm sourdough starter or 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
Pictured here: Awesome steel cut oats no knead by Breadtopia reader Marianne Preston
Another Breadtopia reader, Allan Castine, offered this…
In my last e-mail to you, I mentioned that I had made your steel cut oats bread recipe with mostly excellent results. My only concern, as I told you, was that the bread was a bit bland for my particular taste.
I made the recipe again yesterday with a couple of alterations:
I added an extra 1/2 teaspoon of salt and, following a suggestion from a friend of mine, I lightly toasted the oats in a dry saucepan over medium heat before adding them to the flour mixture.
The results were great. The bread was very tasty, i.e., not bland.
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I have made the cranberry pecan bread two times now, but no one else in my house appreciates nuts the way I do. So after watching the latest video on the NK rye loaf where you use the zest of an orange, it gave me an idea. I replaced the nuts in the cranberry bread with the zest of a whole orange and used almost a whole cup of cranberries. The result was incredible! The smell was wonderful, and it was one of the highest loaves I’ve produced so far, not sure why. Maybe the natural sugars contributed to this? The color was beautiful as well, I should have taken a picture. Anyway the most important thing is that everyone in my house tasted the bread and loved it! It is a delicious bread for breakfast. The family favorite was toasted with cream cheese. I hope you try this, you won’t be disappointed!
Hi Betsy,
What you did should work fine. You can always add more flour to thicken it up if you want. Whether or not you remove some when you feed it has more to do with how much you have on hand. If you’re baking frequently enough, and consequently using up starter, you might not have to dispose of any. But if you’re not baking you still need to feed your starter to keep it happy, so it might be necessary to remove some just so you don’t end up with a boat load of it.
There’s a lot of flexibility in how you manage your starter. You’ll find a routine that works for you.
Dear Eric,
I’ve been enjoying your videos and have decided to resurrect the starter that hasn’t been used in maybe a year. I had gotten it from Carl and it was doing fine until I got too busy. Also, I got a little lazy and had success with Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I’m now ready to try baking without commercial yeast. I poured off the “hooch” which was dark but just smelled like alcohol–I’m assuming that it’s still okay. Before watching your video, I scooped out about 1/4 cup and added 1/4 cup of flour and 1/4 cup warm water. I thought I’d start small. After seeing your video, I realize that I should have used somewhat less water. Do I need to remove some starter each time when adding flour and water? It appears that it’s still bubbly and hasn’t died yet. Wow!! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I think I want to make a rye or spelt combination bread.
Betsy
Toad,
When I read this I laughed out loud. Clearly, I was so terrified I couldn’t even think straight!!!
Mitch
Mitch wrote to Jim on Jan. 1, 2010 that he’d be ‘terrified to leave raw eggs sitting out for some 12-18 years…’ It made me laugh. He meant hours, of course.
Milk, eggs and oil soften a breads crumb. Using any of these ingredients in your bread recipe will significantly change the character of your bread. The bread will have a better keeping quality but not have as crunchy of a crust as bread made without any oil. This isn’t necessarily negative, just different than the plain, no oil version.
Wouldn’t the baking temperature kill off anything from the eggs? Seems like 202 degree finish temperature of the bread is hot enough to kill anything.
On another note, I settled on my bread storage. I often bake several loaves at once. Sometimes I freeze them, but when I don’t storage is an issue. But I found that if I put the bread in a paper bag after at has fully cooled, and then transfer to plastic after another day or so, that the crust and the bread are both preserved appropriately.
Substituting Milk for water
Similar to the prvious note, I came across this comment:
Replacing all or part of the water with milk will lend itself to a more tender, sweeter product. The sugar in milk, lactose, is not eaten by the yeast, so it is left to add a subtle sweetness to the finished bread. Milk also increases the nutritional value of the bread by adding additional proteins. A dough made with milk will brown more readily than one made with water.
I have also noted the use of powdered skim milk in some recipes.
Suggestions? Comments?
I should have mentioned, I also proof my bread in the refrigerator a day or two before I bake. The longest my dough is on the counter is only about an hour.
I make Challa every week. I use eggs in my dough. This is not a Nkb recipe. I make the dough the night before in my bread machine and then put it in the fridge in a greased plastic bread. In the morning, 7:30 a.m. I take the dough out and leave it on the counter until 5 p.m. until I return, when I can punch it down, braid and shape, and let rise again for about one hour. We have never gotten food poisoning. It actually comes out great. Hope this helps.
Jim,
I would be terrified to leave raw eggs sitting out at room temperature in a no-knead dough for some 12 – 18 years without worrying about some kind of food poisoning. Even if you added the eggs to the dough after the first rise, they would still be unrefrigerated during the second rise, and I’m not so sure how safe that is, although I guess that’s no different than making bread the conventional way using eggs in the formula. Perhaps the thing to do is to not add the eggs until after the extended 12 -18 hour first fermentation.
Now I’m curious as to what others have to say about this.
Mitch
Hi Jim, I have used eggs and butter in some of my NKB baking and I agree. Using dried milk, 2-4 tbls, mixed right in with the flour or, 2 tbls of oil will give you the pretty much the same results. There was some writing somewhere that said eggs may be a problem for sourdough starter baking since eggs contained a natural bacteria fighter. I used eggs in a NKB recipe last week along with my SD starter and it worked.
Wil
Using Eggs in KNB
In my many hours of searching the Internet for NKB recipesI determined two things: Breadtopia is the best KNB site and eggs are a useful addition to the dough.
I came across this note: Eggs added to dough help with rising. A bread dough rich with egg will rise very high, because eggs are a leavening agent (think genoise or angel food cake). As well, the fats from the yolk help to tenderize the crumb and lighten the texture a bit. Eggs also contain the emulsifier lecithin. Lecithin can add to the overall consistency of the loaf
I have also noted that non-NKB recipes frequently include 1-3 eggs in the dough.
Any thoughts?
Has anyone used cooked barley in the NKB recipe? I cooked a huge batch of it for soup, but it came out creamy like a risotto and I wondered if I could use some of it in baking bread.
For crying out loud JeffB… how long do you keep a loaf of bread laying around anyway… (this is done with a big smile) I have sliced mine all up into toaster sized pieces and then frozen them and then take a slice out of the freezer any time I want… then nuke it or toast it… I love it toasted with a slice of Swiss cheese and a glass of grape juice… I think that I have died and gone to heaven
BTW Jim, you story of the smoking fish baker was really funny. I’m guessing it was not so funny at the time, but the way you wrote it sure was.
I’ve tried the paper bag. It works OK for a day or two, but I find the NK bread goes a little stale and gets a little too chewy after maybe three days if only kept in a paper bag. I too have a cluttered counter with no space for a bread box, but maybe I can rig something under the cupboards or in a drawer.
We find that just placing the cut edge down on the clean bread board over night is fine as a small loaf will never make it past breakfast the following day, I generally cover it with a clean T-towel and if I make a double batch or large loaf that will last more than 24 hrs, I have paper bags that I keep from previous grocery store purchases. We never use plastic as we like our crusty crust and plastic will soften the crust. The best part is that these breads taste best 1, 2 or even 3 days later. If they last that long… Just my opinion. But it sure works for us.
We had a bread box when I was a kid, it was great, Dad was and still is an incredible baker & cook, if I had room on my already too cluttered counter, I might consider one.
I made a stuffing out of some left over Poulaine style bread today – it was fantastic! I had wrapped it in a plastic bag and tossed it in the fridge. I call it Poulaine “style” as I roughly used Eric’s recipe, but instead of fermenting for 18 hours, it was more like 3 days, then added approx 5 cups of flour, 1 of rye, 3 of whole wheat and 1 of plain old white bread flour and then enough water to make a sticky dough. I’ve done this several times, and only go be feel. Maybe I’ll try to weight it out one day.
In short, make use of your breads – there are infinite ways to use them, after all of the love, care and attention we put into them, it’s great to find ways to recycle the bits and pieces that may other wise get tossed.
Paper bag
Anybody have any thoughts on NK bread storage? I am wondering about bread boxes. I like a crisp crust, and I found that the plastic bags really soften up the crust, even after it comes out nice and crisp from the oven. Any thoughts?
No Dutch Oven?
This link shows many ways to no-knead bread heaven with having a classic dutch oven:
http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/cookware-tools/noknead-bread-alternative-to-dutch-ovens-042145
Thanks Marcia Welenson for your comments
Yes, it does have a rough surface. It also has a soft crust. I find no joy in a hard crust and huge holes in the crumb. Adding to the roughness is the steel cut oats. I grind them up to the very fine powder. Surprisingly, they expand to the size of a salt crystal adding to the roughness.
The loaf was made with bread flour. I will try again with plain white flour.
In the photo your loaf appears to have a sheen. However, it looks like the bread has a rough texture, which would make it less shiny. Could this be the case?
Not having a La Cloche I borrowed my wife’ well used clay Fish Baker. All went well until I preheated the baker at 500F. While the baker appeared relatively clean and dry, the years of fish oil had permeated the clay and started to smoke. Great quantities of smoke for the best part of an hour. I mean a lot of smoke. Quickly the fire alarm went off, and all the doors and windows opened in freezing weather.
After that, all went well. The picture shows the base, well carbon coated, the braided 4 cup Cook’s recipe loaf (tasted great), and the cover.
I used the parchment paper transfer the dough so there was no carbon transfer to the crust.
Wanting a glossy finish, I used and egg and 1 tsp of milk wash. No luck. Why?
Should I have oiled the dough first?
The bottom inside of the baker measures 13″ x 4″, and 16″ x 6 1/2″ overall.
Height about 4″.
*Click to enlarge
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