Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread

My girl friend sent me a marvelous picture of a round crust-cracked loaf of bread and said she was experimenting with different ingredients. She told me to google 'bread that a four year old can make'. So I googled and found a web site by Steamy Kitchen and she had pictures of her four year old making the bread. It was true; a four year can make the bread. Harold McGee, quoted on E Curry blog site explained that it works because the bread is allowed to rise over many hours which is the same as kneading it for minutes. He states, "the gluten molecules [go] into side-by-side alignment to maximize their opportunity to bind to each other and produce a strong, elastic network. The wetness of the dough is an important piece of this because the gluten molecules are more mobile in a high proportion of water, and so can move into alignment easier and faster than if the dough were stiff.” Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery in New York invented the recipe and Mark Bittman published the recipe in 2006. Here is the recipe for my first experiment. Sift 1 and 1/2 cups white flour with 1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour. Add 2 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp instant yeast, 1 tbsp honey and 1 and 1/2 cups of warm water. Cover. Let rise in a warm place for 12 to 20 hours. I let my bread rise for 15 hours. Put on floured tea towel and cover and let rise for 2 hours. Heat a covered ungreased pot in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes. Drop dough into the pot. Cover. Bake at at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. The result? The loaf looked great. The top was nicely browned and slightly cracked. The insides were chewy but a little too dense for my liking. As I was slicing the bread I thought it would be a killer sandwich because the bread was so firm. The picture shows a side view and you can see a few air bubbles. However, I am going to try to make this bread again because the other posts commented on the wetness of the bread dough and my dough was not wet and according to McGee I should have had wet dough to let the molecules slide around. My dough was not sticky and extremely easy to manage. In fact I questioned if I had put in sufficient water. For my next experiment, I am going to make the loaf entirely with white flour. Can't wait.

Pasta Alfredo

Sometimes it is just good to have comfort food and a main course you can trust and whip up with ease. I got the idea for this recipe from my son who made it when we were camped at Yoho one year. It is calorie dense - so great when you are hiking up mountains but also great when the weather is -25ish, which it has been for the past few days. Start by making a cream sauce. Melt one tablespoon butter and add one table spoon flour. Stir until a paste forms and add 2 cups of milk (I have added 10 per cent cream but it really does not need the cream). Stir in 1/4 cup home made pesto, 4 oz of cream cheese, 8 oz of creamy goat cheese, 1/4 cup dried tomatoes and freshly ground pepper and salt to suit your taste. That is it! Easy peasy. I serve the sauce over penne because I love the way the sauce finds its way into the tubes and when you bite down on the penne, the sauce squishes out all over your mouth. Yum. Serve with a plain green tossed salad because you do not want competition for flavours and No Knead hot bread. Dessert - something laced with chocolate - of course.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

A husband and wife team are at my home laying a new floor. It will take them three to four days. I decided that I would bake them chocolate chip cookies and serve them coffee or tea. When I was growing up, any one who worked for us would have a hearty noon meal including pie and cake for dessert. Now workers bring their own lunch and eat it while sitting in their truck. In fact, one worker told me that some home owners wouldn't even let him use the toilet. I believe that the workers in your home should be made to feel welcome and if not nourished with a meal at least treated well. Every one has a chocolate chip cookie recipe. When I scan the recipes I see the same ingredients: butter, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and of course chocolate chips. However the secret of a great cookie that holds together and yet melts in your mouth is under baking the cookie but just by a minute. You have to put together a number of variables: quality of your cookie sheets, the real heat in your oven, the size of the cookies and the baking time. For this recipe bake the cookies from 8 to 10 minutes. On my dark cookie sheet I bake the cookies for 8 minutes and on the light one, nine minutes. Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe 2/3 cup butter 3/4 cup white sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 3/4 cups flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 2 cups large chocolate chips or chunks Beat the butter and slowly add the sugars. Add the eggs one at a time. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into the butter/sugar/egg mixture with a wooden spoon. Stir in the chocolate chips. Using two teaspoons, drop small amounts of batter onto the cookie sheets. My drops are the size of two halves of a walnut and I get 12 cookies per sheet. Bake at 350 degree from 8 to 10 minutes. You will know the cookies are baked because there will be a light brown ring around the outer edges. They will be slightly puffed but will collapse when you remove them from the oven. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes to give the cookies a chance to harden and then place on a rack to cool completely. Now try restraining yourself to just two cookies as you eat melted chocolate mixed with buttery cookie. Not so for the husband and wife team, they could eat as many as they wanted as they burnt through calories laying floor.