Bread | No knead bread with Traditional Bottom Lit Gas Oven. Yes, it’s doable!

Hi everyone, Today we’ll be making no knead bread at home.

using both sourdough starter and baker’s yeast.

The sourdough starter is to make sure the gluten is well fermented

and digestible

while the baker’s yeast is to reduce the amount of fermentation time.

So what we need is 450g of all purpose flour

300g of boiling water or warm water, either one is fine cause I’m too impatient to wait for it to cool.

And now what we are going to hydrate the flour in batches.

So let me divide them into two batches.

I’ll empty my steel bowl so that I can pour half of my flour into it.

Pouring the hot water back into the pyrex jug.

I’m scraping half of the flour into the steel bowl which I have wiped dry.

Pour in the warm water into the bowl, enough to make a slurry.

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Then stir it with a non-stick spatula so that it’s easier to scrap the bowl clean.

Keep stirring until you can see no visible dry flour.

When it’s all well mixed, create a well in the centre of the bowl and add in another batch of dry flour.

Time to add in sourdough starter. Actually you can add the starter earlier when the mix is easier to stir.

I’m adding in 100g.

Yup, that’s it. 100g and 2g slightly more, but it’s ok, I’m just going to add this in.

Pour the sourdough starter on top of the dry flour a

and try your best to scrap your bowl clean,

so that it’s easier to wash later.

Give it a rough mix, and then we’ll add in the yeast too.

Add about half a teaspoon worth of natural lifts from the yeast.

As I said, you can add in earlier while the dough was more pliable and more of a slurry.

Now I’m adding in the rest of the warm water.

And mix them into my dough.

Let me speed up this stage.

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When you mix, try to scrap the sides to reduce wastage and bring in the dough from the edge to the center.

So I’m going to make sure this batch is totally mixed

Or ad least no big lumps

Then I’m going to add in the rest of the dry flour.

Same as before, create a well, or a depression to receive the flour.

Same as before, create a well or a depression in the centre to receive the flour.

I’m only adding in half this time round, then half the next.

Bring in the sticky dough on the edges to wrap round the dry flour.

We want the dry flour to combine with the sticky dough.

And then after a while you will realise that

The whole dough will become very dry and lose in the bowl.

And when it is sticky again

You can add in the other half into the center.

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It’s going to get harder and harder to mix as the dough gets dryer.

You may need another spoon or a bowl to scrap down the spatula.

Same as before, mix it by bringing in the dough from the edges towards the center.

Keep doing it until you don’t see any big lumps of white flour.

At this stage, you’ll definitely need some elbow grease and patience.

Keep scraping, turning and pressing.

I think we’re almost done here, just a few more turns, we can cover it and let it rest for 30 mins.

It’s been resting for 30 mins, let me check if it’s well hydrated and sticky.

While resting it, I realise I haven’t added any salt.

So now is a good time to add.

I’m going to incorporate it into a small lump first

before mixing it into the main dough.

Just in case it got stuck at one hidden corner that nobody knows.

Over here, I’m scraping a small piece of bread dough to mix with the salt.

What I did was I broke the dough into smaller pieces so that it absorbs the salt better.

When I don’t see anymore salt crystals, I mix it into the main dough.

I scrap the edges inwards towards the center a few times.

Bringing the bottom dough upwards towards the center, folding all the leftover flour into the mix.

When the spatula gets too sticky I dunk it into a bowl of water, and continue mixing.

This stage of kneading can be skipped if you don’t want to dirty your hands.

I just can’t help myself but to have some fun with this sticky dough.

To avoid it sticking onto my palm I just dunk my hand into a bowl of water

Basically just have some fun with the dough.

I broke up some harden, dried bits of dough

and kept folding it in from the edges towards the center.

And dunk my hand into the bowl of water to keep it free from sticky dough.

Eventhough it does change the ratio of flour to water

But I realise it doesn’t really matter you just have to bake it slightly longer.

Let me speed up this part so that you won’t get bored.

Ok! I think I have had enough fun.

That’s hardly a good knead by the way. I’m just mixing the dough.

Now I’m going to tip it over onto a piece of baking paper.

Try to scrap as much as you can out of the bowl and don’t waste any dough.

I even tried to scrap off my spatula with my finger.

Now I’m going to wash all these bowls to reuse it and all the other bowls I have used.

I’m done washing, let’s put the dough into this bowl and cover it up for 2 hours.

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Now, I’m going to prepare a warm bath for my dough

so that it can ferment in a warm and cozy environment.

I’m using the hottest setting from the shower, about 80 degrees Celsius.

And it won’t burn the yeast because by the time the heat transpire into the bowl,

the tempreture would have dropped significantly.

Now It’s all up to the yeast~

I’ll see you in 2 hours.

It’s been resting for an hour, let’s take a look into the bowl!

Hmm…looks quite flat. Let’s give it more time to build up the volume of gas in the dough.

It’s been two hours and its time to bake~

Let’s take a look~🧐

Definitely doubled in volume.

In the oven, I have preheated a cast-iron pot at 300 degrees Celsius,

with the cover so I’m going to take it out now and put in my dough.

If you’re trying this at home remember to be very careful when handling this blazing hot pot.

As fast as you can, lift up the baking paper with the dough in it and drop it into the pot.

Once you’ve dropped the dough into the pot,

the only thing that you are going to handle is the blazing hot cast iron pot.

So remember, once you’ve dropped the dough, put on your oven mitt immediately.

I’m emphasising this because I’ve burnt myself once,

thinking the cover wasn’t hot, so I picked up the cover with my bare hands.

And the rest is history.

Once I have covered up the pot, I baked it for 20 mins at 300 degrees Celsius,

if your oven tempreture doesn’t go that high,

I suppose you can bake at 250 degree Celsius for 30 minutes.

After 20 minutes of baking with the cover on,

I removed the cover and bake for another 30 minutes at 180 degree Celsius with the cover off to dehydrate the bread.

Finally we’re done!!

Wow! Looks beautiful doesn’t it!

Now we need to air it and let it cool down,

because the top has been exposed in the oven,

so we need to flip over, the other side, the bottom to let it air.

I have let it cool for 2 hours at least. Now let’s check out the crumb inside.

I’m going to cut right in the middle.

It’s really crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Look at the fine air pockets which are distributed evenly.

What I have learnt from experience is that, if the oven or my cast iron pot is not at least 250 celcius and above,

if the oven or my cast iron pot is not at least 250 celcius and above,

the crust tends to be thicker and in the humid weather we have in Malaysia,

it can become really tough to chew if not toasted.

Alright, that’s it from me!

Homemade no knead bread.

Feel free to drop by my webpage at michtintin.com and I’ll see you in the next video.