Dark Days Challenge: Dutch oven is secret to homemade artisan bread

Homemade bread seems like the easiest thing in the world, until you inexplicably screw it up.

Make one wrong move and you're left with an unappealing lump of baked dough after endless kneading and hours of waiting.

Fortunately, many of the participants I polled in the eat-local Dark Days Challenge, now in Week 17, have found ways to make fantastic homemade bread.

Inspired by locally grown flour from a farmer in Sequim, I took the advice of another Dark Days cook and tried the “Almost No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread” from Cook's Illustrated online.

I am happy to report: I am now a bread diva.

This recipe — which requires you to bake the loaf in a Dutch oven — is everything that is awesome about the food nerds at Cook's Illustrated.

Moisture from the bread is trapped inside a preheated Dutch oven, giving you a super-hot, humidity-controlled environment not unlike a commercial bakery oven.

There are other tricks as well, including a parchment paper sling used to move the rising dough around, plus vinegar, lager and honey for a classic, artisan flavor.

Having made bread only a few times in my life, I don't know why this recipe works so well, but I will definitely use it again.

You simply stir all the ingredients together until they form a shaggy ball. Wait 8 to 18 hours. Knead 10 to 15 times. Let it rise again for 2 hours. Bake. Cool. Butter. Eat.

I'm oversimplifying, but only slightly.

Desperate not to mess up this sacred recipe, I watched the Cook's Illustrated video tutorials over and over. I followed the recipe exactly and learned that active dry yeast is not the same as rapid-rise yeast. (See the “Yeast Types” article from Cook's.)

I used 1 cup of rustic wheat flour from Nash's Organic Produce of Sequim, which I had used for my Week 6 pancakes.

I used nonlocal bread flour for the other 2 cups, though I bet local all-purpose flour would have worked fine.

When the bread came out of the oven, I could not believe how beautiful it looked, brown and crusty, sprinkled with flour and scored down the middle.

When I tasted it with a rich slather of Golden Glen Creamery butter, it was miraculously chewy on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

Could I have done better?

Yes.

I preheated the Dutch oven for 45 minutes instead of 30. That resulted, I think, in an over-browned bottom crust, which I cut off before serving.

I'd recommend eating this bread within 24 hours if not immediately.

It tasted best, I thought, toasted and buttered. I bet it would be mighty fine also dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Note: Cook's Illustrated notes that Dutch oven manufacturers don't recommend heating their cookware to 500 degrees as the recipe suggests because of possible damage to knobs and a low risk of enamel cracking.

I'd recommend reading “High-Heat Baking in a Dutch Oven” on the Cook's Web site. (Online membership may be required.)

Cook's suggests replacing knobs with all-metal drawer handles purchased from hardware stores.

To prevent cracking (caused by thermal shock), Cook's recommends placing a cold pot in a cold oven, heating the oven to 500 degrees, and then placing room-temperature dough into the pot, just as the recipe requires.

When you remove the pot from the oven, place it on a wire rack or trivet or on a stove burner (not on a cool surface).


My pot and knob seemed to do just fine. However, I strongly recommend you bake this bread in a clean oven. Accumulated grease from my oven walls splattered onto the outside of my pot and it was extremely difficult to clean off.

See www.heraldnet.com/ecogeek for embedded links to recipes, tips and other information. Find more Dark Days ideas at urbanhennery.com.

Almost no-knead whole wheat bread

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces), plus additional for dusting work surface
1/4 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water (7 ounces), at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons mild-flavored lager (3 ounces)
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Whisk flour, yeast and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.

Lay 12-by-18-inch sheet of parchment paper inside 10-inch skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet and spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.

About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch-deep slit along top of dough.

Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes.

Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210 degrees, 20 to 30 minutes longer.

Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.

An enameled cast-iron Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid yields best results, but the recipe also works in a regular cast-iron Dutch oven or heavy stockpot. Bread is best eaten the day it is baked but can be wrapped in aluminum foil and stored in a cool, dry place for up to two days.

Cook's Illustrated

Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037, sjackson@heraldnet.com.