Bread making question

January 21, 2023 12:21 AM

I made Jim Lahey's no knead bread recipe this week and it was awesome. We got a bread maker this week. I'd love to find a way to combine these two methods. Can I mix my ingredients together, let them age for 12 - 18 hours, then put into the bread maker? Or a similar method? TIA.
posted by kinddieserzeit to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

It will depend on your bread maker's different modes and timers, but I'm not sure I've ever seen one that has a mode that bakes but does not knead. The chief convenience of the breadmaker, in my decades of using one, is having it do the kneading for me. Some (many) have settings that allow you to set a delay timer before the ~4 hour kneading/baking process begins.
posted by msbrauer at 4:52 AM on January 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

IMO, there are two parts of the wonder of the Lahey recipe. Extra water and time so kneading isn't necessary AND baking in a pre-heated, covered dutch oven or similar container. The dutch oven collects steam and makes the thick crunchy crust. The bread maker won't do that.
posted by tmdonahue at 5:16 AM on January 21, 2023 [10 favorites]

I wonder if it would be possible to do this in an Instant Pot, if you have one? Preheat on the sauté function and then bake somehow?

A search for “no knead bread instant pot” yields plenty of results, so it seems that other people have done this.
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:26 AM on January 21, 2023

Further: most of the sites I found call for baking the bread in the oven once it’s proofed in the Instant Pot on the yogurt function (which apparently cuts the proofing time from overnight to 4 hours or so).

This site has a recipe to bake the bread using the pressure cooker function, but you still need to swap out the air fryer lid to brown it at the end, or use the oven.
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:39 AM on January 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

I would say, if you have an oven, stick with that for this type of bread. A bread maker is acceptable for certain kinds of breadmaking, but they tend to produce denser breads with a less well-developed crust, so you're not going to replicate the results you got with Lahey's method.
posted by pipeski at 7:25 AM on January 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Sorry, I should have specified:

If I use the bread maker to bake it, I'm not looking for the exact same results as when using the Dutch oven. But I am keen to find ways to make bread in the breadmaker which has at least slightly more of an artisan quality.

I'm working on a sourdough starter and will then use the sourdough setting, but until then curious whether ageing the dough for 18 hours might add a certain something even if made in the breadmaker.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 1:23 PM on January 21, 2023

What bread machine do you have? Some are fully programmable.
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 3:04 PM on January 21, 2023

Yes, a longer proof especially when using sourdough will definitely get you a better flavor, but I’m not sure it would work to leave it sit in the bread machine all that time, I think it would over-proof.
Not sure how bread machines work exactly—can you take out the pan and put it in the fridge overnight, then put it back in the bread machine for the baking stage?
posted by exceptinsects at 5:23 PM on January 21, 2023

The aging should occur after the first knead, so you can have the bread machine knead your dough, then you can stick it in the fridge for a while to age/rise. Then you'd have to see if you can put it back into the bread machine to bake (can you have it just bake?). Basically, can you 'pause' the machine for 24 hours?
posted by hydra77 at 9:53 PM on January 21, 2023

Response by poster: An update on this: (answering my own question)

I mixed up a batch of dough in a bowl and let it sit covered in a warm place for ~12 hours. Then I put it into the bread machine and used the bake only setting for around 55 minutes. It possibly could have baked for a couple of minutes longer.

The bread turned out pretty well. Will be great for toast or French toast for my fussy toddler who isn't a great fan of very crusty crusts.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 3:12 AM on January 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

FYI I experimented and created an easy sourdough bread machine recipe that I quite liked.

Here is the recipe and instructions.
posted by flug at 10:33 AM on January 23, 2023