No-Knead Rye Bread

BIG DISCOVERY. 

 No knead bread. 

Oh where have you been all my life???

The texture... It's to die for, the crust is swoon-worthy. It's that good. I've been craving hearty, brown, bread. So I made no-knead rye bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. All I'm going to say is: DELICIOUS. While I absolutely think this bread is delicious, next time I'd be interested to try a different recipe. Not that this one wasn't satisfying, but I'm intrigued by other recipes which have molasses and more rye flour. Also next time, I'll use fewer caraway seeds. Not that I don't like them, but I'm not exactly in love with them. 

Deli Style Rye

from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

This recipe calls for a lot of equipment, most of which I don't have. (No baking stone, no pizza peel etc, no boiler tray.) In this regard I improvised a little. I just used baking sheets. And instead of a boiler tray used a little bread pan. 

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (1 1/2 packets)

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds, plus more for sprinkling on top

1 cup rye flour

5 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

Cornmeal

Mix yeast, salt, and caraway seeds with water in a 5 quart bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container. 

Mix in remaining dry ingredients without kneading, using a spoon, a 14 cup capacity food processor(with dough attachment) or heavy duty stand mixer (with dough hook). If you're not using a machine you may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour. 

Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest a room temperature until dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours. 

The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold. (Lies. It was still difficult.) 

ON BAKING DAY, dust the surface of refrigerated dough with flour and cup off a one pound (grapefruit size) piece. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the sureface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go. Elongate ball into an oval-shaped loaf. Allow to rest and rise on a cornmeal covered pizza peel (Or baking sheet.) for 40 minutes. 

TWENTY MINUTES BEFORE BAKING, preheat the oven to 450F, with a baking stone (Or baking sheet.) placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray on any other shelf that wont interfere with the rising bread.

Sprinkle with additional caraway seeds. Slash with deep parallel cuts across the loaf, using a serrated bread knife. 

Slide the loaves directly onto the hot stone (Or sheet.) Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray, and quickly close oven door. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until deeply browned and firm. Smaller or larger loaves will require adjustments in baking time.