No-Knead French Baguette

Who does not like freshly baked French baguette! Especially that it is so easy…no-kneading needed for this recipe… A friend of mine turned me onto this recipe, which was adapted from Food Wishes. No need to mention that I have made this bread many times and even once baked to take to work upon request, I kind of felt so embarrassed because this recipe is literally very simple. What can be easier than a no-knead bread? Oh! I got many request to share the recipe…so here it is…

Okay, let me take back…the only time consuming is when you place the baguettes in the oven as they need to be misted with water every 5 minutes…other than that, it is no fuss…and it sure looks like that they came from a professional bakery.

Ingredients:

½ teaspoon yeast 300 g water 375 g bread flour ¾ teaspoon salt

Method:

In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients and let it rise overnight or until double at room temperature. The dough will be sticky, but will come out from the wall.

Next day, when ready to bake, gently remove the dough from the bowl over a floured surface and split the dough into approximately 3 portions.

Fold the dough over itself and roll as you push out until elongated in the form of baguette. Repeat with the other dough.

Place the baguettes on a cookie sheet on a floured parchment paper. Dust the top of the baguette with flour and gently cover the baguettes with a plastic film.

Leave to rest for approximately 1 to 1 ½ hour or until almost double from its original size.

Preheat oven to 550F (or as high as your oven will permit). Place a pan with water on the bottom rack of the oven.

Use a sharp scissor cut the bread making diagonal marks of approximately 45 degree, make sure to tuck in the tips.

When ready to place the baguettes in the oven spray the baguettes generously with water. Let it bake for 5 minutes and repeat the water spray. Another 5 minutes in the oven and spray again with water and turn the pan around so the baguettes bake evenly. Let it bake for another 5 minutes or until the crust turns brown.

When the baguettes are done, remove from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes or so…now you can start enjoying the bread.

If you enjoy this simple and easy no-knead French baguette recipe, you might want to check on theSourdough No-Knead Bread recipes.

Did you know that all no-knead bread requires a very high hydration? This way gluten strands can form throughout the wet dough producing the uneven holes where the carbon dioxides (CO2) generated by the yeast are trapped.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful day! Five Minutes Flatbread with Green Onion

This is a basic recipe for no-knead flatbread. It is very versatile as you can fill the dough with cheese, roll it will green onion, or just plain.

This recipe is based on the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François, which I got a while ago and have been using its recipes here and there. I made bread, rolls and even flatbreads…the basic recipe is very simple and easy to follow.

Of course being “me” I am never content in just following recipes, I always have to come up with something new…so I decided to make flatbreads with the dough…the variation are limitless, with garlic and parsley, ground pepper and parmesan, ham and cheese and the list goes on and on…

Today I am sharing with you two versions of the dough, white and whole wheat, although I personally like the white better somehow…

I halved the recipe since it is only for 2 people, in spite of being able to keep the dough in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Before I continue I want to apologize for the massive number of pictures…I just felt that pictures would reflect better than words…

I have for you a couple of simple versions besides the plain one, which still delicious, if you are not in mood for extra work…a flatbread filled with melting mozzarella cheese and a twist on the Chinese inspired scallion pancake.

Basic Dough Ingredients:

White dough

2 teaspoons yeast 2 teaspoons salt 4 1/3 cups unbleached flour, and extra for dusting when ready to bake 2 cups lukewarm water

Or if you prefer

Whole wheat dough 2 teaspoons yeast 2 teaspoon salt 2 ¼ cups whole wheat flour 1 cup unbleached flour, plus extra for dusting when ready to bake 2 ¼ cups lukewarm water

Other ingredients that you might want to use

Mozzarella cheese, sliced Oregano Scallion or green onion, finely chopped Salt Olive oil or any vegetable oil

Method: Basic dough In a mixer bowl, mix yeast and salt into the water (about 100 F) water. Stir in the flour using a low setting. Mix until the mixture is uniformly moist with no dry patches. Please be advised that the dough will be wet. Pour the dough into a plastic container. Cover, leaving the lid loose.

Let dough sit and rise at room temperature, until dough begins to flatten on top or collapse, for 2 to 5 hours. You can now start to use the dough, although it will be easy to maneuver the dough when refrigerated. The dough is good in the fridge for 2 weeks.

Every time when ready to bake, just remove the amount of dough that you need and place the remaining dough back into the fridge.

Shaping the Flatbread

Remove like a large lemon size dough and place on a slightly flourly surface, let the dough sit for 10 minutes. Using a rolling pin, gently roll until flat (about ¼ in). At this point you can brush the surface of the flatbread with a little olive oil and sprinkle garlic, parsley, oregano, fresh ground black pepper or whatever you palate with for…

Cooking the Flatbread

Place a frying pan in a medium heat with a drizzle of olive oil or any vegetable oil, gently lay the flatbread in the pan and sprinkle ½ tablespoon of water. Cover the pan by trapping the steam in the pan, which will help the cooking process. After a couple of minutes, flip the bread and cook the other side for another 2 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Flatbread filled with mozzarella cheese

Follow the same method as for the plain flatbread. Roll 2 pieces of dough to about ⅛ in for each flatbread. Place the cheese in the middle of one disk and gently cover the cheese with the second disk. Seal the sides by squeezing the dough together like a hand pie. Brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle oregano. Continue the cooking by following the instruction above.

Scallion flatbread (Asian inspired)

Before I go into the details of how to shape the scallion flatbread…here is the picture of both white and whole wheat dough… pen the dough in the same manner as for the basic flatbread. Brush the open dough lightly with vegetable oil and sprinkle a little salt and then sprinkle the green onion evenly. Roll like a Swiss roll with the onion in between. Take the roll and coil it into a round bundle. Roll out the round bundle again and it is ready for the pan. or just make it plain… I hope you enjoy this simple recipe for making flatbread! Please check the Recipe Box for more bread recipes.

Did you know that flatbread is simply a bread that is shaped flat? Flatbread can be made of unleavened or leavened dough. Most of the cultures have their version. Examples of flatbread are pizza, pita, tortilla, lavash, naan, matzo, arepas between many others.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

Ciabatta with Semolina

This is a easy recipe for making ciabatta in the bread machine. The dough for ciabatta is very wet therefore very difficult to handle, that is when the bread machine comes very handy.

I love baking bread…not only the smell of the bread baking in the oven as well as watching the dough changing its form and texture as it rises. This is a very simple recipe for ciabatta. The only difference from the ones that I had baked before is the addition of semolina flour. Semolina flour as you might know is commonly used for making pasta. The addition of semolina flour gives the ciabatta a slightly chewier texture and intense color.

The dough might be harder to manage since it is pretty wet, but all well worth it! The ciabatta turned out great, the crumb was loaded with different sizes of air pockets, and the texture was chewy…delicious.

Ingredients:

Biga Starter

½ cup bread flour Pinch of yeast ¼ cup water at room temperature

Dough

¾ cup bread flour ¼ cup semolina ¼ teaspoon yeast 2/3 teaspoon salt ½ cup water at room temperature All the biga prepared above

Method:

Biga

Mix all the ingredients for the biga in medium bowl. Cover with plastic and leave at room temperature up to 24 hours or overnight

Dough

Place all the ingredients of the dough in the bread machine and the biga. Turn on the bread machine to the kneading setting and let it mix/knead by occasionally scrapping the side of the mixing bucket.

The dough will be moist, after kneading for a while the gluten will form and the dough will not stick so much at the walls of the bucket.

If the dough does not pull away from the wall of the mixing bucket add ½ tablespoon of bread flour.

Once the cycle ends, place the stretchy dough in a very well oiled bowl. Make sure that the bowl is big enough because the dough will triple in size.

Cover with plastic wrap or kitchen towel. Let rise until triple. Dust flour onto a surface and gently scrape the dough. Dust more flour on top, form a rectangle by pushing the sides of the dough.

Flip the dough on a cookie sheet with a parchment paper lightly dusted with flour. Top the dough with some more flour and cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until double of its initial size.

An hour or so before baking, put the baking stone into the oven on the lowest rack and preheat to 475 degrees. Place a pan or tray underneath it on the floor of the oven to preheat with the stone.

Slide the parchment paper to the stone and add ice cubes to the empty tray. Close the oven door and let if bake for 5 minutes, then turn the temperature to 450 degrees and bake for another 20 minute, rotating the stone once in between the baking time.

Once done with the baking time, turn off the oven and at the end of cooking turn off the oven and leave the loaf for 5 minutes with the door slightly open.

Let the loaf cool on the rack and serve warm.

If you enjoy this recipe for ciabatta you might want to take a look at No-Knead French Baguette recipe.

Did you know that semolina flour is high in gluten? Pasta made with semolina have a firm texture and hold its shape well. Since semolina is made from durum wheat, people that are sensitive or allergic to gluten should avoid eating semolina

Have a wonderful week and thank you so much for visiting Color Your Recipes!