No Knead Pumpernickel Rolls

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 My husband's favorite bread is pumpernickel bread.  Unfortunately, most store bought pumpernickel is, according to him, flavorless and lacking all pumpernickel goodness.  The flavor that he wants in a pumpernickel bread is reminiscent of Einstein's pumpernickel bagels, his favorite!  But unfortunately we are about 90 miles away from the closest Einsteins.  I have been on a mission for years to make a good pumpernickel bread for him.  After more searching, I found a recipe from Artisan Bread in Five for Pumpernickel bread.  Since I love their method so much, I thought I would give it a try.  I made a few changes to it to punch of the flavor even more, and used cocoa instead of caramel color to get the pumpernickel color.  He was thrilled with the results, judging from the fact that three rolls where missing within seconds of me telling him I had made some and they were ready for trying.  They were delightfully crusty, and light and fluffy on the inside, with a wonderful flavor, but not overwhelming.

If you don't want to turn on the oven, use the baking method from my crock pot no knead herb roll recipe here, with this dough.

No Knead Pumpernickel Rolls
(Adapted from Artisan Bread in Five's Pumpernickel recipe here)

Ingredients:

•  2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

• 2 3/4 cups whole grain rye flour (most supermarket rye is whole grain)

• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon kosher salt (increase or decrease to taste)

• 1 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast (or 2 packets)

• 2 tablespoons dutch process cocoa

• 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten

• 2 tablespoon caraway seeds

• 2 tablespoons molasses

• 1/2 tsp onion powder

• 4 cups lukewarm water

•  Caraway seeds for sprinkling

• Corn meal for baking

Directions:

After 2 hours of rising on the counter, slightly bubbly.

After rising for 40 minutes, before slashing

1.  In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients and  mix well.
2. Pour in water and molasses and stir until well combined.  The dough will be fairly wet.
3. Let it sit covered loosely on the counter for a minimum of 2 hours.  Do not punch down dough, or deflate.  It will start to deflate on its own.  After two hours it will look like this:
4. After two hours it can be placed in the refrigerator for up to seven days.
5. If it will be being used right away after the two hours, sprinkle the top of the risen dough with a bit of flour for easier removal.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle with corn meal.
6. This is a sticky dough, so just flour your hands and the dough balls well to prevent sticking while working with it.  Tear off two ounce pieces and roll them into smooth balls.  Place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet**.  Repeat for desired number of rolls.  Any remaining dough just goes back in the fridge to be used another day.
7. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F about 20 minutes before rising is done.  Let the rolls rise for about 40 minutes, or until almost doubled in size and puffy. If the dough has been refrigerated, then let the rolls rise for 90 minutes instead.
8. When rolls are finished rising, use a serrated knife and make a 1/4 inch deep slash on the top of each roll.  Using a clean spray bottle or a basting brush, cover each roll with cold water and sprinkle the tops with caraway seeds.
9. Place rolls in the oven.  Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until they make a hollow sound when tapped.
10. Let cool for a bit before enjoying.

 

**If you have a pizza stone and like crustier rolls, place the rolls on parchment covered with corn meal and allow to rise.  Preheat oven with pizza stone in the middle of the oven.  When ready to bake, slide the parchment paper onto the baking stone.  For even crustier rolls, place a baking dish in the bottom rack of the oven and when the rolls are put in, quickly pour a cup of water into the pan to generate steam.  A clean water filled spray bottle can be used to squirt water into the oven to generate steam as well.

For more tips on making whole grain breads with this no knead method, check out Artisan Bread in Five's Whole Grain Master Recipe for more information.

Crock Pot No Knead Herb Rolls

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It is so hot!  Just the thought of turning on my oven makes me and my air conditioning cringe...Unfortunately, I love bread.  A LOT.  And I would turn my oven on for some great homemade rolls (and cookies, I would turn it on for cookies).  Then I saw a brilliant post by Artisan Bread in Five on making rolls in a crock pot.  Since I have three crock pots, I figured I could spare one to try this. 

I was doubtful about cooking bread in a crock pot, I won't lie.  I saw an idea for herb rolls, and thought "Ohhhhh that sounds good, I need those, and I need them like right now."  Sadly, they posted the method, but not the recipe for the bread, since it was published in a book they want you to get, so I understand not giving away all the recipes.  I would buy the book if I had the money, believe me.  I told my husband my dilemma, and he responds "then make your own recipe!"  So that's what I did.  I used the five minute no knead bread from The Italian Dish that I blogged about a while ago here as a base, and made the changes below.  I didn't even let it sit in the fridge, I only let it sit out two hours on the counter (which it can be used any time after the two hour period), and got right to making them.  It was hard to wait that two hours even.  I made the rest the next day, yum! 

These rolls come out lighter than air.  Seriously, they are so light and fluffy I wasn't sure they were cooked because when touched the top, they didn't spring back.  It was really just because they rise so much in the crock pot they turn in to a soft, pillow-y roll of herby goodness.

Crock Pot No Knead Herb Rolls

Makes 8 rolls per crock pot batch, or approximately 28 rolls for the entire recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 cups luke warm water
• 1 1/2 Tbs. instant yeast
• 1 1/4 Tbs. salt
• 1 tsp. diastatic malt powder (optional)
• 28 oz. all purpose flour
• 3 oz. whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed or chopped into smaller pieces
• 1/2 tsp. dried sage
• olive oil
• garlic salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl mix water, yeast, salt, diastatic malt powder (optional), basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, and sage.
2. Add the all purpose flour and the whole wheat flour and mix well, until it forms into a ball and all the flour is moistened, about a minute. (Add more water if it is too dry, add more flour if it is way to wet, it is a very sticky dough though.)  Refer to this post here for more information on what it should look like.
3. Let sit on the counter, loosely covered for 2 hours, it will rise a bunch, don't worry about it.  
4. Once it has sat for two hours, it is ready to be used, or you can loosely cover it and store it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, and use it as needed for fresh bread any day.
5. In a large (5-6 qt.) crock pot, line with parchment paper, and then sprinkle the parchment with corn meal.  
6. Pull of 2 oz. piece of dough and roll into smooth balls.  Place up to 8 in the crock pot.  The remainder or the dough can be refrigerated for up to two weeks.
7. Cover the crock pot and turn on high for an hour.  This is where the magic happens.  As the crock pot heats up, it will also proof the rolls, they should get quite puffy and fill the bottom.
8. After an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes, check on rolls.  They will be very soft on the top, but not tacky or uncooked feeling.  
9. Remove the rolls along with the parchment (don't take them off the paper) from crock pot.  Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt.
10. To brown the tops: Turn the oven to 450 degrees (I know, it will heat the house up a little bit, but not as long as cooking them the whole time in there), and place rolls and parchment in for 5-10 minutes until the top is firm and browned nicely.
11. Remove from oven and enjoy!

No Knead Artisan Bread

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That came out of my little crummy oven, can you believe that?!  It looks just like the one on the professionals blog, I was so excited!

I know, I know.  I just posted a bread recipe.  It is true, I did.  And then I found this one.  My life has changed.  I saw this on Pinterest, but it is from a website I already knew was just incredible, called The Italian Dish.  They took this recipe from the "no knead" bread book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day from superstar bread bakers Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.Famous bread bakers like Peter Reinhart have even gotten on the no knead bread bandwagon. 

This has revolutionized the way I will make bread.  There is no kneading at all.  Last night I literally dumped flour, yeast, water, and salt in a big bowl, stirred it up, let it sit on the counter for two hours (I started this at 10:20 pm last night, since I found it at 10:15 pm, so I actually set an alarm for 12:20 am to put it in the fridge, that is how much I wanted to try this), and then put it in the fridge over night.  This makes 4, one pound loafs, and the dough keeps in the fridge up to 2 weeks.  When you want to make bread, you pull out a pound of it, shape it, let it rise for 30 minutes, pop it in the oven for 30 minutes, and then you have the most incredible fresh bread ever.  They say the flavor gets better as it sits in the fridge too.

Look at that happy crust, and airy inside, so tasty!

The crust was incredible, I have found the recipe that gives the crust I was in search of.  I highly recommend this recipe for anyone who wants fresh bread, any day, for so much cheaper than store bought.  It requires no special skills, and is so simple.  This turned out better than bread that requires kneading, proofing, kneading, more proofing, then baking.

Try it, I implore you, you too can be an artisan bread baker!!!!

The recipe and technique is explained so well on The Italian Dish blog, that I am just going to put the link, and you can get the recipe there, it is worth the read.  I did half bread flour, and half all purpose flour, per comments I read from the writer of the blog, but by all means, go for the all purpose flour only if that is what you have, I am confident it will be fantastic!

No Knead Artisan Bread Recipe

Let me know if you try it, it just takes minutes (if that) to whip up the dough.