La Cocotte Verte

A variation on the wildly popular ‘No-Knead Bread’ recipe introduced by Mark Bittman. Mild-flavored beer and vinegar are added to the basic ingredients to contribute complex, artisanal notes to the flavor. This recipe produces wonderful bread — crackingly crisp crust, moist and chewy crumb, rich flavor — with a minimum of effort. The hardest part is waiting for it to cool completely before slicing it! It’s best eaten the day it’s baked, but can be wrapped in aluminum foil and stored in a cool, dry place for up to 2 days.

— One large loaf

*Items marked in green are available from The Gourmet Corner.

Ingredients

• 3 cups (15 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour (or use 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour plus 2 1/2 cups all-purpose)
• 1/4 tsp instant or rapid-rise yeast
• 1 tsp La Baliene Sea Salt
• 3/4 cup (6 oz) water, room temperature (if using part whole-wheat flour, increase water by 2 Tbs per half cup of whole wheat flour used)
• 1/2 cup mild-flavored beer (4 ounces), room temperature (mild non-alcoholic beer also works)
• 2 tsp Champagne vinegar (optional, adds a sourdough-like tang)
• 2 Tb Puget Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

Equipment

• Large, heavy dutch oven with tight-fitting cover — une cocotte! Please note that the pan will be pre-heated in a 500F oven, so the handles on the cocotte need to be able to withstand such a high temperature. If you have a Le Creuset or other cocotte with plastic knobs, the knob is typically phenolic plastic that should not be heated above 400F. However, you can easily replace the plastic knob with a stainless steel cabinet knob from the hardware store (or if you have a Le Creuset coccotte, the manufacturer now makes a stainless steel replacement knob, widely available) .
• Parchment paper

Instructions

Whisk the flour, yeast, and salt together in a large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar.

Using a rubber spatula, fold the ingredients together, scraping up dry ingredients from the bottom of the bowl until all is incorporated and a shaggy-looking dough forms.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature (~ 70F) for 8 to 18 hours.

Fit a 12- by 18-inch sheet of parchment paper inside a medium skillet (10″ diameter) or similarly-sized plastic food storage container.

Knead the bread dough 10 to 15 times in the bowl, using either your hands or a large spatula. If kneading by hand, wet your hands before kneading to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands, and wet them again if it begins to stick. If using a spatula, slide it under the ball of dough then pull upwards and inwards, folding the outside edge of the dough towards the center and pressing down on it to remove gas bubbles.

After kneading, shape the dough into a ball or oval (as required by the shape of your cocotte) by pulling the edges up and to the middle. Transfer the dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet or bowl and brush dough with olive oil.

Cover loosely with plastic wrap (or, if using a plastic storage container, loosely cover with the lid). 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 cocotte (with its lid) in the oven, and heat to 500 degrees.

After dough has risen, use a clean razor blade or sharp knife to make 1-2 half-inch deep slits along the top of the loaf. Use light pressure and a gentle sawing motion, to avoid deflating the dough.

Carefully remove the cocotte from the oven and remove its lid. Be extremely careful handling the hot, heavy pan! Use the parchment as a ‘sling’ to lower the dough into the cocotte, letting any excess parchment hang over the edge. Immediately cover the cocotte and place in the oven.

Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and continue to bake 20 to 30 minutes longer until the bread is deep brown and sounds hollow when tapped — an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should register 210 degrees.

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

Tags: bread

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 28th, 2011 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Side Dishes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.