No Knead French Bread

Welcome to my site once again!  Today I have decided to test out a french bread recipe from the site Tasty Kitchen then to give you guys a review on it, for you to see if you would like to try it out or not.  I will not only put good reviews up, I will post reviews of recipes that absolutely failed for me, so I could be honest with my readers. Now onto the french bread!

This recipe was originally created by Pat Mendell who is a fellow Tasty Kitchen-ette. There were a few things that I changed as I went so I will add those into the recipe for you!

 LET EM EAT BREAD!

No Knead French Bread Recipe

Prep Time: Two Hours

Cook Time: Twenty Minutes

Servings: Twelve

Ingredients:

2 1/2 t. Sugar

1/2 c. Warm Water (Temp: 105-115 F Degrees)

2 T. Yeast (I used Drive Active Yeast)

2 T. Butter; Melted

2 c. Warm Water (Temp: 105-115 F Degrees)

2 T. Sugar

2 t. Salt

6 1/2 c. Flour (All Purpose or Whole Wheat)

Optional:

1 Whole Egg; Beaten

2 T. Milk

Directions: 

1. Combine the first 3 ingredients together (Sugar, Water, Yeast) in a large bowl and let it sit for 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the next 4 ingredients (Butter, Water, Sugar, Salt) and mix well with an electric mixer. 
3. First mix in 2 1/2 cups of flour, then gradually add up to 6 1/2 cups. (Mixing with beater for alittle then mix by hand with a utensil)  Right here is where I changed the recipe, when I got to this point I realized that there wasn't enough water for you to mix everything together all the way, so I slowly add a little water at a time to make sure it was mixed together.
4. Let dough sit in a draft free place for 40 minutes, punching down gently every 10 minutes.
5. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and get it all floured up. 
6. Divide dough into 2 or 4 equal parts (I did only two, so they were quite big loafs)
7. Roll each portion into a rectangle with a rolling pin.
8. Start to roll the dough into a jelly roll style (Just roll it like you would with a cinnamon roll) starting on the long side, and pinch the dough slightly as you roll. Pinch the seals and ends into the dough. If you want to there to be herbs inside the bread right now would be the time to put some melted butter and herbs or cheese then roll it.
9. Place the dough, seam side down, on a jelly roll pan (Baking sheet with sides) and grease it lightly with oil spray and dust cornmeal. I did not dust it with cornmeal, for did not have any on hand!
10. Make diagonal slits on the top with a sharp knife. You can combine the egg and milk together and brush it ontop of the bread then sprinkle with favorite seeds like sesame.
11. Bake in preheated oven at 400 F degree oven (or about 370 for a convection oven) for 20 minutes. 

I am peticular about raw middles with any type of food (meat, bread, eggs) so I cut one loaf in half when the timer went off to make sure it was cooked all the way through. If it is not done, just add about 5 minutes till it is done. Make a quick herbed butter (just mix in italian seasoning with soft butter) and spread it on the delicious-ness!

On the website I gave the lovely woman a 4/5 due to the fact that there was not enough water and when I baked the loafs the bottom seam puffed up and out so it was not a perfect loaf for me.  Do not let that be a hindrance to you, it is a good french loaf! I made mine plain because I wanted to make sure that this recipe was good before I got creative with it. I hope you try this out at home, and come back to leave me some insight on what you did with your bread or if it did not work for you at all.

I hope to speak to you lovely people in the future, and may your day be wonderful!

With Butter Smeared Love,

Catherine Mae, The Dashing Chic

PS!

While I was taking photographs of the end result, a sneaky little bugger tried to get inside the house!
Proof:

Silly backyard chickens!