Lazy Legate Loaf. This recipe is my attempt to produce a great-tasting baguette-ish or
ciabatta-like substance without needing any skill or putting forth much effort. Only special
equipment required is a food-grade spray bottle of water, which is a useful thing to have
around anyway.
This video is sponsored by Vistal Supply, the maker of that natural bamboo cheese board,
which would make a great gift. Follow my link in the description and enter the discount
code ADAM10 at check-out to get 10 percent off.
We're gonna do a single portion of dough in a small sealable container — glass is best.
The acid in the dough could draw harmful chemicals from plastic and some metals, certainly aluminum.
In goes half a cup of water, then like a pinch of yeast — maybe an eighth of a teaspoon,
at most? Then half a teaspoon of salt. No matter what anyone tells you, that will not
kill the yeast, and it's easier to integrate evenly if you add it to the water instead
of the flour — one cup of bread flour. Grab a silicon spatula and use that to just bring
this together — this is a no-knead bread dough.
If you're looking for a recipe with precise measurements, look elsewhere. Here's how you
judge the hydration of this by eye. It should be just wet enough that it has no visible
dry patches. Just wet enough. If it does have visible dry patches, then add a little bit
of water, and that spray bottle is a great way of adding a tiny little bit. There we
go, it's wet enough that it kinda glistens all over, but it's still pretty firm. Cover
this up. Some people say you need to leave a gap in the seal so the yeast can breath,
but I've never noticed a difference.
OK, you probably can't bake this today. If you want bread as soon as tomorrow, let it
sit out most of the day, until it's really noticeably risen, like that, and then toss
it in the fridge overnight, which is what we're gonna do this time. The best way to
do it, however, is to mix it up and throw it straight into the fridge for many days
— a week, even — no counter rise. The longer and slower the rise, the better the
flavor, and you could stack up a whole bunch in there and have dates written on them, so
you can have bread anytime.
In our case, we did a table rise, followed by the fridge, and now it's the next day.
Grab a baking sheet and lay on a piece of parchment paper. Grab your super-sticky dough
out of the fridge, and rather than flour your hands, just get them wet. Water can be a perfectly
effective lubricant. Peel it out of the container while deflating it as little as possible,
this is way easier if it's cold, and just stretch it out into a log that's as long as
your baking sheet is diagonally. No complicated folding or shaping procedures, just stretch
it out and put it onto the parchment.
You might be thinking, isn't this gonna stick to the parchment without any flour or anything?
Yes it is, and we're counting on that. Give it a spray to keep the top from drying out,
and just let it sit out, uncovered for an hour, hour and a half. Don't expect it to
proof up a ton, but it should look a little puffier before you bake.
The fact that the dough sticks hard to the parchment prevents it from spreading out really
flat, and it forces some of its rise upward. It's like using a couche except zero work.
Heat your oven to 500 F, convection if you've got it. And when it's good and hot, throw
your tray in, right in the middle, and spay it with a ton of water. I'm spraying both
the bread and the walls of the oven. This replicates the effect of professional steam-injection
ovens without bothering to put a pan of boiling water or something in the bottom.
You want to open it up and spray it again every minute or two for the first few minutes.
This keeps the outside of the bread from setting up hard before it gets a chance to oven spring
— that's when steam builds up inside the dough and puffs it up, giving you a nice,
open structure. Basically whenever I see the dough has gone visibly dry, I spray it again,
every minute or two, until it seems to have puffed up as much as it's gonna puff, like
10 minutes after it went in. Then, you could stop spraying it if you want, but I like to
keep spraying every four or five minutes, because that gets you a really shiny crust.
One of the advantages of laying the dough down diagonally is it makes it really easy
for you to reach in there and spray the back of the loaf.
If you're not sure when it's done, you could always take its temperature. Pull it when
internal temp is 190 to 200 F. But I find that when the crust is deep amber, it's done.
That one took 22 minutes. I'm sure your times will vary.
When it's cool enough to touch, you can just peel it off the parchment paper. And look
at that. Between the very wet no-knead dough and the fact that we didn't do any complex
shaping work, this is still flatter than a baguette, but who's to say that's a bad thing?
In the mirror universe where this happened to develop as the traditional method, me with
a goatee is probably saying...
"Yeah, you know, this newfangled 'baguette' thing doesn't get you that same flat look
that tradition really demands, but it's an OK substitution. Long live the Empire."
Alright, let's slice her open — audibly thin, crispy crust, and even down there in
the thinest part, we've got an open, fluffy structure. I am totally jumping on the no-knead
bandwagon. Water and time achieve basically all of the same chemical and biological effects
that you get from traditional methods.
Don't get excited, that's not white wine, it's Vinho Verde, pretty much the only white-ish
wine I actually drink.
Now if only I had some cheese, dry sausage and homemade pickles, and — well would you
look at that! Now if only I had a cheese knife, and — well look at that! Makes this a perfect
grab-and-go situation for a party or a picnic. Thanks again to Vistal Supply for sponsoring
this video. Get 10 percent off this board with my link and code in the description.
Those homemade pickles, by the way? Easiest sweet pickle ever. Whole 12-ounce bottle of
rice vinegar goes into a glass bowl. Then as much sugar as you can dissolve into it
cold, about a cup, or less if you don't like them too sweet. Chop up a couple cups of veggies,
I'm doing cauliflower, green beans and radishes. Pickled cauliflower is delicious, but be warned,
it's kinda stinky. Throw that covered into the fridge for at least a day, and man that
is just one of my favorite meals. And that lazy loaf has better flavor and texture than
anything I can buy in my little town. You have an awesome French bakery down the street,
don't bother. But if you're on your own, like me, give this a shot, let me know how it goes.