Kevin's Weblog

I’ve been experimenting with variations on the basic no-knead bread recipe. Of course I’ve done whole wheat and rye breads, and I made a rosemary loaf once. This week I decided to really push it and try a variation based on the cranberry pecan rye bread in the Martha Steward Baking Handbook. I used 2 cups of all-purpose flour and 1 cup of rye, and a generous tablespoon of caraway seeds. Then, once the liquids were added, I folded in 3/4 cup of chopped dried cranberries and 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. The result was really quite good. I was worried the additions might weigh things down too much and keep it from rising properly, but while the bread is dense and hearty, it’s definitely not flat.

I really can’t recommend this no-knead bread enough. It’s literally no more than 5 minutes of work for a loaf of bread comparable to what you’d pay 3 or 4 dollars for. It takes a little practice to learn how to handle such wet and sticky dough, but it’s well worth it.