Lazy (No Knead) Bread

I'm excited about this very simple recipe.

Last night at 9pm I put in a bowl:
3 cups of all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
and a bit just shy of 1 3/4 cup of water.

I blended it together then covered it with a damp towel. I let it sit in my warm kitchen until 10:30 this morning.

When I uncovered the towel, I was amazed. The dough -- of just flour, salt, water and that little bit of yeast-- had risen and had lots of bubbles in it. (Picture 1). I set the oven to 500 degrees and as it was warming, I placed a 6 quart ceramic pot with lid on a cookie pan inside. Meanwhile I dumped out the dough out onto my floured counter. I sprinkled the dough top with some more flour, then folded it in on itself. (Picture 2). I set the timer for ten minutes to wait for the oven to be really heated up. Since there is no kneading, I was free to check my email or whatever.

After ten minutes of warming the oven, I plopped the dough in the pot, seam side up, put on the lid, and back into the oven. After 30 minutes, I removed the lid and let it cook another 15 minutes. And that's it! The "lazy bread" was done.

I suspect I need to lower my heat to maybe 475 or 450 because as you can see the crust was overcooked and the interior was just a tad undercooked. (Pictures 3 & 4). I suspect each oven (due to humidity, pot, type of flour, etc) would need its own minor adjustment like that.

Still, it was incredibly good, especially warm with butter. The crust was the best part, absolutely amazing, like something you'd get from a bakery. It would make wonderful sandwiches, or as a side with a winter stew. I suppose you could add butter or other seasonings if you wanted to crank up the flavor.

I found the recipe featured in the ReadyMade magazine blog, which includes a link to the original New York Times video and to other bloggers and flickrers who have made this bread.

Step-By-Step Tortillas, Gringita Method

This is the recipe as taught to me by my friend Elvira about fifteen years ago. She learned it from her mother, who most probably learned it from her mother before her. Elvira's tortillas are much bigger than mine. Dut due to the size of my comal -- and due to my general inability to make round tortillas if they get too large -- I make smaller 8 inch ones. This recipes makes 16 tortillas. However, it is very easily divided into half to make a batch of 8 tortillas, which is just right for two people for a few days. The tortillas last only three or four days before getting too hard and dry.

You'll need some basic things:

4 cups of flour
2 t baking soda
2 t salt
4 T shortening
up to 2 cups of warm water

Put the dry ingredients in a bowl, then add the shortening. I usually just sift the flour with my fingers until the shortening is blended into pea-size pieces. But you could also use a pastry blender like I have pictured here:

Then add the warm water, starting with a cup a half cup, then adding more as needed. It's better to be too dry and then have to add water, than to be too wet and have to add flour. Wait until you are sure it is not picking up any more of the dry flour before adding more water, and then do it a tablespoon at a time.

How much water? Well, the flour should be completely absorbed into the dough ball, but the dough shouldn't stick to the sides.

I then knead it a bit on the counter until it feels a little elastic-y. Then make a round ball.

And divide that ball into equal pieces by dividing in half, then each half into half again, etc. until you have 16 pieces.

This part is almost impossible to describe, but it's not entirely necessary so don't worry. You shape each piece into a round ball. Then with two hands, holding it like a little steering wheel, you go around the dough, pressing under with your fingers so it becomes concave, like a mushroom cap (or a birth control diaphram).

This is the underside. Elvira taught me this. I don't know for sure what it does, except it may make the dough roll out more evenly. If you don't know what I mean here, then just roll the dough into little round balls. Do them all at once.

Then you are ready to roll out the dough, FIFO-style, first in, first out. Rolling the first ones you shaped into a ball. I roll one direction, then turn the tortilla a quarter turn, and roll and turn again.

When you've rolled the dough until it is just a little larger than your hand, it's just right.

Lay on a pre-heated comal. When the tortilla starts to bubble (about the time it takes to roll the next tortilla, but your mileage may vary), it's ready to flip over. The second side is done in about half the time as the first one (again, ymmv). Even though you are rolling more tortillas, keep an eye on the one cooking because they will burn and when they do, they are inedible and leave black residue on your hot comal which is picked up by the next tortilla.

You can use a spatula to turn the tortillas, but I usually just turn them quickly with the tips of my fingers.

Here they are, stored in the plastic tortilla basket that has a lid. I put the lid on in between adding each tortilla, this keeps them steamed and soft. Every two tortillas, I flip the whole batch over in the basket. This keeps the bottom one from getting soggy with steam.

Kay's Best Cornbread

Kay's Best Cornbread

1 C Flour
1 C White Cornmeal
¼ C Sugar
2 t Baking Powder
1 t Baking Soda
2 C Buttermilk
2 Eggs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Add 2 T oil to a 10” iron skillet and heat on burner until really hot and smoking. Mix dry ingredients then stir in buttermilk and egg. Pour into hot oil and place immediately into hot oven. Bake until golden brown.

White Cornmeal tastes best, but you can substitute yellow. Also plain milk with 1 tbs of vinegar added may be used instead of buttermilk, but it greatly impacts texture and taste. I have a cooktop and I cannot use an iron skillet on it so I use my heated oven instead and heat the skillet until hot but not smoking.