Sculpture

Today I made a sculpture without knowing it. I used to sculpt with wood, stone and other materials. I carved, cut and polished for many hours to create a form.

But, today I made a “no knead bread”. I like the structure of the material. A part of me is missing the shaping, folding and proofing of regular bread. But, after 19 hours it was time to put the dough onto a flour covered sideboard and try to shape and fold it with a scraper. What a feeling! While I’m writing this for my blog, one of our three cats, Deng, joins me. She jumps on the desk and wants attention. I rub her tummy and than I recognize the feeling! It looks like the no knead dough! She is not too fat, only her tummy is too big and so soft.

Then it went into a flour covered towel. And after another 2 hours of waiting it was time to put the dough into the flowerpot. Good side on the bottom, the instructions said. Because of the flexibility of the dough I needed to fold it while it was still in the air; between the towel and the pot. This might be the explanation why the bread looks like this.
I used the big flowerpot, 21 x 23 cm. This time I put a piece of aluminum on the bottom, because the pot is so big there is no space underneath the pot. In my oven all the heat comes from the bottom and there is a big change of burning the bread. It worked!

After 30 minutes with a lit on top of the flowerpot it was time to look. This is the exciting part. I was positively surprised. I saw a beautiful surface and after another 20 minutes I took the bread out of the pot. It was a sculpture of bread. Everything was there and not too much interference of me. I like the shape.

This is what I used:
• 468 gram flour
• 1/4 teaspoon dry yeast
• 354 gram water
• 1.25teaspoon salt

This is what I did:
Put everything in a big bowl, with enough space for rising. Stir it with a wooden spoon till everything is mixed. Cover it up and leave it for 19 hours.

The pot must be very hot, I pre-headed the oven to 250C with the pot and lit in the oven. Be careful removing the hot lid and drop the dough into the pot, quickly place the lid on the pot. Close the oven and leave it for 30 minutes. Then remove the lid and leave the bread in the oven for another 20 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack and enjoy it.

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
I will send this bread to Yeastspotting

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