I know it’s been awhile since I last wrote on my blog… but over 60 days… no way! All I can say is whoops and I’m sorry for disappearing. My hiatus, as I’ll call it, was not driven my anything bad happening, I just got a tad bit busy. And then busy turned into forgetful and here we are over 60 days later.
Now the real dilemma… what do I write about it? It should probably be something pretty good to make up for my extended absence. Ahhh! The pressure!
I often get inspiration from photos, so after poking around and looking back at my instagram account (@swanade) I decided what better way to start than with a new January obsession – No Knead Bread.
It all started a few weeks ago when I went to a friends for dinner. Sitting on the table was the most perfect looking ball of homemade bread and damn it smelled amazing. The outside was crusty and the inside was airy and soft and just waiting for a gob of butter. Turns out it was No Knead Bread and wow – I was impressed. When I got home I looked for recipes and found tons and tons of blogs posts about it. I used 2 blog posts to perfect my own version.
First I tried the recipe from – Simply So Good’s post – Artisan No-Knead Bread. My version of Simply So Good’s bread didn’t look exactly like the picture. I wasn’t sure where I went wrong, but I think it had something to do with the amount of flour I used when I shaped the dough into a ball.
So I dug a bit deeper and found this post by Steamy Kitchen – No Knead Bread: so easy a 4 year old can make it. Steamy Kitchen’s version requires a few extra stages and a tiny bit more time, but overall still very simple. The best part was that when the bread came out of the oven, my bread finally looked like everyone else’s… including my friends. Steamy Kitchen’s approach suggested wetting your hands, relying less on flour to shape the dough into a ball. For me this minor change made all the difference.
Like everyone else I started with a plain white bread, but I quickly found a new favorite combination – Adrienne’s Date Walnut No Knead Bread. To make this version I chopped up a whole bunch of dates and walnuts and added 1 tsp of cinnamon to the dry ingredients. The quantity of the chopped dates and walnuts is up to you. I don’t typically measure, but if i had to guess I’d say I added about 1 to 1-1/2 cups of chopped dates and about 3/4 to 1 cup of chopped walnuts.
adrienne in_365 