A: Homemade marmalade on homemade bread.

Its not impossible to find good bread here, but when it comes to bread, I’ve been totally spoiled (mostly by Le Fromentier). Le Fromentier tops my list for two reasons. First they have the technical aspects of bread-baking nailed (things like crumb, texture, moisture etc). I have never bought a loaf there crumbled when I cut it, or was too dry, or had a hard, leathery crust, or suffered from any other unforgivable bread flaw, which is a good start. But what really puts them over the top is their creativity. Nuts, grains I had never heard of (or at least, didn’t know the French translation of), vegetables, spices, cheese, olives, herbs…you name it, Le Fromentier has made a (flawless) loaf with it. If you don’t believe me, check out this blog for a (somewhat complete) list.

Now, in Seattle, it is not impossible to find a decent baguette, rye, sourdough or even whole wheat loaf, you have to know where to look, but they’re out there. Beyond the standard selection though, things are experimental at best. It was the insatiable desire for a good rustic grainy loaf on which to debut the marmalade experiment that drove me to bread-making.

Well, that and the desire to try out the infamous no knead breadmaking method. The idea behind the no-knead bread making method is just as it sounds: instead of kneading the dough, you assemble all the ingredients, stir until it forms a “shaggy ball” and leave the whole lot to rise for 12-24 hrs. Then, you punch it down, give it a quick fold (only once or twice), let it sit for 15 min, shape it into a ball, and let it rise for another 1.5-3 hrs. Finally, you pop the whole lot in the oven, in a pre-heated, approximation of a bread cloche. This could be a dutch oven, clay pot, etc. Any oven safe vessel which is approx. 5-7 qts in size and holds the heat well should work (the purpose of this is to shape the loaf, and give it a nice crust). I made one loaf in an enamel cast iron dutch oven, and one in a clay pot. The clay pot loaf was more successful, but I wasn’t very scientific about the whole process.

You’d think I’d have learned after my marmalade escapades to keep things simple the first time round, and just made a simple, whole wheat loaf…no such luck. I dove in, head-first and decided to make Four Seed No Knead Bread. Probably not the optimal choice for a first loaf, and the fact that I bought the wrong yeast (active-dry instead of quick/instant rise…oops) probably didn’t help. I ended up with a very flat (1.5″ high), grainy, dense loaf…oh well. It tasted good, and if sliced sufficiently thinly, made an excellent venue for a good strong blue cheese.

But, flat grainy loaves do not lend themselves to toast, and even less so to marmalade. So, it was back to the cutting board. This time I did my homework. I learned that yeast labels (instant? quick? active?) are *almost* as poorly standardized as cream labels are (half-and-half? light? table? old-fashioned? numbers please people!). I watched the videos on Breadtopia. I read the threads on chowhound, and finally, with new yeast, a slightly smaller pot, and renewed energy, I tried again.

This time, I simplified things a bit, no four-seeds (maybe next time) just whole-wheat flour and bread flour:

Ingredients for basic yeasted No Knead Method (from Breadtopia.com):

3 cups bread flour (the above video used 1 cup (5 oz.) whole wheat flour and 2 cups (10 1/2 oz.) white bread flour
1/4 tsp. instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups purified or spring water

* Mix together the dry ingredients.
* Mix in water until the water is incorporated.
* Cover with plastic and let sit 18 hours.
* Follow video instruction for folding.
* Cover loosely with plastic and rest for 15 minutes.
* Transfer to well floured towel or proofing basket. Cover with towel and let rise about 1 1/2 hours.
* Bake in covered La Cloche or Dutch oven preheated to 500 degrees for 30 minutes.
* Remove cover; reduce heat to 450 degrees and bake an additional 15 minutes.
* Let cool completely on rack.
* Consume bread, be happy.

The result was most definitely marmalade-worthy.

The marmalade, sadly, was delicious, but a tad loose (I’m hoping it will improve with time), and if not, well, at least now I know how to make a killer loaf of bread. Maybe next time I’ll get more creative and add a some more interesting grains.