No-Knead Guinness Beer Bread
Making bread often intimidates people, but there is no reason to be afraid, especially with a “No-Knead” Bread. This technique is a practically foolproof approach that makes fresh homemade bread a reality for anybody with a little patience and an oven. The purpose of kneading bread is to “develop” gluten. Gluten is the protein in wheat flour that gives bread its structure and satisfying chewiness. “Developing” the gluten simply means doing something to encourage the proteins to bond together resulting in bread’s characteristic chewiness. Gluten “develops” through the agitation of stirring or kneading, or much to the relief of lazy bread lovers everywhere—waiting. That’s right—combine flour, liquid and time and you’ve got stretchy, chewy gluten! That’s how “No-knead” bread works—you just have to wait! You do have to wait for a while (12-18 hours), but your patience will be rewarded by amazingly chewy bread that you barely had to touch!
This No-Knead Guinness Beer Bread is a special recipe for St. Patrick’s Day. The dark stout adds an extra flavor punch to this chewy bread and goes perfectly with my Guinness Beer and Lamb Stew. Just remember this technique requires time, so start your dough the day before you want fresh bread. If you have never shaped dough before, I recommend you click here to watch the video demonstration of this recipe to see just how simple this technique truly is!
Directions:
Mix bread flour, yeast and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
Pour in Guinness beer and mix with a large wood spoon or spatula until no dry clumps of flour remain. Mixture will be very sticky.
Cover bowl securely with plastic wrap and set it aside away from direct sunlight, at room temperature, for 12 hours. Dough will rise and get bubbly as gluten develops.
After 12 hours, uncover fermented dough. Using a silicone spatula scrape down sides of bowl and lift the edges of the dough up towards center of dough mass, pressing them into the center. Do this about 16 to 20 times all around the edge of the bowl. The dough will tighten up and start to come together as you do this.
Generously sprinkle counter or large cutting board with bench flour. Turn dough out on to floured surface and generously sprinkle top of dough with more bench flour.
Flour hands and gently but firmly slap dough mass back and forth until it loosens from counter and comes together. Fold dough over onto itself and pick up. This should be easy now, but work quickly or dough may start to stick again. Gather edges of dough to the center and pinch together loosely. (This is hard to explain, please watch the video.) Place dough back on floured surface (seam side down) and form tight ball by drawing hands together (palms facing up) underneath the dough ball. Do this several times, rotating the dough ball a quarter turn each time until the ball is nice, taut and round.
Gently transfer dough ball to center of 15 inch length of parchment paper, seam side down.
Use parchment paper to lift dough and place in 4.5 quart dutch oven. Lightly dust the top with flour. Fold in any excess paper and cover with lid. Let rise at room temperature for 2 hour or until dough is a little less than double in size.
Carefully score the top of the risen dough with a very sharp knife.
Make sure parchment is not folded on top of dough. It is okay if parchment sticks outside of the pot a little. Cover and bake in a 425° F oven for 20 minutes with lid on. After twenty minutes remove lid and continue to bake for 30 minutes or until deep brown and internal temperature reaches 200° F. Use parchment paper to transfer to a cooling rack and remove parchment paper before allowing to cool completely about 2 hours before slicing and serving.
(Makes one loaf)
Ingredients:
420 grams Bread Flour
1 (11.2 oz) bottle Guinness Beer, at room temperature.
1 ½ tsp Table Salt
¼ tsp Instant or Rapid Rise Yeast
⅓ cup AP Flour for shaping (also known as Bench Flour)
Making bread often intimidates people, but there is no reason to be afraid, especially with a “No-Knead” Bread. This technique is a practically foolproof approach that makes fresh homemade bread a reality for anybody with a little patience and an oven. The purpose of kneading bread is to “develop” gluten. Gluten is the protein in wheat flour that gives bread its structure and satisfying chewiness. “Developing” the gluten simply means doing something to encourage the proteins to bond together resulting in bread’s characteristic chewiness. Gluten “develops” through the agitation of stirring or kneading, or much to the relief of lazy bread lovers everywhere—waiting. That’s right—combine flour, liquid and time and you’ve got stretchy, chewy gluten! That’s how “No-knead” bread works—you just have to wait! You do have to wait for a while (12-18 hours), but your patience will be rewarded by amazingly chewy bread that you barely had to touch!
This No-Knead Guinness Beer Bread is a special recipe for St. Patrick’s Day. The dark stout adds an extra flavor punch to this chewy bread and goes perfectly with my Guinness Beer and Lamb Stew. Just remember this technique requires time, so start your dough the day before you want fresh bread. If you have never shaped dough before, I recommend you click here to watch the video demonstration of this recipe to see just how simple this technique truly is!
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