Food & Dining
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When friends and strangers alike began going crazy for “no-knead bread” a few years ago, I felt like I had woken up in a foreign country. People wanted to make yeast bread at home, but they didn’t want to knead it? This supposed innovation destroyed half the pleasure of making bread in the first place. It was like everyone was raving about “no-imagery poetry” or “no-kissing sex.”
I do not make bread at home in the hopes that it will be better than bread made by a professional baker. (I know, in fact, that it won’t be — although, because I will eat my bread fresh from the oven, it will taste at least as good.) I make bread at home because I want a rich sensory experience. I want to interact intimately with bread dough, feel it respond to my touch, fully witness its transformation from a mess of flour and water into a smooth, resilient orb. Bread means sustenance, communion, hominess, and those associations lose much of their power when a home baker takes a hands-off approach.
Plus, kneaded bread is way faster than no-knead bread. You must start making no-knead bread about a day before you want to eat it. Kneaded bread takes just a few hours, so you can start it in the afternoon if you want to eat it with dinner. (You don’t have to adhere to a strict timetable, though — bread dough won’t suffer if you let it rise overnight and then bake it in the morning.)