No-Knead Milk Bread

No-Knead Milk bread is a delicious bread with a great crumb. Long fermentation gives the bread a great taste and structure. 

It’s a cloudy day today. Cloud covered sky looks silent and empty. Birds are all puffed up looking twice their size as they carry on their morning ritual of foraging.

The gingery aroma fills the room as the tea is boiling. Our limbs are numb and holding a hot glass of tea gives immense relief. Coils of smoke drift up from the sleepy village.

Sitting around the fire while cooking and eating is the greatest relief that winter can offer to the villagers.

Our dough for the milk bread is rising. Light dinner of soup and bread fit the bill on cold days.

Milk bread is really easy to bake.

Once the dough is mixed, it is left to rise. Long fermentation gives the bread a great taste and structure. If you are baking the bread in a hot place, place your dough in the refrigerator until it doubles. Bread baking is about instinctive baking. The dough should double in volume either on the counter (in cold areas) or in the refrigerator (in hot areas).

We loved our No-Knead Milk Bread. It has a great crumb. Enjoy with butter, jam, soup or a simple veggie. It makes great sandwiches too.

No-Knead Milk Bread

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cup milk
• 1 ½ teaspoon honey
• 1/3 cup water (at room temperature)
• 2 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon bran (optional)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon yeast

Instructions

1. Bring milk to a boil. Turn off the heat. Add honey and water and stir to mix. Let the milk cool.
2. In another large and deep  bowl, mix flour, bran, salt, and yeast.
3. Pour cold milk over the dry ingredients. Mix with a whisk, ladle or with hands until just combined. Cover the bowl and let rest for 20 minutes.
4. Stretch and fold the dough over itself a few times in the bowl itself. Cover and leave to rise for 2-4 hours. (if your place is hot, 2 hours should be sufficient. In a cold place leave to rise for 4 hours or until double)
5. Gently fold the dough again. Cover and leave for 1 hour.
6. Grease one 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch loaf pan.
7. Now scrape the dough onto the floured counter and gently press with your fingers into an 8 inch round disk. Now fold the edges to get a rectangle. Flatten the rectangle. Now roll tightly to get a log not longer than the size of your loaf pan.
8. Gently place the log into the prepared pan, seam side down.
9. Cover and leave to rise for 1 hour or until the dough reaches the top of the pan in the middle.
10. During the last stages of rising, preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
11. Bake for 40 -45 minutes or until the top turns brown and pan sounds hollow when tapped at the bottom. Cover the loaf with a foil if it is browning too fast.
12. Remove the pan from the oven.  After 5 minutes, remove from the pan. Cool in the rack.
13. Slice when cold.

This recipe of milk bread is from Lazio region of Italy. The dough is typically shaped into rolls for sandwiches, according to Jim Lahey, The author of the books My Bread and My Pizza.