To make this bread, you mix up the dough, let it sit covered at room temperature for 12-18 hours, then bake it in a dutch oven at 450F. It’s really that simple.

You can find the recipe I used by clicking here. I say I almost followed the recipe because, of course, I made some modifications. Why would I do an exact recipe on the first try? The recipe did say you could add things to the dough, so I decided to go ahead and make a loaf of olive bread. I added about one cup of sliced olives, and I also added 1/2 tsp of sugar to help feed the yeast. I let mine sit for about 14 hours, mixing it up at night, letting it sit overnight and then baking it the next afternoon. The dough seemed to lose some of its volume when I transferred it from the bowl to the counter for its last rest time, but still baked up into a nice loaf.

Don’t worry, I will still use my new mixer for bread. The no-knead bread is a lot more like the artisan breads that are all the rage; thick, crispy crust, with a bubbly, chewy crumb. Call me old fashioned, but I like a nice soft bread for my breakfast toast, and I think the way to get that will be to knead the dough as usual. But this no-knead bread will be great for lunches and snacks!

On Wednesday of this past week, I made THREE recipes for one meal that I found on Pinterest: A Roasted Garlic salad dressing, a rosemary and Parmesan overnight bread, and an Italian style beef and butternut squash stew. They were all the kind of things that keep me obsessed with the site. Diamonds in the rough.

The Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette is a MUST try to anyone who loves garlic on the level that I do. Two heads of garlic go into this dressing. And while you do have to roast the garlic for a good half hour, the dressing itself is really easy to make, and you probably have most of the ingredients on hand. I’m currently obsessed with making my own salad dressings and have tried several I’ve found on Pinterest, but this one is my favorite.

From Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body:

Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

• 2 heads of garlic, roasted and peeled
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp honey

Method:

1. Cut the pointy top off of the garlic. Brush them with olive oil and roast them in a pan in the oven at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes, until it is starting to turn golden brown and soft. Remove from the oven, allow to cool. Once the garlic is cool, peel the skin off. Discard the skins, save the garlic. *Skin peels off really easily after they are roasted.
2. Add all the ingredients to the food processor and process until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to serve.*If some of the skin get processed with the rest of the dressing, no big deal, it won’t change the flavor.

The salad dressing can be vegan if you sub the honey for agave. And it is dairy free, with no substitutions!

This dressing is tangy, but has that deep, rich caramelized taste from the roasted garlic. It’s a vinaigrette, but it’s creamy because of the garlic being processed right into it. Keep this for a week or so in your fridge in a covered container.

The bread recipe I comes from Simply So Good. I used her basic bread recipe, and put in my own additions. This bread is baked in your cast-iron enameled Dutch Oven (you have one of those, right??). I have a big, blue Le Creuset that is the Pride and Joy of my kitchen. Jeremy gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago. They are usually in the $300-$400 range, but sometimes you can score them at T.J. Maxx for half the price, which I believe is what he did (smartly). Other cast-iron enameled pots are fine for this recipe also, but when you have a Le Creuset, you tend to brag about it. Here is a view down on mine to give you an idea of the size of the vessel you might want to use:

I <3 Le Creuset

OK, enough about my awesome piece of iron. Here’s the recipe.

Crusty Bread

Crusty Overnight Bread

Ingredients:

 Method:

This thing turned out beautiful. There is nothing quite like making your own bread from scratch and this is really a pretty easy way to do it.

Finally, the main course – Beef and Butternut Squash Stew from Closet Cooking. I’ll be honest and say there are a few things wrong with the way this original recipe is written, so the recipe below has a few very minor changes from myself, just to make things more clear.

Italian Style Beef and Butternut Squash Stew

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces pancetta (diced)
• 1 pound beef (cut into 1 inch cubes) (My Note: he doesn’t specify what kind of beef to use here. My suggestion is to get a sirloin roast, if you can find one – that’s what I used. Otherwise a small round roast is fine or chuck if nothing else is available)
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional, to taste)
• 1 tablespoon rosemary (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon thyme (chopped)
• 1 cup Italian red wine (My Note: I used a Zinfandel. It doesn’t have to be Italian, don’t stress out, just use a decent red wine that’s not sweet)
• 3 cups beef broth
• 1 splash balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup sundried tomatoes (chopped)
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes (My Note: He doesn’t specify drained vs. undrained. Because he does not, I put them in without draining them. It gave my stew a more “soupy” consistency, which I was OK with. If you want this to be more like a traditional stew, then drain the tomatoes before adding).
• * parmigiano reggiano rind (optional)
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 pound butternut squash (peeled, seeded and cut into 1 inch cubes)
• parsley (chopped) (My Note: optional for garnish. I used a bit of grated Parmesan instead).

Method:

1. Cook the pancetta in a large pan on medium heat. (My Note: or Dutch Oven. Again, with my Creuset)
2. Add the beef and brown on all sides in the grease from the pancetta and set aside. (My Note: I coated the beef cubes in flour first. I’ve always done this when searing beef that is basically going to be braised later. It also helps to thicken the sauce a bit, but it’s up to you).
3. Add the onion and saute in the pancetta grease until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
4. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, rosemary and thyme and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
5. Add the wine and deglaze the pan. (My Note: deglazing means you add a liquid to absorb the browned bits from the pancetta, beef and aromatics. When you add the wine to the hot pan, it will steam up. Take a wooden spoon and use that moment to scrape up all the bits in the bottom of the pan, stirring them into the liquid to create a flavorful base).
6. Add the beef, broth, balsamic vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes, diced tomatoes, parmigiano reggiano rind, oregano, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
7. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the beef is nice and tender, about 1-2 hours.
8. Add the squash and simmer until it is tender, about 15-20 minutes. (My Note: more like half an hour, at best).

This stew was filling, hearty and really quite healthy. Serve it with a glass of the same wine you used in the soup – superb! Always cook with wine that is good enough to drink. When you cook with wine, you are cooking off the alcohol, but intensifying the flavor. If you intensify a crappy wine, you will just get really intense crap. No Bueno.

Pinterest Perfection

The dressing, served over a bed of Organic romaine lettuce, the garlic, rosemary and Parmesan bread and this stew altogether? Perfection. Pinterest Perfection.

I discovered yesterday evening that we were running very low on bread and as it was getting too late to start baking traditional bread for the kids lunch boxes at the time, I decided to try to bake an ‘overnight bread’ instead. After some googling I decided to (loosely) follow a recipe by bread-blogging veteran Pain de Martin, a Swedish blogger (don’t be fooled by the French name) who has published three bread books. He calls this ‘a bread anyone can make’ and it certainly is. The ingredients are stirred together then left to prove in the fridge overnight. Then, in the morning, it is quickly shaped and allowed to rise a little bit more while waiting for the oven to heat up before baking them.

Longer proving times generally improves the taste of the bread, and this bread is truly delicious, so go on – give it a go!

Overnight breakfast rolls

Ingredients
400 ml water (room temperatured)
1 tsp fast action dry yeast
450 ml strong bread flour
300 ml rye flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp golden syrup or honey

Method
1) In the evening, mix all the ingredients into a sticky dough
2) Place the dough in a bowl and cover with cling film. Place in the fridge.
3) In the morning, put the dough on a well floured board, stretch it out to about 10×40 cm rectangle. Fold the dough in half lengthwise, to about 5×40 cm,  then cut it into small squares, about 5×5 cm
4) Place on a baking tray and leave to rise while the oven heats up. Turn the oven on to 275C (or as hot as it gets)
5) Bake for 10-15 minutes

Adapted from Pain the Martin’s Easiest Breakfast Rolls (Note – the recipe is in Swedish)

No Knead Bread

(adapted from Life Hack)

Ingredients:

1/4 tsp-1/2 tsp yeast

4 cups of any kind of flour

2 cups of warm water

Optional:

Sugar

Cinnamon

Ground cloves

Flaxseed meal ( I use this to replace a 1/2 cup of white flour)

In a big bowl mix two cups of warm (not hot) water and 1/4 tsp yeast.

Sprinkle in some sugar (maybe one or two Tbsps?)

Next, dump in 3 1/2 cups white flour and 1/2 cup of flaxseed meal

Give a few good shakes of cinnamon, and one or two dashes of  ground cloves.

Mix it together, cover it with a damp kitchen cloth or cling-wrap.

Leave in a warm spot to rise (I put mine near the radiator).

In 6-12 hours (or whenever you’ve grown impatient and the dough is twice as big), pour the dough (do NOT knead it) into a greased (or parchment-paper lined) bread pan.

You can let it rise again if you feel like it.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees until you think it looks good and brown.

Take it out and let it sit for a minute (it keeps cooking on the inside).

Eat it.

If you  don’t want to wait for six hours, put in 1/2 tsp yeast, and a little more sugar, then just bake it when it looks roughly doubled in size.  For fluffier bread, use only white flour, for denser, use whole wheat.  A little flaxseed meal gives it a good nutty flavor too, so, you know, we feel more healthy and stuff.

***Also, you can make donuts using this recipe!***

 It’s true!  If you don’t mind the shape, go ahead and drop blobs of dough into hot oil until they turn all nice and brown, then roll in cinnamon and sugar.  If you like a donut shape, add flour to the dough until it’s dough-y enough to roll out, then use various sized drinking glasses to punch out donut shapes, and drop in hot oil.

I have decided to go about this by degrees so today i made bread with 70% white flour and 30% wholemeal. I got the kids to knead it and shape it so hopefully tomorrows lunch they will eat it!

150g Wholemeal flour

7g dried yeast (A sachet)

150 mls of water

I left these overnight, well actually until 5 this evening! As i had a busy day!

I then mixed

400g of wholemeal flour

6g rock salt

300ml of hand hot water (this varies depending on the weather, the flour, time of day!) I add slowly until i have a mix that leaves the bowl clean when kneading with the dough hook.  Takes 3-4 minutes you want a nice elastic dough. You can knead it for a couple of minutes or let machine do all the work. Leave/ put back in the bowl cover with cling film and leave for an hour or until doubles in size. In the morning in the conservatory this takes an hour today late afternoon took 1 1/2 hours.

when nicely risen take it out of the bowl put it on floured surface and knock the air out. I dont punch it or batter it just gently let it down, shape it into a ball tucking the edges underneath and place on a floured baking tin.

Slash it, whatever pattern you like. Cover with a tea towel and leave it for another twenty minutes. This is when i put my oven on its electric and takes awhile! 220 degrees C

After 20 minutes it will be half risen, now you need to cover it with a baking dish or saucepan that can go in the oven, i use a cast iron Le Cruseut, and put it in the oven for 30 minutes. Dont open oven door!

After 30 minutes take out oven, shutting door behind you and levr the pan off, i use a fish slice and tea towel, i then put it back in oven for 12-15 mins. I then shout at everyone in the house to not touch the boiling pan.

After 12 -15 mins the aroma of freshly baked bread fills the house and the loaf should be ready.

All you then have to do is resist temptation to eat it until it cools, too hot a bad stomach, too cold butter wont melt!

First loaf was very good, we ate the whole thing in one go!

George helped me with the second attempt which looked great, smelt great but didnt taste great we forgot the salt! Never again, it was such an odd taste.

I got the recipe from The Cottage Smallholder blog which is excellent.

You bake the bread under a dish, i didnt have a large glass dish so used my Le Creuset Casserole dish.

Will try again tomorrow and will post photos.