I tried the hip new “no kneed bread” method and I have to say “no thanks”. I have a heavy duty mixer with a dough hook so it’s not like I’d have to do all that laborious kneading of my parent’s generation so “why not” do the traditional bread making method ?

Making bread the traditional way yields consistent, delicious, and visually compelling results. More important to me is the fact you can see and feel the dough at enough stages to correct for little errors. In the end, you get a well deserved reward.

For my part, I watched Alton Brown and used his measures. However, I followed a line that falls somewhere between what he calls the “strait dough method” and making a “sponge”. In my kitchen, I’ve been growing – yes growing is the right term here – growing a starter using a little dry yeast, some flour, a teaspoon of cane sugar and water. I let if out doors uncovered on a warm day and was rewarded with a frothy yeasty container of “starter”. I hope, over time, that the starter will evolve into a sourdough starter.

Anyway, I start by putting all the ingredients in the mixing bowl and adding about 2-4 ounces of the starter. I compensate for the extra liquid as best I can but this is where the traditional method starts to shine. It’s very easy to see if the dough is a bit too wet or a bit two dry so "adjustments are easy. Odds are good, with my process, the dough will be a bit wet. I suggest adding flour in single tablespoon increments or even less. It won’t take much flour to go from too wet to too dry.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz bread flour (that’s a bit more than 3 cups)
• 8 oz water
• 2-4 oz of the starter
• 1 TBSP cane sugar
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1-2 tsp of a combination of thyme and/or rosemary (optional)
• 1 tsp oil (optional)

I combine all of the ingredients in the mixer with a dough hook using the lowest setting. If the dough is a little wet then I add a tablespoon or less of flour and let it mix some more. This entire stage is about 5 minutes long. I cover the mixing bowl with a towel for about 20 minutes.

Next, I use the mixer on medium speed with the dough hook to perform the necessary kneading. This takes about 10 minutes. As Alton Brown points out, if the dough hangs on tight to the dough hook, turn up the speed for a moment to fling the dough back out to the side of the bowl. Next, I take a nonstick pot with lid – big enough to take the dough and still allow it to double in size. I spray or rub a little vegetable oil on the bottom and side of the pot and drop the dough in. I push the dough down relatively even in the bottom so it’s easy to judge when the dough has doubled in size. The temperature in the house can be highly variable so I stick a large cast iron pan in bottom rack of my oven and turn on the heat low for about 1 minute then turn it off. This will hold enough warm air to let the dough rise in the oven. Alton uses warm water but the cast iron pan works for me and since the pot with the dough is covered, I have not experienced any drying out of the dough while it rises.

After about 2 hours, I check the dough and leave it longer if it has not reached about double its original size. Once it has risen enough, I take the pot out. Here is where the non-stick pot works great. I dust the top of the dough with a little flour and then “swish” the dough around until it releases from the sides of the pot and the flour starts to fall around the edges. then, a light flick, and I can get the dough to roll over enough to dust the other side. Now I use my knuckles and punch down the dough and fold it over on itself a couple times. I then remove the dough and roll the edges under to form a nice smooth top. It can now go onto a baking peel but I’ve been using old bread pans so the resulting loaf can be used easily for sandwiches. I elongate the dough ball and place it in the bread pan. It needs to sit in a warm place (like the oven trick again) for about an hour.

I bake a full sized loaf pan at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes. Most of my recent loaves have been done at 40 minutes. I follow Alton’s suggestion and stick a small digital probe thermometer in the bottom of the loaf to check if it’s done. Ideally, it should be about 200 degrees but below 212 degrees – as Alton points out, if it goes over 212 degrees it means all the moisture is gone and it will dry out.