Eick’s No-Knead Bread

(Before It's News)

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp active dry yeast
• 3 cups warm water—not to exceed 110º
• 3 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp olive oil, plus more to oil the Dutch Oven
• 1 tsp pink Himalayan sea salt
• A large Dutch Oven—at least 2 Qt.

• 2 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp honey
• Zest of a fresh lemon

1. Into a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add the sugar. Let stand for 10 minutes until the yeast proofs—gets bubbly. You can smell the yeast when it begins to wake up. It has a bready, slightly alcohol or beer-like scent. If you have no bubbles and no action from the yeast—toss it. It’s dead.
2. Into a separate bowl, add flour, zest, dill and salt. Mix with fingers to combine. If not making the dill and lemon variation, leave out the lemon zest and dill in this step and the honey in the following step.
3. Add yeast and water mixture, honey, and olive oil.
4. Stir with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to lightly combine.
5. Wet your hands or rub your hands with oil and work the dough for 3-5 minutes. You’re not going to knead the bread dough, but fold it together with your hands until it’s glossy and all the flour has been combined.
6. Take your Dutch Oven and oil it liberally.
7. Sprinkle half your Himalayan sea salt into the bottom of the Dutch oven. This will be the crustiest part of the bread and you want to get a good crackle from the salt.
8. Dump your dough into the Dutch Oven and tap the pot firmly on the counter to settle the dough. Cover with plastic wrap or a tight-fitting lid and place in a warm area in your kitchen to rise.
9. A note on rising—you can let your dough rise until it’s double in size, or overnight. You can even let it sit for up to 18 hours—if you want a bit of a sour dough tang—it’s entirely your choice. It also depends on how quickly you want to bake your baby.
10. About 20 minutes before baking, sprinkle the rest of the Himalayan salt on top. Preheat the oven to 500º.
11. Bake for 30 minutes—covered. Remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes—or until the loaf is brown and has a hollow sound when tapped.
12. Remove the Dutch oven from the oven and allow to stand for 15 minutes. Then turn your bread out onto a cooling rack or slicing board and allow to cool for 40 minutes to an hour before slicing.

• Fresh Rosemary—replace dill with finely minced rosemary; keep remainder of recipe the same
• Rosemary, Lavender and Lemon Thyme—remove the dill entirely from the recipe and cut back ¾ cup of whole wheat flour. Using dried herbs and a coffee grinder, powder each of the herbs individually until you get ¼ cup of powdered rosemary, ¼ cup lavender, and ¼ cup of lemon thyme. Double the amount of honey and you can replace the olive oil with  melted butter—however, if you use butter you cannot leave the dough to rise more than 4 hours or the butter may turn. I usually keep the olive oil the same and if I want a buttery taste, pour a little melted butter over the top of the dough as it bakes
• Nut and Grain—replace ¼ cup of whole wheat flour with ¼ cup of rolled oats, remove the dill and lemon zest entirely. To the dry mix, add ¼ to ½ cup of millet and ¼ cup of pumpkin seeds or hulled sunflower seeds (or a combination of both), 2 tbsp whole flax, and ½ cup of chopped walnuts. Double the honey in the original recipe, and add 1 tbsp molasses. Have extra flour on hand if the dough is too shaggy. If it’s too dry, add a little more olive oil or water—1 tbsp at a time.
• Fruit, Nut and Grain—to the Nut and Grain variation, to the dry mix add ¼ cup raisins or currants and ½ cup dried cranberries.

• My Breakdown of Obama’s Executive Order on Preparedness
• Make your Kitty a Prepper too– Make Cat food At Home
• DIY Altoids Tin Fire Kit
• Sprouting Alfalfa Seeds
• Caring for Citrus Trees and Other Potted Plants
• Brainwashing is the job of parents, not schools
• Windshield wipers
• My official “old lady” card
• You can lead a horse to water…
• Taxes and random pix