It's Better to Travel than Arrive?

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive"

Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque, 1881.


"Robert Louis Stevenson speaks utter tosh and has

obviously never flown long haul economy class"

Kristy, first ever blog post, 2011.


Thursday, May 30, 2013

I'm Involved in "The Pintester Movement"!




I can hear you all asking, "What's the  Pintester Movement?", which is totally understandable unless you're following the slightly bonkers adventures of Sonja Foust, The Pintester.  Sonja has taken it upon herself to actually try to cook/make/craft all the things we see on Pinterest that look amazing and easy, yet turn out to be difficult and wrong.  She's set up a blog HERE detailing her adventures (slightly NSFW language-wise) and invited us to be a part of a global movement to see how many people can cook/make/craft something from Pinterest and live to tell the tale.

As you all know, I'm slightly addicted to Pinterest, so it's not difficult for me to find something.  However, living in a small German town, it's difficult for me to find the ingredients/crafting items necessary to make things I'd like to try, especially when this month Germany seems to be on a month long holiday, and the shops are always shut on Sundays.  So, I'm dragging out the fabulous "No Knead Bread" recipe that I tried from Pinterest earlier this year.  It works, it's yummy, it's easy, and it's fabulous.  And I think I might just make it again this weekend - there's a new jar of Nutella in the pantry calling my name.

Let's make bread as part of The Pintester Movement!  Aprons on ...




This is my first ever loaf of bread - YUM!



I know I'm a bit late to this whole "no knead" bread thing.  I've seen it on Pinterest a lot and I have friends who have been successfully making it for ages.  I declared that last year I was really going to get into bread making and I made precisely no bread at all - it all seemed just too difficult.  But this year?  This year I'm on it!

I thought I'd start with the easiest bread recipe in the world, and I've now made it three times - it just works!  After I mixed it all together I decided there was no flipping way it would ever work, but it really does - even if it looks wrong at the get go.  I think it might actually be fool-proof, so here we go (my notes in italics):-


  • 750 plain flour (the bog standard stuff you can buy cheaply at the supermarket, you don't need posh flour for this - I tried to make it with rice flour also, and it was edible, but not as good as with boring old white flour)
  • 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast (the granular stuff in the little sachets)
  • 2 cups of water (500ml)



  1. In a large mixing bowl whisk together flour, salt and yeast.
  2. Add water and mix it all together (don't use the whisk here, use a metal mixing spoon, this stuff gets STICKY and you'll never get it out of a whisk - I speak from experience ...).
  3. It's going to look dry and shaggy, and you're going to look at it and think it won't ever work - it will!
  4. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12-18 hours (overnight is good).
  5. Heat the oven to 450f (220c).
  6. When the oven has reached 450f place a cast iron pot with a lid into the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.
  7. I don't have a cast iron pot with a lid, so I used a Pyrex casserole dish with a lid.  I've read that you can use anything with a lid that isn't going to burn/crack/die in the oven at such a high temperature.
  8. Meanwile, pour/scrape/heft/tip the dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape it into a ball (this is another sticky bit).
  9. Cover with the plastic wrap you used to cover it at the start and let it sit whilst the pot is heating.
  10. Remove the hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough (I lined my pot with baking paper before I put it in the oven the first time, but apparently you don't need to line it - sounds a bit iffy to me).
  11. Put the lid on and whack it in the oven for 30 minutes.
  12. Take the lid off and bake it for an additional 15 minutes.
  13. Remove bread from oven and place on a rack to cool.
  14. When it's cool enough to handle, hack a bit off the end, slather it with salted butter and take a bite.  Then swoon.  And have some more!

12 comments:

  1. Sounds yummy! May have to try that!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let me know how you go! It's easy and really yummy. Thanks for reading!

      Delete
  2. Oh yum! That looks easy enough for even me to try... Hmmm. ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can do it! It's a handy recipe to have in a country that seems permanently closed - not something you ever experience in the USA (or anywhere else much).

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Had it with salted butter and Nutella at lunch time today, yummo!

      Delete
  4. Oh dear...that's me switching the oven on...and getting out the mixing bowl. Now...where's that dried yeast gone? La la laaaaaa, fresh bread for dinner tonight!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hmm, looks easy enough! I've only ever made semi-homemade bread from a kit, and I didn't even do that right! (It didn't rise). I think I might give this one a try though

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seriously, Laura, give it a shot. I think it might be one of those very difficult recipes to mess up (speaking as someone who's also messed up one of those semi-homemade kits). Let me know how you go!

      Delete

Thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment!