I love overnight bread. It's much easier to make than normal homemade bread, without any kneading necessary - you just mix everything together in a bowl, let it sit overnight, and then bake it in the morning. The thing is that it's usually baked in a dutch oven or lidded ceramic dish and involves some dough folding and sitting in a tea towel in the morning after it's risen overnight, which I find detracts a bit from the simplicity of the method.
This recipe is a little bit different. It's about as hands-off as you can get from bread making (other than picking up a loaf at the store and pretending you made it). The only thing you need is a few minutes to mix everything, and the bread does all the work on its own. This does require at least 12 hours of rising time, though, so I recommend that you make it in the early evening as opposed to right before bed. The dough rises a second time in the pan you bake it in, so you don't need to worry about proper folding technique or anything like that. All you have to do is mix it the night before, dump it in a loaf pan, and bake it. No kneading, no folding, no special equipment. Despite the lack of work that goes into this bread, the crust is surprisingly crispy, and the inside of the loaf is soft and tender. This bread lasts longer than other homemade breads, and it keeps for at least a week sitting on the counter, wrapped well.
If you're familiar with traditional dark rye, this tastes just like it. If you've never had it before, dark rye is a commonly eaten bread in northern Europe and Scandinavia. I live less than an hour from the north sea now and just a couple of hours from Denmark, so the food here is very similar to Scandinavian food. The bread is quite dense and filling, and its flavour is reminiscent of sourdough because of the long rising time. It's often eaten as a breakfast bread with different spreads or used for sandwiches, usually open-faced. I happily eat it for breakfast or as a midday snack with some peanut butter or jam, and Graham will eat half a loaf in a day. The dark colour comes from a little bit of cocoa powder and whole grain flours.
On another note, I made my fig and hazelnut cake today for some students at a jewellery making workshop, and it went over really well. I changed the figs out for halved apples and added cinnamon to the batter. I also made a deal with the owner of the studio, one of my grandmother's friends, to teach me jewellery making in exchange for catering when she has groups of people there for courses or exhibition openings. She's an absolutely incredible artist and jeweller. You can see some of her more recent artwork here - the focus of this work was on forced migration during the second world war, which is also reflective of the current refugee crisis.
Update July 11, 2017: The recipe has now been updated to include measurements by weight, and includes instructions on how to make it with a sourdough starter in addition to commercial yeast.
Update July 11, 2017: The recipe has now been updated to include measurements by weight, and includes instructions on how to make it with a sourdough starter in addition to commercial yeast.
