High Protein No-Knead Bread

This High Protein No-Knead Bread is my current hyper-fixation! I’ve made it like five times in the last few weeks. Now, I don’t claim to be a bread making girly; this is a very beginner-friendly recipe (I would know, because I’m still a beginner). It takes a bit of waiting time, but actually doing time for this bread is under five minutes. It’s the perfect way to make a high protein grilled cheese sandwich, or just to have as a side for a creamy vegan Alfredo or some cozy chili!

I hope you’ll try this one out, even if you’re intimidated by bread making – I swear this one is easy and you won’t mess it up!

You will need a Dutch Oven for this recipe. I lucked into using reward points from work to get a cute little pumpkin dutch oven that I wouldn’t normally buy for myself because it’s so pricey. But, honestly, any dutch oven will work great and you can get some pretty cheap ones that don’t have a fancy brand name attached to them!

Ingredients

• Bread Flour – I prefer to use bread flour for this recipe as opposed to all-purpose flour. Mostly because it’s a little higher in protein content, but also because it leads to chewier and lighter bread. If you only have all-purpose flour, I think that would still work fine. Be sure to weigh this ingredient. Sometimes, the weight per volume measurement listed in the nutritional facts is not accurate to life, as flour does tend to settle and become more dense.
• Vital Wheat Gluten – if you want high protein bread, you’re going to need this ingredient. I played around with the bread flour to vital wheat gluten ratio and this seems to be perfect! You get a decent macro profile while still keeping a bread-y texture. Adding more vital wheat gluten than its called for will give it more of a Seitan-like texture, mess up how much water you need, and change how many calories are in each serving, which is why it’s crucial that you weigh this ingredient. Vital wheat gluten, specifically, is waaaay more dense than the nutritional label will lead you to believe. It says 1/4 cup is 30 grams. I’ve found that 1/4 cup is actually closer to 45 – 60 grams, which is why measuring this is so important. Anyways, pretty please weigh your ingredients 🙂
• Salt – this is such an important ingredient for bread making. Salt strengthens the gluten-structure which allows us to get those fun little air pockets in the bread which makes it feel lighter because it’s allowed to rise properly. It also controls the yeast’s activity, which helps us get the perfect balance of fermentation for the best flavor.
• Instant Yeast – make sure you’re using instant yeast for this. Yeast is probably the most important ingredient for this recipe. Also, make sure your yeast is not expired (I realized I had been using expired yeast packets and the dough was not rising as it should). Yeast consume the sugars in our bread dough, and release carbon dioxide gas which is what causes our little air pockets, leading to a lighter and yummier bread. I worked as a Process Engineer at an Ethanol Plant for several years, and yeast are really freaking cool – thank you yeast!
• Water – we will be using very warm water. Like as hot as your sink can make it. The yeast perform much better with warm water (as opposed to cold water). As with everything, moderation is important; if your water is too hot, it will kill the yeast and we will all be very sad. You don’t want anything more than like 115 – 120F.
• Olive Oil – we will be using a small amount of olive oil to coat the bread dough in before the waiting period (proofing time). This helps the dough retain moisture and keeps it from drying out. It also helps with the taste!

Instructions

• In a large bowl, mix together the bread flour, vital wheat gluten, instant yeast and salt. I like to use a whisk to make sure that all of the ingredients are evenly dispersed throughout the dough.
• Add the warm water. I like to start with 1 3/4 cup. Your dough should look like the picture shown below. If it’s still too dry, add a little more water. If your dough looks wet and sloppy, add in small amounts of bread flour until you get to the texture seen below. It’s should be moist and all of the flour should be mixed in, but should be easily able to form a ball.

• Once your dough looks like this, lightly coat it with olive oil.
• Place either cling wrap or saran wrap over the top of the bowl. Should be a good seal.

• Next, place a towel or two on top of the wrap. This helps maintain moisture and warmth, allowing the dough to rise better.

• After 4 hours (minimum), your dough should look like this. It’s worth checking on around the 1 hour mark, just to make sure it’s rising like you’d expect. If your dough is not rising, put it somewhere warmer.

• When your dough looks good, pre-heat the oven to 450 F (232 C).
• Once your oven is pre-heated, place an empty Dutch Oven into the oven for 30 minutes.
• Get a piece of parchment paper and sprinkle a bit of flour on it (you can also do this on a clean counter top). Dump out the dough and form it into a tight little ball by folding the dough and scooping it in. You ball should look like this.

• Once the Dutch Oven is pre-heated, pull it out of the oven, remove the lid, and carefully place the parchment paper with the bread into it. Place the lid back on top. Please be careful; this stuff is like Mordor-hot. I need better oven mitts because I can only hold the lid for roughly 3.4 seconds before I want to cry.
• Cook with the lid on for 30 minutes.
• Remove lid and cook for another 10 – 15 minutes, until the crust is crusty and golden brown. It should look like this.

• Allow to cool and remember the Dutch Oven and its lid are plotting to burn you so always remember where they are and not to touch them 🙂
• Here’s the crumb shot for reference so you can see what the texture is like!

Silly Little Haiku

Bread can be easy

If you just follow the steps

Yeast are super cool