Blood Orange and Dried Mulberry No Knead Bread
No knead bread is the best introduction to making bread and it’s still my favourite go to when I need a loaf for breakfast. Assembling the dough is just a matter of mixing everything together the night before and patiently waiting till the next morning to shape the dough and bake it. You can make a great plain loaf of bread by leaving out the mulberries and substituting the blood orange juice with just water (keeping the ratio of 3 cups of flour to 1.5 cups of liquid)
INGREDIENTS
3 cups plain flour
1.5 cups water (you won’t necessarily use it all)
3/4 tsp yeast
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup dried mulberries or cranberries
1 small blood orange
METHOD
Zest the blood orange then cut it in half and juice the orange. Strip the leftover flesh from the orange and chop very finely. Add the flesh to the juice in a measuring cup and top with water till it reaches 1.5 cups of liquid.
In a large bowl, add the flour, instant yeast, salt and dried mulberries. Pour in the water and mix till all the flour is well incorporated – the mixture will look scraggy. Cover the bowl with cling film and allow to sit on the kitchen bench at room temperature for 10-12 hours (this is assuming room temperature is below 23 degrees – on a warmer day it might be best to leave the dough in the fridge).
When the dough is ready to be shaped, place a round cast iron pot into the oven and preheat the oven to 220 degrees celcius (conventional).
Lightly flour the kitchen bench top and tip dough out onto the bench. Scatter the top of the dough with flour before flipping the dough over with the flour side down. Pull the edge closest to you up towards you and fold it into the centre. Do the same with the left and right edges of the dough. Finally pull the top edge up and then pull over the entire loaf. Flip the loaf over and with two hands shape the dough into a tight round shape.
Place the dough onto a piece of non-stick baking paper, trim the baking paper to the same shape as the dough, leaving enough paper to grab onto later. Scatter the top with poppy seeds and lay a tea towel over the dough and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.
When you’re ready to bake the bread, carefully remove the cast iron pot from the oven. With a pair of scissors or a sharp knife, slash the top of the loaf. Carefully lift the dough by the edges of the baking paper and place it into the pot. Cover with a lid and place in the oven to bake for 30 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes or till the bread is golden brown. Baking it slightly longer will give a harder crust.
Let the bread cool on a baking rack before slicing it up.