ABC - No-Knead Chocolate Cherry Pecan Bread

Chocolate Cherry Berry No-Knead Bread

This month's recipe for the ABC bakers was the ever-so-popular No-Knead bread. The King Arthur Flour recipe we made was a Chocolate Cherry Pecan bread. I made some changes by using mini chocolate chips and instead of just dried cherries, I used a mix of dried cherries and other berries (cranberries, blueberries and strawberries). Since I can't eat pecans, I simply omitted them. I briefly considered substituting almonds and although I love almonds, I'm not too crazy about them in bread because they get a bit soggy.

There may have been a bit of confusion around this KAF recipe. The recipe on their site differed slightly from the recipe on their blog. They have a pretty good explanation as to why that is. I decided to go with the recipe in the blog because I liked the step-by-step pictures :o)

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.

The initial dough was a breeze to make. On Friday night, I put all the ingredients (minus the add-ins) in a container, mixed it briefly by hand, added a bit more water, mixed it a bit more, and then put the lid on it. It sat on my kitchen counter until the next morning. By then it had risen considerably.

The next morning, I went to work to add the add-ins into the dough. I put a dab of oil on my silicone mat and lightly oiled my hands too. Then I dumped the dough onto the mat, patted into a rectangle, sprinkled the extra 1/2 tsp of yeast and the add-ins on top, and rolled it up "cinnamon roll style". I then proceeded to shape it into a ball.

The dough went into its second rise in the microwave (turned off) with a cup of warm water to create a nice warm and humid environment. A two hour stay is all it needed.

Since I don't have a Dutch oven or a cloche, I baked my bread in a cake pan. Instead of a 9" cake pan, I decided to use an 8" cake pan so I could get more rise, instead of having the dough spread more. I lined the pan with parchment paper and then sprayed the parchment paper to be really sure nothing stuck. I covered it with another 8" cake pan before placing it in the oven.

After baking the bread covered for 30 min, I removed the cover and reduced the temperature to 425, and let it bake for another 15 min. When I measured the temperature, it had reached 208 F which was perfect.

The hardest part of this recipe? Waiting for the bread to cool so I could taste it :o)

Bon appetit! :o)

Final thoughts/tips:

• So far 3 people have tasted this bread (myself included) and everyone loved it. Hubby thought it could use a little more salt (keep in mind, I reduced the salt a bit), and although he liked the crust, he's not a huge fan of crispy crust. All in all, he gave it an 8 out of 10 rating.
• I really liked the moist and chewy interior. The flavor of the bread really benefited from the slow room temp rise and smelled great.
• My changes: used 13 oz of cool water (instead of 12 oz), used bread flour instead of all-purpose flour, reduced the salt to 1.5 tsp, used mini chocolate chips and reduced the amount to 1.5 ounces, increased the amount of dried fruit to 4.75 ounces, omitted the nuts.
• Other changes: used a round 8" cake pan lined with parchment paper, placed another 8" round cake pan on top when it went into the oven, baked the bread on a pizza stone. Baked the bread covered for 30 min, remove the cake pan cover, reduced the temp to 425 F and baked for another 15 min.
• Don't forget to check out the other ABC bakers' No-Knead Bread.

This post is submitted to:

• Yeastspotting
• BYOB (Bake Your Own Bread) @ Roxana's Home Baking (#BakeYourOwnBread)