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The type of ingredients you use in No Knead Bread making are extremely important. If you use the correct ingredients you will get perfect results every time with little or no effort. No Knead ingredients are now widely available, are not expensive and are designed specifically to enable home bread makers to produce professional results without using chemicals or preservatives. We use and test the various products daily in our test kitchen. This ensures that our products will always maintain their original standard of excellence. Once you have tried them, you too will see and taste the difference.
Flour
Flour isn't just flour, all flour contains a protein substance called gluten. When gluten is wet it forms a cell like structure, just like a thousand tiny balloons throughout the dough.
When yeast ferments it releases carbon dioxide, this gas is trapped in each cell of gluten, when warmth is present, the gas expands and thus the bread rises.
Our flour is ground from a wheat or a combination of wheats which produce the perfect gluten content, therefore instead of having to knead the dough to distribute the gluten frame work evenly, we just need to mix our dough thoroughly and the gluten will be perfectly distributed throughout the dough. A flour with too little gluten will produce a poor textured, uneven dough which will in turn produce a poor quality loaf of bread. A flour which contains too much will produce a dry, tough bread. So you can see the type of flour you use is absolutely vital. By using the best, you get the best results.
No Knead Untreated Flour
 This is a high quality creamy white breadmaking flour which has not been treated with chlorine dioxide to bleach or preserve it. The words No Knead denote the high protein content which means that it does not have to be kneaded. It can be kept for up to 6 months but is best if used regularly to ensure its freshness. To ensure you are purchasing a genuine No Knead product, our logo appears on all our flour products.
No Knead Wholemeal Flour
A high quality breadmaking flour, where the whole of the wheat has been used in its manufacture which ensures all the minerals, vitramins, and fibre are still present. It can be kept for up to 6 months but is best if used regularly to ensure its freshness. To ensure you are purchasing a genuine No Knead product, our logo appears on all our flour products.
No Knead Pasta Dura Flour
This untreated white flour with an extra high gluten content is specifically designed to product crusty free form loaves. This flour also makes supurb Pasta. It can be kept for up to 6 months but is best if used regularly to ensure its freshness. To ensure you are purchasing a genuine No Knead product, our logo appears on all our flour products.
No Knead Cold Pressed Oil
Cold Pressed oils are not treated with chemical solvents such as Hexane, nor are they treated with chemicals to cleanse, bleach and deodorise. When extracting cold pressed oil the seeds are gently heated, pressed to extract the oil and the oil is then filtered producing a beautiful natural healthy oil which is superb to use in any situation that you would ordinarily use chemically extracted oils with the exception of deep frying. Its addition to the bread adds natural vitamins and minerals and helps to retain the softness and moistness of your bread.
Non-disastatic Malt
This is a non fermenting malt, full of Vitamin B which will add a delightful flavour to your bread. Simply dissolve in the water before adding. You may use sugar if you prefer.
Salt
An important ingredient in breadmaking! Leaving out the salt can really spoil your bread, leaving it dry and crumbly, lacking in flavour with a poor texture. Salt not only enhances the flavour of the wheat, but helps to control the yeast and prevent it from over fermenting.
No Knead Yeast
A NATURAL dry active yeast that will stay beautifully active if it is kept in the freezer from the day of purchase.
This yeast freezes in granulated form and will still pour from the carton even when frozen. It's important to note that the recipes are based on the use of the No Knead yeasts. Using other forms or brands of yeast will require the amounts to be altered. To ensure you are purchasing a genuine No Knead product, our logo appears on all our products.
No Knead Natural Improver
Simply No Knead bread improver has been developed and manufactured to our exclusive formula guaranteeing a natural, chemical and preservative free product. The Vitamin C it contains is a natural yeast food that agitates the yeast to produce carbon dioxide to fill the cells of gluten in the dough, making your bread light and quick to rise. The Soy flour contained in the improver not only adds goodness but helps keep the bread soft and fresh. This is an essential ingredient in No Knead breadmaking and cannot be substituted with any other product eg. Gluten flour or any other product purporting to be Natural Improver. SIMPLY NO KNEAD IMPROVER REALLY IS THE SECRET TO YOUR SUCCESS. To ensure you are purchasing a genuine No Knead product, our logo appears on all our products.
Water
Water is 50% of your bread. The secret is to use it at the correct temperature. The best way to achieve this is to measure out 300ml of cold water into a jug and add 200ml of boiling water and mix. This will give you 500ml. You should find this is just right and once you have become accustomed to the feel of it, you will not even bother to measure it out accurately. Another of the secrets of good bread is to have the dough nice and moist but not sloppy and the way to add the water to achieve this perfect texture is to add three quarters of the water at first and mix thoroughly and then just keep halving the remaining water adding it, mixing it thoroughly until the dough is moist but stiff.
The 3 rules of breadmaking are:
1. Coolness retards the working of the yeast.
2. Warmth speeds up the rising.
3. Heat kills the yeast.
When applying those rules to the temperature of the water you can see that if you use cold water the rising will be extremely slow. If you use lukewarm water the rising will be a little faster but if you follow the rule of 300ml cold to 200ml of boiling you will spead up the rising of the bread perfectly. If you use hot water alone you will kill the yeast.
YEAST TEST
If you are unsure of your yeast's freshness, here is a simple test to make sure it is still active.
Dry Ingredients
4 tablespoons untreated flour
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons No Knead Yeast
Liquid Ingredients
Enough warm water to make a pourable paste
Method
1. Mix all the dry ingredients together, pour in enough warm water
to make a pourable paste.
2. Leave the mixture for 30 to 40 minutes.
3. If it is ACTIVE the mixture will froth.
4. If it is NOT ACTIVE the mixture will not change.
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