The snow was a bit of a disappointment yesterday but we did get about two inches of snowy slushy snainy rain. Snain is Viv’s new word for snow mixed with rain. I like it! We got snained! And while the wind was blowing the weather in, everyone hunkered down in the barn, like those beautiful tiny strong old ladies who sit with their brown prayers and second-to-best coats at Mass on a weekday morning, tolling their beads. Waiting. Serene.
I was hoping for a more dramatic snow event when I began this series but ah well. Water came out of the sky as ice, rain and snow. But it was warm enough not to be too much of a bother as the snain was melting as fast as it was falling which is great news for the fields.
It was a good day for making bread. Bread made with Kefir will take at least two days to complete. This suits my lifestyle as long as I remember to start the next one when I get the hot one out of the oven. Once a rhythm is established the process manages itself. I find it a relaxed process, if you leave it for an extra hour, one way or the other it seems to work out ok.
No Knead Kefir Bread
Step One: Mix together.
- One cup of active alive kefir
- One cup of bread flour
- One cup of warm filtered water
- One big tablespoon of honey.
Let sit covered in a warm spot for at least 24 hours. Stir two or three times during this period. I have left it up to three days with excellent results. As you can see once again I have written a recipe that I can remember without consulting a piece of paper. Lazy girl.
When it has doubled in size a few times (after the gentle stir) and is nice and fluffy, add -
- 4 cups flour
- 1/4 cup warm water if necessary
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- salt to taste or not.
You want a tacky elastic mixture. This will not look like a normal bread dough. No need to knead. Allow to rise in a very well oiled bread tin until doubled again, often about three hours.
Cook at 400F for 50 minutes (depending on your oven). This is the easiest bread I have ever made as long as you are happy to let it take its time. It does tend to stick to the sides of the tin though, or possibly I need a new one!! But oil your loaf tin well just in case.
Good morning. The home-schooled children are coming this morning. Hopefully John will be able to get the trailer out to collect a big round bale of grass hay to go down the back for Queenie, The Bobby and Hairy. It will sit on the round concrete pad and we will push it into the corner where three little fields meet, then lock it in with a pig panel to try avoid too much waste. Then Daisy can come over and have a munch as well. The big round bales are very heavy, our tractor cannot carry one, so there is a bit of luck involved when we push it off the trailer and into the corner, if it rolls the wrong way I will have to make a new plan!!
You all have a lovely day. 
See you later in the comments lounge. I learn so much over there, it is thrilling to get so much good advice in the comments. I really mean that.
celi
That bread looks good, so worth the wait
It is very tasty, and i always feel so smug when i can make bread without bought yeast..morning mad.. c
Our day is a bit of snow and slush and I know when the children open their eyes they will be disappointed it is not a snow day! So off to school they will grumble along about the unfairness of life I am sure..The bread looks wonderful!
The kids here have not had one snow day this year, most unusual.. c
I have been wanting to try Kefir Sourdough bread but with a house heated with wood, it would get too cold during the night hours but, now that we are in town for a few weeks, it’s top of my list! Enjoy.
My house is heated with a woodstove too, in just one room, so we average about 60F. The longer it proves the more sour it gets too. If I want to hurry it along I set it in the oven with only the light on.. morning jess, hope you enjoy the bread! c
someone else suggested the oven as an “incubator” with light on. Will have to try that.
Yum! A perfect way to warm the kitchen on a messy day!
We’re in for three solid days of rain – sure wish there was a way to share it with all of you who need the moisture…
you are having such a wet time of it lately, I bet all that snow has melted already too! c
I wouldn’t dare to use that name for the bread in S Africa – it would be construed as a viciously racist remark! Nor would I know where to get any active alive what-you-said! Looks delicious, though.
Best you call it sourdough then! Do you have the same trouble with Lime Kefir leaves? maybe they are called something else there.. i do hope so!! c
None of us in the family have ever heard of Kefir! I have looked it up and find it most interesting. I woulnd’t mind starting a culture of it if I could find out where to get a starter pack here. Yoghurt we do have.
That bread looks great. Gonna try it for sure. I love having bread grow in the kitchen…it’s alive!!!
I absolutely agree, and it is a great feeling to produce bread from a drink! c
Bread looks good and you have coined a new weather word – snainy! Morning Miss c…. t
Viv made it up and very sweetly said I could use it! I bet you can too! morning miss t. c
If I knew what Kefir was, I might have a go at making your bread. I haven’t made any since the heart attack, but it’s time we had some decent bread to eat! Thanks for adopting my word…your pictures demonstrate it perfectly.
I hope the hay rolling goes well.
There will be lots of shouting!! and then the trailer is almost guaranteed to get stuck in the mud! c
“snainy” – LOVE it. Your top photos look quite surreal C, absolutely magnificent pics.
Mandy xo
Love your bread too!
Morning Mandy! how are things over your way?.. c
All good here thanks Celi. Have Pete home for nearly 2 week so everything is swell.
xo
Beautiful bread. And beautiful snow pictures yesterday.
We’re in that snainy mess right now, it’s disgusting. The streets are filled with mounds of icy snow, it alternates rain and snow.
That bread looks amazing; JT makes a similar version with a 1/4 tsp yeast and he baked it in a lidded cast iron Dutch oven! The last 5 minutes without the lid, it makes for an incredible crumb! He uses corn meal so the bread doesn’t stick. http://kitcheninspirations.wordpress.com/2009/01/18/ok-i-lied-this-is-the-best-ever-no-knead-bread-recipe/
ah corn meal.. I shall do that next time.. the dutch oven trick sounds like a good one, could I do it on the woodstove?.. c
I’m sure you can C, the trick is the high temperature.
Well I have more snow on the ground but it is pouring out and the beavers have returned to flood me out but I am READY JT too!
Love the looks of this bread though lately I have been worried about Wheat Belly
though I was down almost 4 lbs. this week after all the shoveling how do you leave heaven on earth in your homeland and welcome this outside our windows lol just saying
It is not always perfect in NZ, when you and i were there we had fantastic luck with the weather..A man once said to me, I could sit you on a balcony facing a brick wall with a glass of wine and a book and you would be happy. What he meant was that i am happy just about anywhere just as long as i have a glass of wine and a book waiting. I think i am lucky that way. i love it when I am home in NZ and I love tramping through the mud to the barn out here.. interesting i suppose. c
That’s my problem I don’t DRINK lol I am like you really always making the best at what is dealt but I so am just trying to get through winter it is not horrible I have a roof so far over my head and heat much more than many others have just tired I suppose of shoveling
The round bales are fairly easy to unroll if things go awry in your placement. You just have to get the outer layers loose. Use your tractor to roll it until it is small enough for you to push it yourself. It is more labor intensive than round bales are meant to be, but you can control the amount they are getting so waste is less. We did this often when I was growing up on a dairy farm. Once the loft and sheds were full of square bales hay, Dad had a neighbor come and round bale the grass hay and the final cuttings of alfalfa. The cows were really good at breaking the round bale feeders so we went to unrolling their hay in the pasture for them, The heifer inherited the feeders and they were really good at getting stuck in them. The cows and the deer were pretty good at cleaning up the tasty morsels in the pasture.
The bread looks yummy.
Jeanne, what an excellent suggestion. I shall think about how to do this very seriously.. thank you.. c
I have a bread pan that I can ONLY grease up with butter. If oil, particularly olive oil, touches it then everything sticks fast to the pan. It’s that silvery aluminium type pan. Is that like yours?
No mine is an old dunger of a thing, i should use it as a dog bowl. but i did use olive oil this time, next time i will use butter and just see if that was the trouble.. i just hate to throw something out but there comes a time!! how is your house, my builder is chopping a hole in the wall today!! YAY ,.. i shall pop over! c
Lots of wiring going on today, brick cutting, sealing up back door, alarm system rewired and sensors repositioned. Electrician returns this weekend, but I’ll be in Denmark from tomorrow and through the weekend, so they’ll just carry on without my coffee-making skills. Pop-over and have a look; lots of photos.
I did and that brick!! lucky! c
Can you buy parchment paper, and line the tin so the bread doesn’t stick?
This looks lovely. I’m going to try it. I have just recently started making kefir and researching and exploring using various kinds of fermented things like Kombucha Tea (you can get a scoby from me if you log onto my blog (thegardenladyofga.wordpress.com), I’m finding that kefir makes a lovely cheese, the whey has many uses (sour kraut for one and in the garden to boost microbes for the soil), besides the delicious drink itself, and now this sourdough starter.
I have a question – Celi – have you tried using whole grain milled spelt or kamut instead of white processed bread flour for this recipe? I’d like to know if anyone has as I don’t use commercial short white wheat. How about quinoa or other alternate grains?
Thanks Celi.
May your hay bales roll in the direction you wish and your bread stick not upon the tin.
The bread looks quite delish although I fear I would wander off into the thick of my life and leave the bread in some sort of sorry unfinished state, forgotten.
Nice looking bread.
I have not made no knead kifer. I will have to try this. Sounds great.
Thankyou for writing this out – I will give it a go once I have the kefir up and bubbling again. There are so many ways to raise bread. I have often used whey or yoghurt in the bread but didn’t think that one could use kefir on its own, very very good looking bread too !! xx Jo
As for that snain… Brrrrr….
So you had a snain event!
Never heard of Kefir bread before…….
I can almost smell that fresh bread all the way out here! Looks good!!
Your frozen land looks like ours yesterday…today…we have sunshine!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
It’s lovely to see life (hay and bread) rolling along. Slight disaster here at the moment, but manageable. I used to make the kind of bread I could only buy in the Czech Republic. Crescent-shaped crusty bread sticks dusted with rock salt and caraway. I think a bit of bread making would help to calm things down.
What a great bread recipe, Celi, and perfect weather to bake it. Is the flavor like that of sourdough? I need to try this.
We got a little bit of everything last night and it’s been snowing intermittently this morning. I cleared the walks last night and they’re relatively clear. With a freezer full of food, I’ll be staying put today. Have a great day, Teach!
I like the textured look of your kefir bread. I hope the hay behaved!
If one could bottle the aroma of baking bread we would dab it behind our ears – or sprinkle it through the house. It would be the most perfect perfume in the world. !!
I love the subtlety of your prose, the unexpected way of description; the brown prayers, tolling, ….
(it’s too early to punctuate)
Oh believe me, it is ALWAYS too early to punctuate c
If my partner wasn’t allergic to milk, I ‘d be starting that bread tonight. Alas, I shall remain kefir-bread-less!
So many people talking about kefir states right now – they seem to make wonderful bread. I need to look into this seriously…..Hope the bale moving went well!
A bit of snain makes for some really pretty photos! Your bread looks good too, I haven’t heard of kefir – wonder if we can get it here?
I forgot about my kefir; unattended for 15-18 hours ……and now how the thickest greek yoghurt.
I thought I would make a kefir sourdough leaven when I return from holiday.
If you dust your bread pan with rye flour after greasing………….nothing seems to stick.
Looking forward to visiting On Trays next week………….yes on holiday in NZ.
Oh yes, I loved that place, so much good food and smiley people.. say hi to home for me!! c
Will give your fondest wishes to home. National Park is the closest I will get to your beloved HB. E
I am so lazy. I love no knead breads.
I am sold now!! c
It does look a bit Christmasy there. Spring is coming – hang on.
(Ahh, the yummy bread smells)
Hope the hay moving goes well (Do not do one of those cartoon moves and try to stop it if it starts going the wrong way…no one wants you squashed)
What a fantastic bread and so easy to make: since I work from home can keep an eye on it and patience I do have!! Tomorrow a big shop: have to see whether kefir is kept in the supermarket – 75% hopeful!! Oh, and absolutely love the sepia tonings of your snainy daily view – another case of pinching methinks
!
My world is sepia.. soon the colour will come back, they say it might warm up a bit next week! Pinching!! good.. c
hi Celi sorry i didn’t get to you till this evening . been pulling brush from the storm in July 2012
that way i just move it around it seeds as I move it Missy has a sour milk bread I just love 
she is trying all kinds of bread I like bread good thing she made some bread with molasses just to die for yum yum 
the round bales how big are they 4×4 or 5×5 ? I push the 4×4 s around on and off the trailers to load my mobile feeder 4×6 trailer with a roof and side rails to prevent waste that way i can get some benefit from the waste seeding the pasture
That is a great idea, a moving bale, I like it. I will certainly try bread with molasses, it does sound good. c
Hi Celi….just love your icey srainy pics…looks like a fairy Wonderland.
Nothing exciting to say from me but I do love making no knead bread…it’s such a lazy, hazzy type of bread baking and always turns out YUM…I make it often….it’
s wonderful fresh out of the oven with a drop of honey and a glass of Pinot Grigio…..
Honey and a pinot grigio, that sounds like us!! c
Those are awesome snow landscape photos!
Your bread looks FAB.
Your weather . . . not so much.
The snowy landscape looks like heaven to me now that we are parched and longing for rain, and none to come for another two weeks- if it does, and if not… who knows….Don’t know how you fit bread-making into everything else in your busy days!
That bread looks great, but the last snow scene ( with the tree house) looks best. We’ve actually got sun today, which is just wonderful.
mmmm bread and salami. Add some cheese and you’ve got a great meal for this glutton.
I love kefir and this looks fantastic, C!
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I got to try this bread, no knead breads are good specially when you are busy and dont want to clean lots of utensils and kitchen surface.
Absolutely beautiful!
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Awesome bread! I put it in the oven after stage one and then forgot it. After two days there it was, I did stage two with only 3 cups of bread flour and no additional water, put it in the oven for a second proof and then baked it. That’s the bread I’ll always make from now on. Thank you for this recipe, also in the name of my husband.
you are welcome christel, i have made nothing else but since and it can be pizza bases, flat breads, pita breads.. I use it for everything.. c
Awesome bread. My husband requested to make it all the time. Thank you for the recipe.
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