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
The Kitchen's Garden 
123 responses to “How to make No-knead Kefir bread on a Snowy Slushy Snainy day!”
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
Hi,
Does alive kefir mean the kefir has not been filtered out the kefir grains? Or the filtered kefir without the kefir grains?
Could you let me know? I really want to make this bread. I have homemade kefir.
Hi,
Does alive kefir mean the kefir has not been filtered out the kefir grains? Or the filtered kefir without the kefir grains?
Could you let me know? I really want to make this bread. I have homemade kefir.
Thank you!
Hullo! Yes – go ahead and strain the kefir then use the filtered slurry to work with. Good luck!!
Okay I’m waiting and hoping as I’ve tried to make it gluten free…I tried watching to see if it rises…but that’s not working 😉
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.
Nonsense. Kefir is spelled and pronounced differently to THAT word. Look on gumtree, its available everywhere
I wouldn’t say everywhere by a long chalk, and I note the pains every gumtree entry goes to to explain the origin of the word. I also know full well the propensity of sectors of the population whereby if a stick has a wrong end they will grab it.
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.
Love your bread too!
🙂 Mandy xo
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.