No-Knead and Low-Knead Bread

I have painful problematic joints. I can't knead for 10 or 20 minutes without it sending me to bed for the next week, and mixers capable of handling dough simply do not exist here, nor do bread machines. So, making my own bread was out of the question.

So I thought.

Then I discovered the NYT No-Knead Bread recipe, which got me interested in making bread again, and then I discovered the sourdough version. And as I explored the Internet, I discovered other methods that didn't involve kneading bread for 10 or 20 minutes.

One method involves kneading the bread for 10 seconds and letting it rest for 15 minutes, done a total of three times, followed by a stretch and fold.

Another method involves stretching and folding in a similar time frame (no kneading at all), but I can't find the link right now. I'll keep looking.

I've been applying the low-knead method to other bread recipes and, from what I can tell, the recipe makes no difference as to whether or not low-knead will work. It just will. I've been making sourdough sweet buns that have risen like normal and have the same kind of texture and whatnot as bread that's been kneaded for 10 or 20 minutes (Fahim's been loving this - fresh cinnamon buns and coconut buns!) It just works.


So now the question for the day. For those of you who don't currently make bread, are you now considering the possibility? For those of you who do currently make bread, are you now considering changing kneading techniques?

Do! Because of this, I can make bread or buns or rolls or whatever as often as I want, which has been a couple or three times a week, what with the hubby's penchant for cinnamon buns/sweet rolls/coconut buns for breakfast. It's just so much less effort.

There's an explanation of autolyse here and here, autolyse being that period of rest after you mix up the dough. Basically, it lets the flour absorb the liquid and gets the gluten going. Or, more basically, the long period of resting does the same thing as kneading for ten minutes would. Or so my understanding of this goes. Remember, I'm still new to this no-knead stuff myself.