New West Knifeworks' Superbread Knife & Baking Bread in Le Creuset by Ruhlman

Remember the post where I swooned about my new The 8 knife from the New West KnifeWorks? Well, I've used this knife so often and have been so happy with it, I decided to pitch a new idea to the company: I would FINALLY bake bread in my Le Creuset and then use their gorgeous Superbread Fusionwood knife to cut into my loaf of bread.

Guess what? They said YES and sent me the knife for a review. {Happy dance!}

When I posted a photo of the knife on instagram and Facebook, some of my followers were surprised by the shape of the knife: it doesn't look like your traditional bread knife. I think it looks way better! Plus, on top of its great design, it has great function:

"An offset bread knife with an edge. The shape of the Super Bread Knife not only allows room for your knuckles on the cutting board, it is more versatile, and the chef knife shape allows better control than most offset bread knives. Our unique 'wave' serration gives you an incredibly sharp edge and has the unique capacity to be honed and fully sharpened using a diamond or ceramic steel. Kullens or dimple grinds on the side of the blade allow the Super Bread Knife to pass through food cleanly and helps prevent food from sticking to it."

Read more about the knife's steel, handle and the fact that it's made in the USA here.


But now let's chat about how I tested out this Superbread knife. I finally decided to make no knead bread in my Le Creuset. The recipe has been going around for a few years and I have put it on my mental cooking resolutions list and can finally put a mental check mark by it!

I'm not going to retype the entire recipe because I followed it exactly. You can see the recipe and the video by Michael Ruhlman for yourself. The only thing I would tell you is to add way more salt to the dough: mine was a bit on the bland side.

Since I don't have a stand mixer, I made the dough in my KitchenAid food processor by combining flour, water, yeast and salt. The dough was a bit sticky, but I just formed it into a ball and let it rise for a few hours.

After the initial rise, I punched the dough a few times and kneaded it a little bit to release the gas and formed it into a tight ball once again. Then I put it into an oiled Le Creuset and let it rest again. 

Once the bread was ready to be baked, I brushed it with olive oil, sprinkled it with salt and made a snowflake design with my Superbread knife.

The bread gets baked first covered at 450F oven and then uncovered at 375F. It comes out GORGEOUS!! I was so incredibly proud of myself ;)

The photo below on the left shows how perfectly golden brown the bread is all around. You have to be patient and let the bread cool for a bit before cutting into it.

The Superbread did an awesome job cutting through the very crispy crust and not tearing the bread. It was also long enough to handle this large loaf.

I had to dig in as soon as I cut a few slices: the bread was great with olive oil and salt and also with a drizzle of thick balsamic (not pictured).

Thank you SO much New West Knifeworks for my new gorgeous knife! If YOU want to buy one, you can use a special discount code for Mango & Tomato readers to get 25% off your purchase: M&T25.

You can also try your luck at winning your own New West Knifeworks knives!