Well, we've made at least four batches of this no knead bread. It's really GOOD! Yesterday morning we turned out our first batch of no knead sourdough bread. It came out very well. I suspected, however, that when they said that one only has to use a 1/4 cup of sourdough starter instead of a 1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast (no mention of baking soda), for this bread, that they were using "fake sourdough." "Fake sourdough," is simply a yeast culture, used like sourdough, but which started with packaged yeast. "Real sourdough" starts out as a "captured yeast culture," without any commercial yeast added. It tends to be stronger than packaged yeast. So, when we did our sourdough no knead bread, we added 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to the batter. It worked. I might even try 1/3 teaspoon of baking soda, since our sourdough was, well... a little sour. Still, it's good enough that I have to be careful not to eat too much! The beauty of the no knead method is that one can through it together in less than 10 minutes. Let sit for at least 18 hours (I have let it sit 24 hours) and then there's less than five minutes of work before a 1 1/2 hour rise and one pops it in the oven. 45 minutes after that presto! One has a really crispy tasty bread, very much like a good French bread. It's very little work, but one does need to time things. George

Here is a link to a video demonstrating how to make the bread and her is the recipe. No Knead Bread Recipe Servings: One 1-pound loaf Prep Time: Cook Time: No Knead Bread Recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman of NY Times who got it from Sullivan Street Bakery. When the recipe first came out, it was the blogging community who took the bread to new heights, especially Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of The Bread Bible. I followed Rose's experiments through the weeks and learned from her recipe adjustments and the why's of how this bread works. Ingredients: 3 cups bread flour (I like Harvest King bread flour) 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast 3/4 tablespoon kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon table salt) 1 1/2 cups warm water Covered pot (five-quart or larger cast iron, Pyrex, ceramic, enamel...something that can go into a 450F oven.) Directions: 1. Mix dough: The night before, combine all ingredients in a big bowl with a wooden spoon until the dough just comes together. It will be a shaggy, doughy mess. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 12-20 hours on countertop. 2. Shape & preheat: The dough will now be wet, sticky and bubbly. With a wet spatula, dump the dough on a floured surface. Fold ends of dough over a few times with the spatula and nudge it into a ball shape. You can use your hands if you like, just keep your hands wet so that the dough does not stick. Generously dust a cotton towel (not terrycloth) with flour. Set dough seam side down on top of towel. Fold towel over the dough. Let it nap for 2 hours. When you've got about a half hour left, slip your covered pot into the oven and preheat to 450F. 3. Bake: Your dough should have doubled in size. Remove pot from oven. Holding towel, turn over and dump wobbly dough into pot, using your hands to get the dough off the towel. Doesn't matter which way it lands. Shake to even dough out. Cover. Bake 30 minutes. Uncover, bake another 15-20 minutes or until the crust is beautifully golden and middle is 210F. I tried it myself and a number of other recipes. They were good but they did not turn out exactly as I thought they would. I then discovered the baking element on the floor of my oven was not working properly. I'll try again when I get a new range. Teresa Here is a link that might be useful: No knead bread video

Hi yes I have used the Bread Machine Yeast in the Challah. They call it rapid rise but it is more like Acitve Dry. Yeast is SO confusing !! This will make 3 braids. There are lots of great YouTube videos of braids. Your DD will love looking at some of them for ideas :) Challah is the perfect bread for grilled cheese sandwiches...never will you find better ! It is also wonderful for French toast and croutons when it gets stale. Bread pudding also. Can't go wrong with Challah. I do have a good whole wheat . I will get it out and type it in. You really need to get your starter going and then make SD with a soaker...that means you take the whole grains and soak them overnight. It accomplishes several things. The most important is that the grains are way more digestible and also you get so much more nutrition from the flours and grains when they interact with the enzymes in the SD and you retard the loaves overnight for the bake the next day. The price for Bob's Red Mill on Amazon is great ! You can also sign up for the regular shipments to save even more. They have the bulk yeast too and all is free shipping. Walmart has the best buttermilk. It is called Bulgarian Buttermilk and has more good bacteria in it . Very thick and wonderful. You can use the powdered or just add vinegar or lemon to milk but it isn't nearly as tasty or thick. I have some great rye breads. Will add those too. Please take a look at Wild Yeast Blog..she has a lot of breads that aren't sourdough also . c

bbstx, don't give up. I did make the no-knead bread (twice, in fact) and just wasn't impressed with flavor or texture, so I went back to traditional bread, but a lot of people love it. I never tried it with beer, that might make a difference in flavor. I don't use a scale for anything, I learned to bake bread by "feel". Even in the bread machine, I'll measure ingredients according to the recipe and then check the dough. Sometimes it needs more flour, sometimes more liquid, depending on the flour, the humidity, many factors. I just made breadsticks last night from a King Arthur recipe which is usually pretty much "right on" and had to add nearly 1/2 cup of water because it was too crumbly. I'm blaming the Gold Medal bread flour I'm stuck with for that. That said, a lot of people use a scale and like that method. I'd still have to check the dough to see if it was "right", LOL, so it would do me no good to weigh the stuff, but if you think that will work for you and you have space to store the thing, I've seen some that weren't too expensive. Annie