Here's the simplest bread, and perhaps the best bread, I've ever tried. That is, if one likes a chewy bread with a hard crisp crust. One can find no knead bread on Youtube, etc. But I've "perfected it" to the utmost simplicity. Here's how I do it. I've been making a loaf, about every other day, since November. This is a major part of what I carry to work for break time and lunch. I can whip this bread up in moments, though, it then sits for about 18 hours before I do anything else with it. More often than not, I substitute a tablespoon of sourdough starter and 1/3 teaspoon of baking soda, for the yeast. It always comes out great. 1) To a nonmetal bowl add 1 1/2 cups of water: temperature is unimportant. 2) To this, add 1/4 teaspoon of dry active yeast and 1 teaspoon of salt. 3) Now, with a rubber spatula, mix in approximately 3 cups of flour. I often use 1/2 cup of corn meal or even one cup of rye, in place of some of the white flour.. 4) Mix until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. It will be too sticky to knead, even if you wanted to. But it should be "dough," not "batter." 5) Put a lid on this and let sit for 12 to 24 hours. I was originally told 18 hours. But 12 to 24 seems to be exact enough. After this waiting period: 1) Flour your counter and scrape this dough onto the counter. 2) Flour your hands and fold this blob of dough by thirds. 3) Lightly flour the bowl, from which the dough was taken. 4) Quickly (or it will really stick to your hands) plop it back into the bowl. 5) Cover and let sit for 1 1/2 hours. At end of 1 1/2 hour wait: 1) Place a covered glass casserole dish in the oven, set at 500 F., for 15 minutes. 2) Carefully remove the dish and plop your dough into it. Replace the cover and put the whole thing in the oven. 3) Wait 40-45 minutes 4) Remove the lid from the casserole dish, decrease the temperature in the oven, to 400 F. 5) Wait 15 minutes more and remove from the oven. You can let it cool in the dish, though I usually get it out before it's cold. This bread is HEAVENLY when sliced hot and eaten with butter. But it does make good toast and sandwiches. \ Give it a try and enjoy! George

It's baked with the lid on Annie. Usually a pre-determined time for the lid to come off and baked a bit longer to top brown. I believe that is what gives bread personality. With a bit of study, and knowing your own oven and its quirks, bread can be what you want. Nice to reach a point where it feels natural and 'understood'. I like the parchment 'dump' method ann-t. I just made #6 batch of my grain rye. For the ruis i've been lifting out of the pot by the parchment and sliding the loaf back in the oven nude. To brown and finish on the oven rack. DH finishes his boul in the dutch oven. What has surprised me and my recent baking attempts is getting a good feel for the dough. I'm just now starting to ask 'why'. What's all that crazy talk about strand and gluten, pre-fermentation bla bla bla. spounges and poolish and biga and starter. I think i got lucky that my first recipe included a sponge. Kept me focused and held my attention. At the point now where i don't need the recipe. Just a glance to check if i've forgotten something. This link has been helpful.... Here is a link that might be useful: poolish and biga

Posted by sally2 (My Page) on Tue, Nov 11, 08 at 10:18 I just remembered this recipe I've made before, and it was quite tasty. It lists separate herbs, but I bet you can use an equivalent amount of one of your new blends. I think you could use this method for just about any bread recipe, but this is what was in the cookbook, so that's how I'll post it. Herbed Monkey Bread From The Kind Arthur Flour Baker's Companion 10 small servings 1 recipe white bread 101 (recipe to follow) Herb Coating 3 to 5 tablespoons (1 1/4 to 2 3/8 ounces) Olive Oil* 1 tablespoon fresh stemmed thyme, or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, or 1 tablespoon dried 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 garlic clove, minced Combine the oil, herbs, and garlic. Set the mixture aside. Prepare White Bread 101 up through it's first rise. Grease the bottom and sides of a small (8-inch) tube or bundt-style pan, or a deep (2 inches or deeper) 8-inch cake pan or souffle dish. Turn out the risen dough onto a lightly floured work surface and divide it into 32 small pieces, each about the size of a chestnut and weighing approximately 3/4 ounce. Place about a third of them in the bottom of the pan if you're using a small bundt-style pan. If you're using a cake pan, put about two-thirds of the pieces into it. Brush the dough in the pan with the herb coating. Continue to layer with the remaining balls, brushing the top layer with the remaining herb oil. (If you've used the greater amount of olive oil, dip each piece of dough into the oil to coat it completely before layering it into the pan.) Let the bread rise, covered, for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake the bread for 30 to 35 minutes, until it's golden. Remove it from the oven and invert it onto a serving platter; the crispy bottom crust should be on top. Serve warm. *Use 3 tablespoons of oil if you simply want to drizzle the herb coating over the bough balls once they're in the pan. To thoroughly coat each dough ball before putting them in the pan, use 5 tablespoons of olive oil. This extra oil will give the bread a delicious crisp crust. Here's the bread recipe. I'll go ahead and enter the complete recipe, even though for the Monkey Bread you'll not use the whole process. White Bread 101 1 loaf, 16 slices 3 cups (12 3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons instant yeast 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) sugar 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) butter 1/4 cup (1 1/4 ounces) nonfat dry milk 1/4 cup (1 1/2 ounces) potato flour, or 1/3 cup (3/4 ounce) potato flakes 1 1/8 cups (9 ounces) lukewrm water Combine all the ingredients and mix and knead them together - by hand, mixer, or bread machine - until you've made a soft, smooth dough. Adjust the dough's consistency with additional flour or water as needed; but remember, the more flour you add while you're kneading, the heavier and drier your final loaf will be. Cover and let the dough rise for 1 hour, until it's puffy (though not necessarily doubled in bulk). Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface and shape it into an 8-inch log. Transfer the log to a lightly greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan, cover the pan (a proof cover works well here), and let the bread rise until the outer edge has risen about 1 inch over the rim of the pan, about 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Uncover the pan and bake the bread for 35 to 40 minutes, tenting it lightly with aluminum foil for the final 10 to 15 minutes if it appears to be browning too quickly. Remove the bread from the oven, take it out of the pan, and place it on a wire rack to cool completely. After 15 minutes, brush it with butter, if desired; this will give it a soft crust. Sally

Linda, If you want to convert a bread machine recipe to a made by hand recipe, try this: in a bowl - put in the water or other liquid called for add in the yeast, whisk to dissolve, let sit 5-10 minutes to "proof" the yeast and made sure it is viable add any sugar, honey, maple syrup or other sweetener called for in the recipe, stir well add half of the flour called for in recipe, add salt and mix well, stirring with a strong spoon or heavy duty whisk also add in any dry herbs or spices now add in any butter, oil, or other fat called for - if melted butter, make sure it is only just warm, not hot - add in any egg(s) listed in recipe add in rest of flour and any other ingredients, chopped herbs, nuts, dried fruits, cheese, etc. stir well with spoon or mix with your hands until dough is a rather shaggy mass turn out dough onto a clean, floured flat surface and knead for 8-10 minutes adding only small sprinkles of flour if the dough sticks to your hands and the kneading surface [if you forgot those nuts, cheese, or raisins, you can knead them in now] when dough has been kneaded sufficiently it will come together into a nice firm ball (rather than a shaggy mass) and spring back when poked with a finger grease or oil a large bowl (or use the one you mixed in), put dough in, turn it around in the oil to grease the top of the dough and turn it oiled side up in the bowl; cover with a bowl cover (shower cap type), plastic wrap, or wax paper, then cover with a clean kitchen "tea" towel (dampened with hot water if you are making whole wheat bread) and set the dough to rise until doubled in bulk turn out dough, knead 2 minutes, divide into portions according to recipe or not - form loaves and put in greased loaf pans or not - cover again with wrap, and let rise until doubled in bulk preheat oven, bake bread until done, let cool at least a few minutes before cutting - and enjoy!