I use my favourite French Baguette recipe to make cheddar and roasted garlic bread. My son loves it with olives so I occasionally make it with olives as well. This bread is even better if the dough is given a long cold fermentation for three or four days in the fridge before shaping and baking. French Baguette Julia Child 1 package dry active yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons) 3 1/2 cups unbleached flour (bread flour) (NOTE: I use 4 cups) 2 1/4 tsp salt 1 1/3 cups cold water plus 1/3 or so additional water Place the flour, yeast and salt in the bowl of the food process. Pulse to mix. Add 1 1/3 cups of water and process until the dough comes together. If the dough doesn't form a ball, add a little of the extra water. Process for about 60 seconds, turn off machine and let dough rest for 5 minutes. Turn on the machine again and rotate the dough about 30 times under the cover, and then remove it to a lightly floured work surface. it should be fairly smooth and quite firm. Let the dough rest for 2 minutes and then knead roughly and vigorously. The final dough should not stick to your hands as you knead (although it will stick if you pinch and hold a piece); it should be smooth and elastic and, when you hold it up between your hands and stretch it down, it should hold together smoothly. Preliminary rise - 40 to 60 minutes at around 75°F. Place the dough into a clean dry bowl, (do not grease the bowl), cover with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place free from drafts. (note the French do not grease the bowl because they believe the dough needs a seat to push up from). This first rise is sufficient when the dough has definitely started to rise and is about 1 1/2 times its original volume. Deflating: Turn the dough onto your lightly floured work surface roughly and firmly pat and push it out into a 14 inch rectangle. Fold one of the long sides over toward the middle, and the other long side over to cover it, making a 3 layer cushion. Repeat the operation. This important step redistributes the yeast throughout the dough, for a strong second rise. Return the dough smooth side up the bowl; cover with plastic wrap and again set to rise. Final rise in the bowl - about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or longer. The bread should be 2 1/2 to 3 times its original bulk. It is the amount of rise that is important here, not the timing. To Shape, Cut the dough in half. Set one piece aside and cover with a towel. On a lightly floured work surface pat the dough into a 14 inch rectangle, squaring it up as evenly as you can. Fold the rectangle of dough in half lengthwise and using the heel of your hand, firmly press the edges together whether they meet. Seat well. Pound the dough flat. Now repeat - patting the dough out again and folding it over and sealing the edges. Pinch the edges well and Rotate the dough so that the sealed edge in on the bottom. Repeat with second piece of dough. Cover with plastic wrap or loosely with a towel and let rise to more than double again at about 75°f. Place stone in oven and Preheat oven to 450°F. Slash three long cuts into the loaves and place on the hot stone. Immediately toss a number of ice cubes on to the bottom on the oven to create steam. Bake until bread is golden and has an interior temp of 200°F. Takes about 30 minutes. Making Dough in a Mixer or by Hand When you are making dough in an electric mixer with a dough hook, proceed in the same general way with the rests indicated, and finish by hand. or mix the dough by hand in a bowl, turn out on a work surface, and start the kneading by lifting it up with a scraper and slapping it down roughly for several minutes until it has body. Let it rest several minutes and then proceed to knead.

Tammy, some very wet doughs, like that Italian, WILL spread when rising, I never get the shaping well enough to keep it from turning into a pancake. I've tried shaping the loaf on a towel with the edges pulled up to keep it from running, but I can't get it off the cloth without deflating the dough. I know there are canvas cloths for that purpose too. If I have to do something more than twice, I run out of patience with it and it's as likely to go into the garbage as it is into the oven. Since I have absolutely no patience when it comes to messing around with it any more, I have reverted to baking in a long pan shaped like a "u", with no ends (I hope that made sense). It makes a long crusty baguette type loaf and that's good enough for me. Hopefully you are more patient than I am, my last batch I gave up on, flattened out and made foccacia and it was darned good. (grin) Yeah, I know, if I messed with it long enough and tried enough times, it would work. I just don't care enough, so I toss it in that pan instead of going back and reading Ann T's excellent pictorial one more time. Annie

loves2cook4six - In that case, I'd look for bread recipes made with bakers' yeast that are designed specifically for low-sodium; ones that give you a nutritional break down (especially the amount of sodium per serving) rather than altering recipes. Those recipes have probably been tested for success. If you've ever developed recipes (which I've done) you'd better know a lot about the science of the ingredients so when you remove something, what must you add or alter.... There is usually a ratio of 1 teaspoon salt per tablespoon of yeast. One to two tablespoons of dry yeast are needed to rise 6-8 cups of flour. You'll also find naturally-leavened (aka sourdough breads) will make up very well without the addition of salt, or only a very small amount of salt. I have a 95-year old friend who makes salt-free sourdough bread every couple weeks. Recipes that use a sponge method also work better for making low-sodium breads. When we make bread using a straight or direct-mix method, salt plays a big part in regulating the yeast because this type of bread method is designed for speed. Naturally-leavened breads and sponge method take more time to make, however. Be sure to figure out how much sodium per bread serving you are getting, rather than a total elimination of all salt in the bread. After all, you're not eating a whole loaf. A quick and easy way to reduce sodium is to make two or three small loaves, rather than one large loaf. Small loaves can easily be cut into very thin slices (weighing 1/4-3/4 oz. per slice, so instead of getting 16-20 slices per recipe, you may get at least double, or more, than that. Salt isn't the only sodium-contributing food we consume - it's just one of the easiest to over-use. Everyone NEEDS some sodium. "It's important in maintaining the body's ability to regulate acid-base balance, transmit nerve impulses, regulate cell membrane function and muscle activity, and absorb and transport certain nutrients." People rarely consider how much sodium is in their tap water, for instance. In most instances 1/2 to 3/4 t. salt per loaf of bread is not enough to add significantly to dietary salt intake. Remove all the salt and then you'll have to watch the rise of the dough VERY carefully because it will quickly over-proof if you follow "normal" times. A high amount of sugar in a recipe will also slow down the yeast activity. In doughs with high ratios of sugar to flour, osmotic tolerance is low because the amount of available water in the dough is limited for the yeast to work. Too much sugar will draw water from the yeast and inhibit its growth. Two tablespoons of sugar per cup of flour is the maximum that you can add without major gluten damage. It also takes much longer to develop gluten in doughs with a high ratio of sugar, so expect to knead it about double the amount of time you would in order to develop the gluten. -Grainlady

I had heard about the NY Times bread recipe when it came out a few years ago, so googled it and found the following: Recipe: No-Knead Bread 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting teaspoon instant yeast 1¼ teaspoons salt Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed. 1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. 2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes. 3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. 4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack. Yield: One 1½-pound loaf. From: Newsvine.com, here is a review, by someone, of this recipe: I pretty much followed the instructions to a "T" with some very minor adjustments stemming from comments that I read in other reviews. Friday Night, 7:00 PM: Mixed together bread flour, yeast (Fleischman's rapid rise), salt and water in a non-reactive bowl, covered with plastic wrap and placed the whole kit n' kaboodle in the oven, leaving it there overnight and through the next morning. Saturday Afternoon, 1:30 PM: Heavily dusted my work surface with flour, poured the dough onto the surface, heavily dusted the top of the dough with flour, and following Alton Brown's instructions for "punching down" dough, performed the wallet folding pattern three times. I let that rest covered with plastic wrap for fifteen minutes. Saturday Afternoon, 1:46PM: I rolled the dough into a "ball", and placed it on a sheet of heavily dusted parchment paper instead of a towel, and let it rise for 2 hours. *Note: the dough didn't really hold a ball shape, but rather looked more like an in-the-dough reincarnation of Jabba-the-Hut. Translated: it was little more than an amorphous blob, which I covered with a towel, nevertheless. I set the timer for two hours, over the course of which the dough spread moreso than rose. Saturday Afternoon, 3:16 PM: I placed my 5.5 qt. Le Creuset enamel coated cast iron Dutch Oven in the oven and preheated both to 450-degrees. Saturday Afternoon, 3:46 PM: When the timer went off signaling the expiration of the two hours, I carefully removed the very hot Dutch Oven and placed it on the counter. I dumped the dough blob from the parchment paper into the Dutch Oven and wearing oven mitts, covered the pot with aluminum foil, since the metal replacement knob that I ordered to replace the plastic one that came on the dutch oven lid -- and is only rated to 375 degrees -- had not yet arrived in the mail. My preference here would have been to use the lid that came with the pot. I baked the bread, covered (with foil) for 30 minutes, removed the foil and baked for anther 20. I then removed the pot from the oven and dumped the bread onto a wire rack where I let it cool for one hour before slicing. The bread turned out great, very crusty, very artisan. I will definitely make it again. The main thing is to remember to start it the night before, else there will not be enough time to develop the glutens and more complex flavors as fully as necessary to make for a great loaf of bread and still get the bread baked at a decent hour. The recipe can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html