Cook's Illustrated tried this recipe and revised it slightly. Here's their version: Almost No-Knead Bread Revision by CookÂs Illustrated, January/February 2008 Note: Best eaten same day, but can be wrapped in foil and stored in cool, dry place for up to 2 days 3 cups (15 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus additional for dusting work surface 1/4 tsp instant yeast 1-1/2 tsp table salt 3/4 cup plus 2 Tblsp water (7 ounces) at room temp 1/4 cup plus 2 Tblsp (3 ounces) mild-flavored lager, like Budweiser, OR a non-alcoholic lager 1 Tblsp white vinegar 1. Whisk flour, yeast and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from the bottom of bowl, until a shaggy ball of dough forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8-18 hours 2. Lay a 12/x18" sheet of parchment paper inside a 10-inch skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into a ball by pulling edges into the middle. 3. Transfer dough, seam side down, to parchment-lined skillet. Spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours 4. About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position and place a 6-8 qt Dutch oven with the lid on, onto the rack. Heat oven to 500 degrees. 5. Lightly flour top the dough. Using a sharp knife, make a 6" long slit along the top of the dough. After 30 minutes, carefully remove Dutch Oven and open lid. Pick up dough by parchment overhand and lower it into the pot, allowing any excess parchment to hang over edge. Cover pot again and put back into the oven. 6. Reduce heat to 425 degrees. Bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid, and bake until loaf is deep brown, 20-30 minutes longer. An instant read thermometer inserted into center should register 210 degrees. 7. Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and let cool to room temp, about 2 hours.

I don't ever remember my mother making bread....but my father did. Not often and when he did it was with much flourishing and lots of praise from all present. My paternal grandmother baked bread fairly often in my mempry...and her mother in law ( my grandfather's mother) baked bread almost daily I recall. She ran a boarding house, so likely my recollection is accurate. My father taught me the basic kneading motion...once you learn, you never forget. I made bread often when I was pregnant for the first child. In those days you had to quit work at 3 months. amd we only had one car and my husband needed that, and it was winter....so I baked. I only had 2 cookbooks, so I pretty well baked my way thought Fanny Farmer. I remember going down to the shore when my daughter was 18 months, and I had to stay home while she napped and everyone else went to the beach, so I made bread... I had found some yeast in the cupboard and I had flour salt and milk....and no cook book....so I winged it....and it was wonderful! I had no bread pan, not even a cookie sheet, so I baked the bread on an upside down 9 by 12 cake pan! That made me realize that in home made bread, perfection is nothing when compared with the smell of bread fresh from the oven. I have made under baked bread, over baked bread, forgotten the salt ( just add extra butter when youe at it!) and forgotten to add the yeast until I realized that it didn't rise.....so I mixed the dry yeast into the dough, added a little more water to make it easy to knead and a bit more flour....so it wouldn't be sticky....and you would never know. It's really really hard to ruin bread. I repeat, just do it....you might waste $10 worth of ingredients and 4 or 5 hours of your time if you have about 4 to 6 failures in a row....but if you had gone to some cooking class, you would have spent more $$ and spent more time and learned 1/2 as much. Just do it! Linda C

@andersons21 - I only saw your reply now - sorry about that. Yes - by "put in water" I just fill the reservoir. (I don't have the plumbed in version of the oven.) I don't do it before preheating because somewhere in the Miele manual it mentioned that the oven works best with cold water. So I always add water at the last moment. Maybe they just meant not to use water that was sitting in your hot water heater. I have no idea. The manual is vague in many places. And yes on MaxiBroil -- the baking steel does reach a higher temp, and the oven spring is better. I use it for both pre-heating and the first cooking stage. When I've pointed an IR thermometer at the baking steel after preheating, it's something like 480-490F. I forget the exact figure, but it's significantly above 435F. I wish it got hotter too, but the interior of the oven is made very differently than a regular oven, so I suspect that's probably why it's limited. The same thing happens in the regular Miele oven (not steam) - the high broil settings let the baking steel reach significantly higher temps (~650F) than the highest setting on the oven (which I think is 575F). I have both ovens btw - and use the steel in the regular oven for pizza.

Time is the worst measure for rise. It's supposed to be a guide for when to check the dough. Rather than worry about times, it's best to pay attention to the quality and height of the rise. As you've noted with your pictured loaf, when the loaf over-rises, the dough can overflow the pan, give you floppy ears, and soften the structure. A big effect on rise times is temperature. Too cool a room and the rise could take double as long. Too warm, and it puffs up before the dough has a chance to mature properly. Autolyse, that soak thing, will improve texture and flavor and, especially with whole wheat, improve the rise. When it gets wet, the gluten starts to develop, so it's ready for action when the yeast starts to burp. It's best to do the autolyse with just the flour and water, but some do it all together. Kneading also encourages the gluten to develop. OTOH, the salt, milk and fat can discourage the rise, so the soak gives the yeast a chance to multiply before you go pounding out the gluten. It's all complicated and your best measure is how your previous loaf with the same recipe came out. But the times? Usually, with white flour, one goes for double the volume. For denser whole wheat, 1.5 times volume is common. I've never made your kind of enriched 100% ww, though I've made plenty of enriched and plenty of whole wheat. The enrichment (eggs, fat, etc.) gives you a lot of the softness. I'd guess that double would be good for that, too. With a puffy bread like that, a good punch down and tight roll or draw often helps with the spring, too. I'm not an expert in the science. I've baked bread all my life and a lot of it is instinctive to me, and I only get into the science when I toss away T&T recipes for the wild west. If you want real expertise, I suggest The Fresh Loaf.