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

The link below is for a quick and easy gluten-free, low-carb, sugar-free alternative that may help you out. It works best toasted or used as a toasted or grilled sandwich or as French toast. I generally cut the muffin into three slices when I make them. It has an eggy flavor, but if you spread peanut butter or another strong flavor (mustard) on it it's not as noticeable. I've been making this little "bread" for a friend when she dines with us because she's diabetic and very carb sensitive. My mother was gluten-intolerant and she made wheat-free cornbread as her bread-of-choice. She would bake it thin, cut into bread-size slices and slice them in half. Because there wasn't nearly as much information and GF ingredients available then as there is now, I think you have an advantage. There is even a GF Bisquick and GF flour mixtures and mixes available in all grocery stores, not just health-food stores or special order, now than there were a few years ago. Even Wal-Mart has a large selection of GF foods. I wish I would have known about arepas when my mother was alive. She would have really enjoyed those for a wheat-free bread. If you can locate a bag of P.A.N. Pre-cooked White Maize Meal you can easily make wheat-free arepas and keep them in the freezer. I make them about once a month just because we like them. They are something different for us on sandwich night. There are also great baked goods you can make with coconut flour and almond flour that will fill that wheat void. I use both coconut flour (Tropical Traditions) and almond flour (Honeyville Grain) to make muffins because they are low-glycemic alternatives to wheat. My favorite cookbooks using these alternative flours are: -The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook - by Elana Amsterdam You will find a lot of her recipes on-line - www.elanaspantry.com -Cooking with Coconut Flour - by Bruce Fife, N.D. and a lot of those recipes are available on-line. Now that I've been making almond milk I have used the moist almond pulp remaining after I blend the nuts and water for making crackers and drying the pulp in my dehydrator and using it in recipes that call for almond flour. Almond pulp (or almond flour) is a good substitute for breading mixes with some shredded cheese like a mixture of Parmesan/Asiago/Romano/Provolone. Great on baked chicken breasts. Do a search on - paleo bread recipes - and you'll find a number of recipes that may work for you. The people eating a paleo diet don't use grains. I sure wouldn't pay $7.95 for a wheat-free loaf of bread!!! There are things you can inexpensively make at home once you find the recipes and ingredients you need. Check King Arthur Flour and Bob's Red Mill web sites for GF flours and recipes. I made Gluten-Free Banana Muffins from King Arthur Flour web site this weekend (used my own homemade GF flour blend). You can do it!!!! :-) -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: One Minute Muffin

Both Morton's kosher salt and Diamond Crystal kosher salt have bigger grains than regular salt, and therefore weigh less per volume. A cup of table salt weighs about 10 1/2 ounces, a cup of Morton's about 8 3/4 oz, and a cup of Diamond Crystal about 4 3/4 oz. To substitute regular salt for kosher, use about 1/2 the amount by volume. Here is a link that might be useful: weight of different salts per volume.

Thanks for all the answers, folks: I'm glad to hear from other bakers! Of all the breads I hear about here, plllog's are the ones that speak to me most. But, although, if I really set about it with determination and a decent financial investment, I might be able to get the tools and supplies necessary to make bread as I see described here, I'm not willing to do that. I live in the country in Italy, and 98% of my groceries come from our small local supermarket. There is no Costco. No Whole Foods. I have no store that offers rye flour, grain berries, molasses, bran, wheat germ, reasonably priced oatmeal, or a host of other ingredients for baking standard in the U.S. I don't like to drive, I don't like to run around, I'm reluctant to add to our terrible air pollution, and gas costs about $7 a gallon. Add to this the absolutely horrible dis-service offered by our post office-affiliated package delivery company, which, after my last traumatic experience, caused me to swear that I would never again order by mail anything that would have to be delivered through them (there are other couriers, if one has a choice). So I work with what I have. This suits me, from a philosophical and practical standpoint, and while it's likely possible to make better bread, mine makes me happy. I've gotten used to the fresh yeast, which is reliable, and I have a fair variety of recipes I've worked out. The last one was potato and buckwheat (I was able to find buckwheat flour again, thank goodness!) and it turned out really tasty. That one was majority whole grain, simply because I had run out of white, and that improved it. Plllog's comments make me think, again, about how much I could learn about bread baking. The "soaker" is new to me. Who knows, this may stimulate me to some modest experimentation. Like Annie, if I want substantial nourishing bread, I have to make it myself. The Italian bread is good with a bowl of beans and broth but it just doesn't work as standalone food. Add to this that Italians don't really eat breakfast, so there's not much of an offering of sturdy food for the start of the day. I think my tolerance of grain-based foods has diminished as I've grown older, and it may be that baking with a sponge, and adding a variety of ingredients improves the digestibility of my breads. My diet is relatively low in cereals--I eat them regularly, but in much smaller amounts than when I was younger--and I mostly eat bread as the centerpiece of breakfast. It powers me up! in the most satisfactory way. Today is the potato and buckwheat bread--we're on our last loaf; I'll have to make more. There's a non-sweet almond bread in the freezer, made with milk, olive oil, and lots of almonds. If it gets cold enough I might even want to try a sweet bread. I made one last year with raisins, fennel, and orange juice and peel that I remember as being good. The basic dough of that one was similar to that of the almond bread, made with milk and oil. The loaves made with fats don't need butter. All my breads are part whole-grain, usually one third, though I may try upping that in some cases.