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

Petra, this recipe for hard rolls/ brat buns has been in my To Try file for about a year but I've not yet made it because I hadn't been able to find malt extract. Found it last week & just waiting for a break in the weather for grilling some brats. Maybe what you're looking for?? Semmel Rolls In Sheboygan, if you talk brats, you'll also be talking about the Semmel; a substantial, chewy roll with a delicately crispy crust. The Semmel is a close cousin to the Kaiser, but with a distinctive cleavage across the top. The baked Semmel is large -- about 4 inches in diameter and rises to about 2 inches in height. To make the single brat bun, shape the rolls like a hot dog bun before final rising and baking. The genuine Sheboygan Semmel is baked in a brick oven. In your home oven, your results may vary. A baking stone helps. 4 1/2 cups bread flour (approximate) 1 package dry yeast 1 Tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups hot water (120-130 degrees) 1 teaspoon malt extract 1 egg 1 egg white 1 Tablespoon shortening Rye flour for dusting Measure 3 1/2 cups of flour into a mixing or mixer bowl and add the yeast, sugar, and salt. Stir to blend well. Pour in the warm water and malt extract. Mix for 1 minute with a wooden spoon or mixer flat beater until a smooth but heavy batter forms. Add the egg, egg white, and shortening. Beat together until the mixture is smooth. If with the electric mixer, remove the flat beater and continue with a dough hook. Add flour -- 1/4 cup at a time -- until the dough is a solid but soft mass that can be lifted from the bowl, or left under the dough hook. Knead the dough with a strong push-turn-fold motion for 10 minutes, adding liberal sprinkles of flour if the dough is wet. If in the mixer, the dough will clean the sides of the bowl and form a ball around the dough hook. If, however, it continues to cling to the sides, add sprinkles of flour. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and set aside to double in bulk, about 1 hour. Uncover the bowl and punch down the dough with your fingers. Cover the bowl again and allow the dough to double in volume again, about 45 minutes. Place the dough on a floured work surface, roll it into a 12-inch long cylinder. With a sharp knife cut 12 pieces from the length (at every inch on the ruler). Shape the pieces under a cupped palm into smooth rounds. Cover and allow to relax for 5 minutes. Flatten each roll with your hand to about 1/2 inch thick. Dust lightly with rye flour. With a length of wooden dowel, a round wooden spoon handle, or a pencil, press a deep vertical indentation into the top of each roll. Press firmly and deeply, almost to the bottom (omit this procedure if shaping rolls into single-brat buns). As each roll is shaped, place it face down on a greased baking sheet. Cover the rolls with a length of wax or parchment paper, and leave them at room temperature to rise -- slightly less than double in size, about 40 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the oven by placing a pan under the middle shelf. Twenty minutes before the bake period preheat the oven to 450 degrees, quite hot. Five minutes before the rolls are to go into the oven, pour 1 cup of hot water in the pan to form steam and provide a moist environment for the rolls. Be certain hot water is in the pan. Uncover the rolls, carefully turn them right side up, brush them with water or spray lightly with an atomizer of water. Place the pan on the middle shelf of the hot oven. Three minutes later lightly spray the interior of the oven -- not directly on the rolls. Midway through the bake period turn the sheet around so that the rolls are exposed equally to temperature variations in the oven. They are done when crispy brown all over, in about 25 minutes. Remove the rolls from the oven. If, after the rolls have cooled, they are not as crisp and crusty as you like, put them back into a hot oven for 10 minutes.

blueheron, Did you use course salt (kosher or sea salt)? The dough should be wet but not so wet you can't do anything with it. I mix the ingredients in my KitchenAid just until blended then dump it into a big stoneware bowl I've got. I leave it on the counter, loosely covered with plastic wrap, for 2 or 3 hours. Then I deflate it with a plastic spatula (really, the thing from my rice cooker) and dump it on the well-floured counter (since I'm usually baking one loaf that day). I keep a spice jar (that once held sesame seeds) about half full of flour and shake enough flour onto the dough that I can touch it without sticking. I cut off a lump - sometimes 1/4 sometimes 1/3- with a bench knife/scraper then scoop the rest of the dough into a container with a loose fitting lid for it's fridge time. I use a piece of cornmeal sprinkled parchment paper on a flat cookie sheet and let it sit for about an hour. I preheat the baking stone, sprinkle the slash area with the flour (from the spice jar) and cut with a sharp paring knife -somtimes freshly run through the sharpener gadget. I cut about 1/4-1/2" deep then slide the paper onto the stone (and of course add the water to the other preheated pan). I think a lot of it is not adding too much flour to the interior of the dough. Disclaimers: I use KA bread flour - haven't tried any others yet. I also live at 7000' elevation in a very dry climate with a generally cool house. I haven't made the bread anywhere else, so YMMV.

It's really difficult to start up a home business--you have to be properly registered, you have to keep impeccable records, charge and pay the appropriate taxes. And when you decide to do something in the food line? Multiply the red tape by ten. You'd probably better start with the health department. In many jurisdictions, it's not legal to bake/cook food in a home kitchen for sale--if that's true where you live, you'll need to find an approved commercial kitchen to rent--and that's going to cut into your profits. Look, I hate to be a wet blanket, but I've done the home business thing--many years ago, and it didn't involve food. It turned into a nightmare. You have to do every little tiny thing by the book. Perhaps check in with the agency that promotes small businesses in your area. Or what about contacting a restaurant or two, to see if they might be interested in paying you to come to THEIR locations to bake your bread for their use--you might have to do that in the middle of the night, when they aren't preparing meals, but it might be an interesting solution. Pack up some samples of your best wares and visit some of the local independents. Good luck, but please be sure to do all your research before jumping into something that could end up costing you more than you'll make. And hey, if you're good at creating recipes? I'd highly recommend considering recipe contesting. That costs you next to nothing, and can bring in truly big bucks (I've made up to $25,000 for a single recipe, some contests pay even more).