[m brown]

This past thanksgiving i made french loaves without any special equipment.
the loaves were the hit of the holiday.
from the book no need to knead:

5 cups flour
2 cups warm water
1 envelope yeast
3 tsp salt.

thats it. fabulous!
I baked in about 5 hours from sponge to finished product.
I can't wait to bake some more.
You need a bowl, spatula, measuing cups, pan and oven.

We named the turkey clyde and the sponge fred.

( just getting used to working at home)

[cape chef]

Michele, you didn't have to knead the dough?

My basic baguette recipe is

2 1/2 tsp dry yeast
1 1/4 cups water
3 3/4 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt

sponge 20 minutes

ferment 3 hours

punch, scale and proof 50 minutes

bake 20/25 minutes 425 f

as we speak I'm fermenting a batch of pain au fromage to serve with a salad and a bottle of Alsatian Riesling.

[Mezzaluna]

Here's a link to SlowTravel.com where I found a discussion about a no-knead bread, adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery: http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums/a...2/m/5291043522

It needs 14-20 hours to rise but once you've mixed it up, you "set it and forget it" until time for baking. I don't know enough about bread to comment on how it would compare to your loaf, Michele, but would be interested to know.

Mezz