Well I wasn't going to blog, but I'm so happy after being so sad I couldn't resist, lol.. While kitchen tested, baking bread is new territory for me, but I've been determined to find a lower costs ways of satisfying my morning toast fix, instead of shelling out $4-5 dollars a loaf. After a couple of attempts with other recipes ending in mixed results, I acquired a copy of Peter Reinhart's "Crust and Crumb" (which is excellent btw) and was in a research phase. I had gathered materials together in anticipation of having extra time around the holidays where I could start experimenting. It was then I found your "No Knead" recipe here. I compared it to Reinhart's receipe for the same French Bread. I noticed some differences, but not too much. After some thought, I decided to use his ingredient list and your technique. (Mostly because I was anxious to use the non-diatastic malt I had bought ;) The main differences were PH uses half regular flour, half bread flour,..and much less yeast. Anyways,...I combined the ingredients, mixed according to your instructions, placed in a 6 qt container. Like yours, it only rose to about 2 qts. Imagine my surprise, when next day, instead of poofing down, it had expanded to the full 6 qt top and then some! ..about an inch above the top... From here, I could not tell from your recipe if you let the dough reach room temperture before forming the loaves. (PH forms his the night before) So I decided to "half the distance", so to speak. I let the dough sit for 45 min, then formed the loaves, then let them sit covered for 60 min (shoulda' been 45m). I decided to bake all the dough at once, and so divided the dough into quarters. It was very difficult to form the loaves. They were not as "wet" as yours appears. I end up kneading them much more than I had hoped or intended for a no-knead recipe, lol. when finished, I had four very un-photogenic ropes of dough. I thought I had blown it, but decided to sally forth to the bitter end. After sitting covered, they had indeed risen a bit, and looked a bit better, lol. I went back to Reinhart's technique for the oven. Preheated at 475 with pizza stone, and pan of water underneath, sprizting with water to create steam periodically. Well, lo and behold...as they cooked, what had been a measly-looking loaf about an hour before and risen very, very nicely...was a gorgeous golden brown with a very nice crust. All four of them came out great and are delicious! I want to re-try the process later this week, and try to work out the kinks,... the dough was very hard to work, as it didn't want to stretch much. Too much gluten formation? Would be nice to work the process back towards your no-kneading approach. Thank you very much for the recipe, information, and support, Cheers, James Sounds like you had an excellent experience, James. Dough that's hard to shape simply needs to rest. As you suspected, kneading toughened it up. The less kneading before shaping, the easier it is to shape. Next time you feel the need to knead, let the dough rest for 15 minutes after you knead it - then shape. Keep experimenting - I'm betting every loaf will be more beautiful than the last... and ALL will be delicious! PJH

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