Hi, Please help! I have tried the no-knead challah recipe and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I didn't want to make the whole recipe so I halved the ingredients to the following quantities: 16.5 oz king arthur bread flour 1 3/4 tsp salt 2 1/4 tsp yeast (I used the kind from the jar of fleishman's "rapid rise') 3/4 C water 2 eggs 1/4 C honey 1/4 C canola oil. I used a bowl and spoon to mix it, not an electric mixer. it was very dry and crumbly-- looked very different than the photo on the blog. After a 3 hour rest on the counter with a dishtowel over it, it didn't rise at all. I figured I had nothing to lose so I put it in the fridge overnight. it only rose a little bit, and developed a crusty shell on the top (I had covered the bowl with a dishtowel in the fridge). So it was a pasty mess with a hard crusty top. It would be impossible to braid or even shape. I threw out the dough since it looked so weird, and started again. The same thing happened again! Is my math in halving the recipe wrong? Is it that I didn't use SAF brand yeast? Is it that you have to use an electric mixer? please advise. Amy, you were almost right - but using bread flour instead of all-purpose will yield a MUCH drier dough. Did you use large eggs, also? You must use large eggs; and if you need to use bread flour, you'll need to increase the amount of water till it looks like the dough in the picture. I'd add at least an additional 1/2 cup water, perhaps more, if you use bread flour. Also, please cover tightly with plastic, not with a towel. So - more water - large eggs - cover with plastic. That should do the trick. And if not - call our Baker's Hotline, 802-649-3717. They'll talk you through it. PJH

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