I've read through most of these posts and I have a few recommendations as someone who flopped at breadbaking at first, but then got the right books, advice and ingredients and have been doing well ever since. 1. If you are using a preheated pan to create steam, you need to add HOT water to the heated pan. Cold water or ice may give you a more violent looking reaction at first, but it's just rapidly cooling the pan. Plus, if you spill some 200 degree water on your oven's glass window, it's not going to shatter. I use a cast iron pan set on the highest rack and bake on stone set on the lowest rack. 2. If you are not planning to bake with this dough the same day, you can cut the yeast in half. I bake a version of this that uses one teaspoon of yeast for over a pound of flour and it works great. 3. Make sure the dough has come to room temperature and that the yeast has "awakened" before you slash and bake. I it takes much more than an hour, but my kitchen is cooler than average and I use less yeast. 4. Handle the dough gently to avoid de-gassing it. 5. If baking in a Dutch oven, create a parchment sling and proof the dough in a frying pan. I sometimes us my 8 inch omlette pan - the sloped sides of the pan keep the loaf perfectly formed. Keeping it covered while it proofs is a little more complicated. 6. Use instant yeast. SAF instant yeast is awesome. If I had to pick one ingredient that made the biggest difference in my bread baking, it would have to be instant yeast. If you can't find SAF instant, look for "rapid rise" or "bread machine" yeast in the grocery store. Good luck. I just got my KAF dough bucket and I'm going to mix up a batch of this dough tonight or tomorrow so we can have fresh bread when we have dinner with friends on Saturday. Thanks for the tips, they're terrific! Bread Machine yeast from your supermarket is instant yeast and is fine but we don't recommend Rapid Rise yeast as it's formulated for one good rise and doesn't have the oomph for a second rise, which doesn't give the dough time to develop the flavor. Molly @ KAF

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