Glad we could help, Peter. The vitamin C is there to help the yeast grow (as is the malt), but neither is necessary; give the yeast time, and it'll do its thing. The key part of all this is the hydration - the ratio of liquid to flour. If you just want to use flour, water, salt, and yeast, you might be interested in trying our baguette formula, either kneading the standard way, or using the method in this blog post. The resulting loaves will be more baguette-like: a bit drier inside, with a harder crust, which is a typical result when you don't use oil or milk. If you give both recipes a try, I think you'll both add to your experience, and find which suits you best. Enjoy - PJH

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