Buckwheat No-Knead Bread

When I start a loaf of no-knead bread, I stand over the bowl and contemplate what is available to throw in it. When the resulting loaf is particularly good, Bill says, "Why don't you put this in your blog so you will remember it?" Well, the present loaf fits that category!  We just got a new box of various flours and cerials from Barry Farms so yummy buckwheat breadmakings hit the bowl.

Measurements for no-knead bread need not be precise. As you make loaves you will develop your own feel for flour/water proportions. A relatively dry dough makes a denser bread. A wet dough rises higher and results in very moist bread. I vary according to whim.

Ingredients:

• 2 slightly rounded cups bread flour
• 1 slightly rounded cup white whole wheat flour
• 1 slightly rounded  cup buckwheat flour
• 1/2 cup buckwheat cereal
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 envelope instant yeast
• 2 1/2 cups water

Procedure:

• Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.  Use you hands if necessary to get all the dry ingredients fully incorporated in the dough.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in a cold oven with the light on.
• Let rise for 3-4 hours or until doubled in size.
• Stir down to redistribute the yeast.
• Flop the dough into a pan lined with parchment paper. 
• Cover loosely and let rise again for a couple of hours
• Remove the risen loaf from the oven and preheat to 440°F
• If you are using an uncovered pan, loosely place a sheet of foil on top to prevent the top from getting too brown.
• Bake 30 minutes with the cover on and 20 minutes with the cover off.
• Remove from pan and peel off parchment paper to cool.
• Voilà! Sweet, dark, buckwheat bread. 

A Proof Box Right Under My Nose!

"A warm place would speed up the no-knead bread," me thinks.

In need of a proof box, in this all-electric house.  And who has a stove with pilot lights anymore?  A dear friend, an army chaplain, made cookies for the troops using Easy Bake Ovens when she was stationed in Iraq.  But I need something big enough for a loaf of bread.  I've heard of folks using heating pads but the time I tried that the heat was too uneven.  Ponder, ponder, cogitate, look it up on the web ...

Eureka!  If you have a light in your oven, you have a proof box!  Why I couldn't put two and two together in my own head I don't know.  But isn't that why we foodie bloggers love the web?  Put 'rise dough in oven' in the Google search box and you'll find lots of suggestions for using your oven as a proof box. So, even if you don't have a light in your oven, all is not lost.  Instructions are given for all sorts of work-arounds by our fellow foodies.

Cinnamon Biscuits without the Drive Thru Line

We're fans of Jiffy Buttermilk Biscuit Mix. The biscuits are great whether made with water, milk, or, best of all, buttermilk. They're good plain, baked with chunks of cheese in them, or as fluffy soup dumplings.  But on a weekend morning they are great for cinnamon biscuits.

Ingredients:

• 1 8-oz. box buttermilk biscuit mix
• 1/2 cup water, milk, or buttermilk
• 4 Tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1-2 Tablespoons flour
• 2 wedges Laughing Cow Lite Swiss Cheese (alternatively use cream cheese or Neufchatel)
• 2 Tablespoons milk
• 3 Tablespoons powdered sugar

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F
2. Mix biscuit mix and water until the mix is moistened
3. Roll the biscuit mix out into a 12-inch square
4. Mix the melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour into a paste and spread it out on the square of dough
5. Roll the square up and use the palms of your hands to flatten the ends so that it is a neat cylinder
6. Cut into 8 slices and place them in an ungreased pie plate, baking pan, or glass cake pan.
7. Bake 10-12 minutes.
8. Mix the cheese, milk and powdered sugar into a loose glaze.  Spoon this over the  hot biscuits.
9. When cool enough to "inhale" them, do so.

No Knead Bread Update

It's been months since we bought a loaf of bread.  No knead bread is now part of our regular routine.  I do still vaguely measure the flour and water but otherwise I mostly dump handfuls and dollops of ingredients in the pot. I've found that not preheating the pot avoids too dark a crust and we like to have something sweet in our bread.

If you need encouragement to try it, watch Jacques Pepin make what is the simplest of versions.  His requires a better no-stick pot than I have!

My basic formula is:

• 2 cups bread flour
• 2 cups other flour or combination of flours
• 1 envelope fast-acting yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1/4 cup sugar or other sweet ingredient
  
• Other additions as desired
• 2-2 1/2 cups water

 The basic method:

1. Stir the chosen ingredients in a large bowl until moistened.
2. Cover with plastic wrap.
3. Ignore 6-10 hours.
4. Stir down.
5. Re-cover and ignore for another 1-3 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 450°F.
7. Flop dough into a greased pot with lid.
8. Bake 30 minutes with the lid on.
9. Remove the lid and bake another 20 minutes.
10. Remove from pan and let cool on a rack or stove element. 

Flours:

•  I use King Arthur bread flour.  Not only is it readily available in local grocery stores but it is bromate-free.
• Whole wheat flour is easily obtained at the grocery store.
• More unusual flours include semolina flour, rye flour, oat flour, potato flour, graham flour, buckwheat flour, and the like.  These are less likely to be found in grocery stores.  I order from Barry Farms which has an amazing variety of flours.  When I get my order, I transfer the flour from the plastic bags into disposable plastic containers.  I then cut the labels off the bags and tape them to the tops of the plastic containers with transparent packing tape. These stack well and, being translucent, make it easy to see how much I have left of each kind.

Other ingredients:

• White sugar, brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup, honey, etc.
  
• Corn meal, rolled oats, wheat flakes, oat flakes, etc.
  
• Dried or finely chopped fresh dill, rosemary, etc.
• Cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, etc.
• Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, roasted sunflower seeds, etc.
• Raisins, minced garlic, olives, etc. (Add these wetter ingredients at the "stir down.")
  

So, each time I make a loaf of bread, I improvise depending on what strikes my fancy.  We love variety.

• Anadama lemon rye is 2 cups bread flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup rye flour, 1/2 cup corn meal, the zest of a lemon, and molasses for sweetening.  It's also good without the lemon.
  
• Sesame seeds go well on a bread made of 3 cups bread flour, 1 cup semolina flour, and white sugar.
• Dill goes well in bread made with 2 cups bread flour, 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup potato flour and white sugar.
• 2 cups of bread flour, 1 cup of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of buckwheat flour, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, and dark brown sugar makes a wonderful grainy bread.
• Make chewy homemade hamburger rolls by using all bread flour and shaping the dough into rolls to rise after the stir down.  These take less time to bake.
• Here's no knead cinnamon rolls.
  

Right now, there's a 1/2 bread flour, 1/2 rye flour dough rising with some spices in it (ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger), sweetened with honey.   This should make great toast for breakfast tomorrow!

Lightweight Jiffy Mix Soup Dumplings

Having not grown up with dumplings in soup, I'm not really in favor of gummy dumplings.  But after many pleas from hubby, I decided to try a two-step cooking process.  It worked!  The dumplings were moist yet fluffy!

Ingredients:

• Hearty soup.  I used leftover ham & pea soup that I didn't whir with the blender so it had nice chunks of carrot in it. Most any stew will do.
• Jiffy buttermilk biscuit mix.  Of course you could do homemade biscuits but why when these are so easy and fairly inexpensive?
  
• Water for the biscuit mix.

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven as indicated for the biscuit mix.
2. Bring the soup to a boil on top of the stove.  Use an oven-proof pot with enough room to add the dumplings.
3. Mix the biscuit mix & water as instructed on the box.
4. With floured hands, roll the dough into 16 balls (similar in size the smallish meatballs).
5. Flatten each ball to a small 1/2" thick disk.
6. Drop the disks, one at a time, into the boiling soup, distributing them throughout the surface.
7. Carefully move the hot pot into the oven and cook as indicated on the biscuit mix box.

As you drop the disks of dough into the soup, they will sink.  Almost immediately, they will start to float.  By the time you take the soup out of the oven, all the dumplings will have floated and the soup will be covered with a soft layer of light dumplings!

With preheating & preparations, this takes just 20 minutes to prepare.  Allow a little extra if you need to thaw the soup.  Stick to your ribs good!

No Knead Cinnamon Buns with Laughing Cow Icing

A friend called recently to wax rhapsodic about the cinnamon he ordered from Penzey's.  Being about out of cinnamon myself, I decided to place an order.  We're celebrating the arrival of the box with cinnamon buns made using the no-knead bread method to start.  Yummy!

Ingredients:

• 4 generous cups bread flour, all-purpose flour, or a combination
• 1 ½ tsp. salt
• ½ cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1 envelope rapid-rise yeast
• 2 cups water
• ¼ cup butter (sweet or salted according to your taste)
  
• 1 Tbl. cinnamon.  I used Penzey's Korintje Indonesia Cinnamon.
• 2 wedges Laughing Cow Light Swiss Original cheese (or 1½-2 ounces cream cheese)
• 2 Tbl. milk
• ¾-1 cup confectioner's (powdered) sugar

Procedure:

1. Combine flour, salt, half the granulated sugar (¼ cup), and yeast in a large bowl.
2. Stir in the two cups water to make a ragged dough.
3. Cover and let sit 4-6 hours to rise.
4.  On a slick, well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin, shape the dough into a rectangle and roll until ¼" thick.
5. Melt the butter and brush it on the dough rectangle.
6. Sprinkle the cinnamon and the remaining ¼ cup of granulated sugar on the rectangle.
7. Starting with the edge closest to you, roll the dough up as you would a bedroll.
8. Slice the rolled dough into 1-1½" slices.
9. Arrange the slices cut side up in greased 2-3 inch deep baking dishes. You can either space them or place them next to each other depending on whether you want them flatter and crisper or soft and pull-apart.
10. Let rise 1-2 hours until doubled in size.
11. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven until golden, 30-40 minutes.
12. Mix the cheese, confectioner's sugar, and milk to make a loose icing and distribute this over the still hot rolls.  
13. Let cool in the pans.

This makes a light, tender cinnamon roll.

No-Knead Anadama Lemon Rye Bread

Anadama bread is a New England recipe including cornmeal and molasses in the dough. Optionally, rye flour is added to the white flour.

One of the folks who turned me onto cooking is my friend Jaylyn. Back when I was serving boiled meals to my guests, she had already conquered bread making. Every weekend she'd make what she called "Anadama Lemon Rye." It was a wonderful dark, moist bread.

Here's a formula for a no-knead anadama lemon rye.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups bread flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup rye flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• zest of one lemon
  
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 envelope rapid rise yeast
• 1/4 cup molasses
  
• 2 to 2 1/4 cups tepid water

Follow the basic no-knead bread procedure:

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl
2. Stir the molasses into the water to make it easier to distribute
   
3. Stir the water and molasses into the dry ingredients
   
4. Cover and let rise approximately 8 hours, give or take a few hours
5. Stir down, cover and let rise again for 2 hours, give or take an hour
6. 30 minutes before you plan to cook the bread, preheat a covered pot for baking the bread in a 450°F oven.
7. Lightly oil the hot pot and flop the batter into it.
8. Bake 30 minutes, covered, at 450°F
9. Remove the cover, lower the oven temperature to 440°F and bake an additional 20 minutes.
10. Remove the bread from the pot and cool on a rack.

Roasted Red Peppers on Homemade Bread: Easy You Say?

Yup, I do say easy. We haven't bought bread since I found the wildly popular no-knead bread formula and with locally grown red peppers so cheap in the grocery store it'd be a crime not to roast them.

So, in the picture is my bag of a dozen roasted red peppers and some fresh oat bread. We've ordered oat flour and other goodies from Barry Farm Foods in Ohio. Hubby Bill first discovered them when looking for rye flakes and wheat flakes as alternatives to oatmeal.

I've been alternating oat bread with rye bread using their flours. The special flours seem expensive until you compare the price to buying bread in the grocery.

The basic formula I use for the bread is:

• 2 cups bread flour
• 2 cups oat flour, rye flour, or whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats, rye flakes, or wheat flakes
• 2 Tbl. brown sugar or molasses
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 envelope of rapid rise yeast
• Optionally, add a flavoring like caraway seeds to the rye, sunflower seeds to the whole wheat, etc.
  
• 2 1/4 cups water

Procedure:

1. Mix the dry ingredients (including sugar if using) in a large bowl
2. Stir in the water (with the molasses stirred into it if using)
3. Cover and let rise approximately 8 hours, give or take a few hours
4. Stir down, cover and let rise again for 2 hours, give or take an hour
5. 30 minutes before you plan to cook the bread, preheat a covered pot for baking the bread in a 450°F oven.
6. Lightly oil the hot pot and flop the batter into it.
7. Bake 30 minutes, covered, at 450°F
8. Remove the cover, lower the oven temperature to 440°F and bake an additional 20 minutes.
9. Remove the bread from the pot and cool on a rack.

Voilà! Bread.

For the roasted red peppers:

1. Preheat the oven broiler to high and move a rack to the top-most position. Keep the oven door ajar to make the broiler element stay on.
   
2. Halve and remove the seeds and white membranes from the peppers.
3. Place, open side down on a foil lined cookie sheet and flatten with the palm of your hand.
4. Broil the peppers 10-16 minutes until the skins are black. Don't panic. You indeed do want almost all of the skin to be black and brittle.
5. Remove from the oven and let the peppers steam in their own heat by bunching the foil.
6. When cool enough to handle, slough the skins off the peppers.

Voilà! Roasted red peppers.

See? Easy peasy. The bread measurements and rising times need not be precise. The peppers will look ugly when they come out of the oven. They are supposed to. You can't lose.

Whole Grain No-Knead Bread for Sandwiches

Bill requested a bread more suited for a peanut butter sandwich to bring to work. No-knead bread with added grains and more yeast forced to cook in too small a pot resulted in a tall, dense, moist, whole-grain bread great for sandwiches or the toaster. The Queen of Hearts is there for scale.

Ingredients: 2 cups bread flour 2 cups whole wheat flour 1 1/2 tsp. salt 2 Tbl. brown sugar 2-4 Tbl. roasted unsalted sunflower seeds, roughly chopped 1/4 cup rye flakes 2 1/4 cups water (the rye flakes will soak up the extra water) 1 envelope rapid-rise yeast oil for greasing the pot

Procedure (basic no-knead bread method) Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add water and stir to make a sticky dough. Cover and let sit 6-8 hours to rise. Stir down. Cover and let sit 2 hours for second rise. Thirty minutes before the second rise is finished, preheat a covered pot or casserole in a 450°F oven. When the second rise is finished, remove the hot pot and oil lightly to prevent the bread from sticking. Flop the bread into the hot pot, cover. Bake 30 minutes at 450°F. Uncover and bake an additional 15 to 20 minutes until the interior of the bread reaches 210°F.

This recipe filled, some might say "overfilled" my 1970s Copco iron casserole. My intention was to force the no-knead bread into the shape I wanted for sandwiches. It worked fine. I did need to remember to grease the inside of the lid as well as the pot because the rising bread came right up to it but this forced the top of the loaf into a nice, flat shape, waiting for ham and cheese or PB&J.

No Knead Bread Experiment #6: Bread Flour

Bread flour has more gluten than all purpose flour. Gluten is the elastic that gives bread toothiness. I like a slice of bread that you have to chew! So, I broke down and bought a bag of bread flour. I felt a little like I was disappointing an old friend.
You see, I had a dear departed friend who was a great bread baker. Julie told me firmly that there was no reason not to use all-purpose flour for bread. Her bread was wonderful. You know, some people just have a way with bread. But I never had her talent.
And besides, the whole idea behind no knead bread is its laziness. You don't need to knead. You don't need to have the loving touch for the dough of a bread baker like Julie. So, bread flour and time. A poor replacement for watching my late friend work the dough as she would spout off to me about what was up in library-land.

Back to the results: the bread flour resulted in a very chewy bread with a solid crust across it's top. It is darn good but I think it would have been further improved with a scissor-cut or two to shape the top and maybe a bit hotter oven. I think I've gone too far in my effort to avoid the slightly singed taste of my first loaf of no-knead bread. This last one could have used a bit more char.

But it's darned good bread!!

No Knead Bread Experiment #3-5: Ways to Make it Not Work

Okay, like I often do, I leapt to the conclusion one could do anything to the no knead bread recipe and still get a great loaf of bread. Wrong. I got too enthusiastic adding stuff to the basic formula and have ended up with three less-than-satisfactory but informative results.

Experiment #3: Yogurt-Dill Attempt

With this experiment, I replaced about 1/3 cup of water with chopped-dill-in-a-tube and plain Greek-style yogurt. The dough did not rise as much as previously and the resulting loaf was heavy and a little gummy. Ugh. The taste was fine so I think this still deserves some experimentation. I think I went overboard with the yogurt.

Experiment #4: Olive-Garlic-Rosemary Attempt

You want to kill it? Try this method. Add finely chopped kalamata olives, minced garlic, and minced fresh rosemary to the basic mix. It looked great when I went to bed, rising nicely with the usual holey look. Next morning, it had turned into a batter. Not a dough, a batter.

I decided it wasn't really going to turn into a risen loaf of bread so spread it in a preheated lasagna-style pan with the intention of seeing if it could be turned into savory biscotti. After the first half hour of baking, I cut it with a pizza wheel into strips and tossed the strips back into the pan for the second baking. Passable biscotti resulted. Again, fine flavors but not real bread.

To correct this one, I think I will try what some recommend which is not adding things to the dough until after the long rise.

But the savory biscotti have definite potential! This deserves more exerimentation.

Experiment #5: Sweet Cinnamon Bread

To this recipe, I added about a tablespoon of brown sugar and about 3/4 tsp. cinnamon. It was okay but not great. It needed some whole wheat flour to improve its flavor.

I am also guessing that my recent attempts were affected by using a different flour brand, one light for biscuits without enough gluten for bread. The next grocery trip will bring home different white flour, some gluten powder, and something more flavorful like whole wheat flour, rye flour, etc.

Still-in-all, no-knead bread is so easy and so inexpensive that I see no reason to abandon it. We like good, chewy bread and in lieu of easy access to a great Italian bakery like one finds in Boston's North End, this will have to do.

No Knead Bread Experiment #2: Better Results

I couldn't believe the coincidence last night! There was Alton Brown on "Good Eats" throwing together a loaf of no-knead bread as I had loaf number two sitting on the counter begging me to have another slice.

Unlike the last one, this loaf practically flew out of the pan (as opposed to being stuck like concrete) and has a wonderful golden bottom crust (as opposed to a slightly singed, thick brown bottom). I also made this one a bit bigger to have a loaf that would be taller and last for a few days of lunch sandwiches. It still has the wonderful chewy crust of the original with no real effort.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour
• 2 cups tepid water (boiled and cooled to remove chlorine)
• 1/2 tsp rapid-rise yeast
• 1 rounded tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar

I used less salt and the bit of sugar to satisfy our preference for a less salty, slightly sweeter bread.

Follow the preparation procedures previously posted here. Basically:

1. Mix the ingredients
2. Let them sit, covered for about 18 hours
3. Flop out onto a board and use a spatula to bring the bottom around to the top
4. Let sit 15 minutes
5. Flop into a foil hammock.
6. Let sit 2 hours
7. Flop into a preheated pan and bake, first covered, then uncovered.

The chief variation I tried here was adjusting the temperature, time and the pot I baked it in.

This time I tried a combination of a spring form pan and a larger covered pot. I was not going to have to chisel this one out of the pan! I preheated the covered iron pot but not the spring form pan. I lined the spring form pan with parchment paper brushed with olive oil.

I flopped the dough into the line spring-form pan and then plopped that into the hot covered cast iron beast in the oven. This was probably overkill. The bread wasn't stuck at all to the paper or the pot. So I think the next time will see me going back to the original cast iron pot but oiled with a disk of parchment thrown into the bottom.

To try to take care of the over browning, I set the oven to 430°F instead of 450°F (my oven has digital controls). I set the initial covered baking for 40 minutes instead of 30 followed by the fifteen minutes uncovered. The thermometer showed the interior of the loaf to be over 210°F at that point.

Yummy.

So, next time I think we are about ready for another loaf of bread, I will do experiment #3. And this time it will get some flavoring added to it. Dill, ya think?

Lahey/Bittman's No-Knead Bread: Experiment #1

We have been Panera addicts but, sadly, they recently decided to fluffy-fy their bread and remove the flavor from their other baked goods -- at least it seems that way to us. I guess they are chasing the market that likes supermarket baked goods. Meanwhile, our local Publix (supermarket) is starting to have more "artisan breads." So we are not totally in the wilderness when it comes to good bread -- but almost.

I'd heard rumbles of a "no knead" bread recipe and decided it was time to do research. The recipe now in wide distribution was initially published in 2006 in the New York Times in a column by Mark Bittman. Bittman had gotten the recipe from Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery. Many have tried it and claimed it fool-proof so I thought I'd give it a try.

People experimenting with this recipe have developed all sorts of variations and recommendations. Although said to be "fool-proof," flour, ovens, pans and the like vary. I decided to try a loaf sticking pretty closely to the original recipe.

The bread produced by this recipe is a boule with even holes throughout and a wonderfully crunchy, toothsome crust. It wasn't perfect but after the recipe I will tell you why and will suggest what my next experiment will be with this WONDERFUL, MAGIC, NO WORK recipe!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon double-acting yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups water (boiled and cooled to tepid if your tap water is heavily chlorinated like ours is)

Procedure:

1. In a deep, large bowl, mix the dry ingredients thoroughly and stir in water until all flour is moistened. The dough will be a shaggy mess at this point.
2. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 18-24 hours. The dough will slowly grow until it more than doubles. The dough will be a sticky, hole-filled, bubbly mess at this point--and remains so until you bake it.
3. With a wet spatula and wet hands, flop the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Use the spatula to fold in the edges of the dough. This breaks up some of the larger bubbles and pulls the dough bottom around to the top.
4. Cover lightly and let sit on the board 15 minutes to rest.
5. Place a length of foil across a large salad bowl as one would a hammock between two trees. Flatten the foil against the bottom and sides of the bowl leaving the ends of the foil draped over the bowl edges. You have now made a hammock for the dough.
6. Flop the dough into the foil-lined bowl and cover loosely, leaving plenty of room for rising.
7. Let the dough rise an additional two hours.
8. About 1 1/2 hours into this last rise, set the oven to 450°F and put a covered casserole or dutch oven in to preheat.
9. When the dough is done rising and the oven and pan are hot, use the foil hammock to flop the dough into the pan, wiggle the pan to center the dough, cover and bake for 30 minutes.
10. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes.
    
11. Take the loaf out of the pan and cool on a rack.

Evaluation of Exeriment #1

• Yum! We've gotta do this again! It's as easy as it seems.
• The loaf was a bit salty for us since we eat few prepared foods and don't use much salt. Next time I will use less. This is a bit of a surprise since others have said they needed more salt in theirs.
• It stuck to the pan and took some serious convincing to get out. Next time I will follow the recommendations of some and put a sheet of parchment in the pan or I might even experiment with putting a spring form pan in a larger cast iron pan.
• The interior was just a smidge underdone. I didn't believe my old thermometer which said the internal temperature was only 200°F. Some of the web pages said to make sure the interior reaches 210°F. Next time I will increase the length of time in the oven to make sure the inside gets done.
• The bottom crust was just a bit dark and too thick. I think my oven may run a bit hot and so, after reading about the effect of temperature on crust in Bernard Clayton's The Complete Book of Breads, next time will see me setting the temp a bit lower. I may also deflect some of the radiant heat by putting a cookie sheet on the lower shelf an inch or two under the dutch oven.
  

And then I will report back with experiment number two. Word on the web is that you can use different flours and other additions and get variations that work wonderfully. I'm anxious to try the version that says replacing some of the water with a bit of plain yogurt results in a slightly sour bread with a better texture for sandwiches.

Some folks cook it in cast iron, others in glass or pyrex. All that matters is that the pot is covered. It is being covered that makes the wonderful crust.

I'm headed back in the kitchen for another slice. It really is a wonderful way to have fresh bread without much work or flour flying all over the kitchen.