Bread-Bakers v100.n065.10

Hi,

I've been a member of the list for awhile now but haven't been active for
some time and am just now finding time again for bread baking. I'm
especially interested in crusty, European style loaves and have been in a
bread baking frenzy these last few weeks.

Has anyone tried any of the recipes or techniques from the book, "No Need
to Knead?"
I tried the recipe for casarecchio (sp.?) last week. The resulting bread
was wonderfully moist and chewy (results desired and predicted by the
author), and we nearly devoured an entire loaf at one sitting. But the
taste and texture of the bread the following day were very disappointing.
The texture seemed to have changed, and it really didn't taste all that
great. I have read about breads that only taste good on the day they are
baked, and I admit I don't understand this phenomenon (If bread tastes
great one day, it should still taste good the next, right?).

Anyway, I just wonder if anyone has any comments or advice along these
lines. Ingredients aside, I'm very interested in the effects of different
techniques of bread baking. I can't post the recipe as I do not own the
book and will probably now not buy it . But I can tell you that the biga
was made with 1/4 cup rye flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup white
flour (KA All-purpose in this case) and 1 cup of water. After that I
believe 5 additional cups of flour and 2 additional cups of water were
added. The "technique" includes kneading the dough as little as possible.

Pat