D. Beeckler:
I hope you'll give the recipe another try. Many bread recipes don't
include sugar; the carbohydrate in flour feeds the yeasties, as it
does in sourdough. I made the bread according to the recipe and
Bittman's notes, although I started out with reservations. I used
half bread flour and half whole wheat flour, and I used 3/4 tsp.
yeast because my house temperature is under 70 F in winter. I
expected the slack, wet dough to be sticky and messy after the
18-hour resting period. I dumped the dough onto a floured board and
gingerly did the fold over a couple of times bit. It had an almost
soft and silky, not a sticky texture. My hands stayed clean. I baked
it in a 4-quart Calphalon Dutch oven (lightly oiled, with the excess
oil wiped off with a paper towel), but I'll try other pans: a regular
bread pan and a 9"x13" baking pan, with an aluminum foil cover the
first 30 minutes of baking. I think it would make a wonderful
focaccia. It literally is the easiest, least time consuming, in
terms of labor, bread I ever have made. It has a texture I tried and
failed to achieve previously. If you have eaten a crumpet, it's
similar to that: moist, chewy, full of small holes to soak up butter
(or Smart Balance) and jam if you want to add it - but with a crisp,
crackling crust. It makes wonderful toast, too. I sliced it and froze
the slices in plastic sandwich bags; freezing does not affect the
texture, and it thaws in minutes. Although I'll continue to use my
old tried-and-true recipes, no-knead bread joins the tried-and-true list.
Ellen Lee