What is Reddit's opinion of My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method?

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You might want to check out Jim Lahey's book, if you haven't already. He suggests using a much smaller quantity of yeast, and a longer room temperature rise of 10-12 hours. No kneading, just a few folds, rest for an hour and bake. I've had great results with this method for years. The book is here: https://www.amazon.ca/My-Bread-Revolutionary-No-work-No-knead/dp/0393066304

We make bread a couple times a week. I realized after I posted that that you are probably kneading your bread. We use a no-knead method, so using hands to mix the flour, yeast, and water only takes a minute and is pretty fun. Here's the cookbook we work from if you're interested.

I have the book and have read it, but I've never tried any of the recipes from it. Most of it seems like sound and decent information though. I've been using Jim Lahey's "My Bread" with great success for the past year or so.

I first learned to make traditional bread that required kneading, but I don't bother with that anymore. Now I just follow Jim Lahey's no-knead method of using extra hydration and lots of time. That's the most significant technique recommendation that comes to mind.

Here's the basic workflow:
1. Mix flour, salt, yeast, and water in a bowl and cover it; let it sit for ~14 hours.
2. Shape it, cover it, and let it rise/"proof" for ~2 hours.
3. Preheat an empty Dutch oven inside an oven at around 450F.
4. Once the Dutch oven is piping hot, drop the bread dough inside and put the lid on to trap the moisture. Put the Dutch oven back in the oven and bake the loaf for ~40 minutes.
5. Take the lid off and bake until the top is acceptably dark, and then pull the loaf out and let it cool.

From what I can tell, a crispy crust comes from baking the loaf at a very high temperature with moisture, like when you drop the dough into the hot Dutch oven and close it. When I drop the temperature, the crust is usually softer. I also proof my loaf in the Dutch oven so I don't lose volume in transit and I get a taller loaf, and I just stick the Dutch oven in the cold oven and let them heat up together. I'm not sure what effect that has on the crust crispiness, though; I bake mine at ~375F because I want a softer crust.

I'd recommend starting with 25% whole wheat flour. In my experience, anything beyond 25% yields a noticeably denser bread, which isn't bad, but it's worth starting lighter so you can learn the difference. At 50%, I'd recommend adding vital wheat gluten to add some volume, but that's personal preference.

If you're looking for a basic recipe, try this:
300g white flour
100g whole wheat flour
8g salt
1g yeast
300g lukewarm water

Follow the numbered directions above and see how it goes. Also, if you don't have a Dutch oven, any oven-safe covered vessel will work. I've used regular steel pots before. In a pinch, a plain baking sheet will work.

>I have found the key to a crisp crust is baking in a moist environment, especially at the start of baking. When people post about baking in a dutch oven, it's because it keeps in the moisture released by the bread which sets the crust.

Trapping moisture is definitely part of achieving a crispy crust, but AFAIK it's insufficient by itself. I bake my bread in a covered Dutch oven for the first 40 minutes, but my crust doesn't end up crispy, I think because I use a much lower temperature. The high heat seems to be crucial to getting a crispy exterior, maybe because forming the surface blisters requires water to be evaporating rapidly.

>the bittman/lahey recipe doesn't really do a 'proofing' step -- it's just a long slow cold ferment in the fridge, no true loaf shaping and traditionally proofing at all. You just toss the wet dough into the hot dutch oven, and it's so wet that it molds to the shape of the pot.

Not to be combative, but I think that's mostly inaccurate. The Bittman recipe contains a proofing step (step 3), as does Lahey's book. If you skip that step, the loaf won't have nearly as much volume since it loses a lot of volume when you shape it. I expect that shaping it and dropping it straight into a Dutch oven directly from the bulk fermentation will yield a very dense loaf. Lahey also doesn't use the fridge at all IIRC.

Not true. Read Jim Lahey's book on his no-knead bread. It is done that way for a reason.

http://www.amazon.com/My-Bread-Revolutionary-No-Work-No-Knead/dp/0393066304/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

The crust looks awesome.

Have you heard of this baker Jim Leahey the bread is amazing and easy I'm sure you can find some of recipes online.