Rustic Country Bread

"With apologies to Chris, I made this by hand (no bread machine). The starter was not liquid enough to "pour" as the recipe stated; I went ahead and used all the starter and made the bread using a litt..." See morele more WW flour than stated. I used a pan of water in the bottom of my oven instead of spraying the loaf with water, and the bread turned out very crusty, with a chewy interior. It does need more salt, because it is a little bland. I will tinker with this recipe, because it is worth trying again. Thanks for an adventure Chris!"

"I was going to write this recipe off as pretentious based on a quick scan of the ingredients- I mean spring water? In rustic bread? Then I thought about it and I realized that many people have troub..." See morele with breads because of the chlorine and flouride in their water. That said, I used filtered tap water and AP flour because that is what I had on hand. I follow the instructions and made a lovely biga and waited impatiently for 12 hours to use it. The dough came together beautifully. Without adding any additional flour it was slightly sticky, but I decided to see how it felt after the first rise. I cloaked it very lightly with flour before punching down and from that point on it was perfect. The extra rise helped the flavor develop and it baked into the most beautiful boule. I tossed 4 ice cubes into the bottom of my oven at the start of baking and the crust was chewy and crusty. I refrigerated the remaining biga and will be making another loaf tomorrow. Very nice recipe, Chris!......9/26/09 UPDATE: I just made another loaf using the reserved starter. This time I used 1 cup whole wheat, 1 cup AP flour and 1/2 cup rye. It is slightly denser, but still has a great crust and still came together almost effortlessly."

"i dont use a bread machine because i think the fun is in the kneading and the eating and the punching down. anyway, i used regular yeast in the same amounts and followed it, replacing hand kneading wi..." See moreth the same amount of bread machine time. the only problem with the bread is that it is missing some sort of flavor. i did add an extra half tsp of salt as per the previous reviews. and sprinkled a little on the top crust before baking. i am thinking of allowing the starter to stand for two more days and try it as a sourdough, because this recipe browns and bakes beautifully and the chewy texture and thick crust is what i pay the big bucks for in the stores. "