I guess it really depends on how you look at it. If you’re talking about the No Knead technique, you could argue that it only takes a few minutes of work. Angie at Sassafras (the company that makes the Cloche clay bakers), on the other hand, is quite emphatic that it takes FOREVER!

I’ll admit, this drawing of hers makes a compelling argument in support of her position.

Mark’s got his bread baking down. Earlier, he contributed his Caramelized Onion Loaf variation of the basic no knead recipe. Check it out.

I’m pasting a more recent email from Mark here with his useful tips on getting more out of your baking days and keeping it simple. Thanks Mark!

The Bittman video and Breadtopia have made lasting changes in my bread making. We now make bread twice a week. The process is so simple and not at all sensitive. I never use a scale and am not super careful with measuring/weighing flour. Just need to add a bit more or less water to compensate. I have made a bit of a change though. I figured as long as I’ve got the oven up to 500, why not cook two at once and up the weight of each loaf. Therefore, I’ve gone to 4 cups of flour and boosted all the other ingredients accordingly by 30%. As long as the dough is always real sticky, it works out great.

Here are todays loaves. White on the left, caramelized onion on the right (still my favorite). It just doesn’t get any better!

Thanks for turning us on this.

BTW, on the diet side…..this is not too good for the waistline. Its interesting, my wife worked in a bakery in the 80’s that sold “Malsovit” bread. It was packed full of fiber and sold as a diet bread. I think he was selling 2500 loaves a week. I think there’s something similar mentioned in Crust and Crumb, I’m going to explore that.

(If Mark is able to track down the Malsovit bread recipe, he’ll pass it along to us. It sounds great.)

When I saw a photo of Mike McGibbon’s bread fresh out of his wood fired hearth oven, I coaxed him into sending more photos. Of course I wanted to share them with everyone. Mike has certainly carved out a little slice of heaven in his home state of Wisconsin. Denyce and I were in his neighborhood several years ago and hope to get up there again soon. It’s gorgeous country.

The bread pictured here happens to be the Cook’s Illustrated Almost No Knead recipe. Wow! If all the bread Mike bakes looks even half that good, I have to think his family and friends are especially fortunate to have Mike around and appreciative of his talents.

Mike highly recommends road slush stout for the almost no knead bread. Pick some up at your local grocer ;).