Everyone raved about this no-knead bread recipe* that appeared in the New York Times last year, and rightfully so (*registration required). The recipe, which we’ll call the sloooooow-rise technique, produces a professional looking crust and an amazingly chewy, bubbled crumb. It takes two minutes to make the dough by throwing water, salt and yeast in with flour. You then wrap and forget about it until the next day, letting it rise at least 12 hours. When you finally bake it, the trick is to give it a faux pro steam bake, in a covered Dutch oven or Le Creuset style pot. The bread was part of “The Minimalist” column, adapted from Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery in New York. The blog Steamy Kitchen takes the “so easy a four year-old can do it” approach literally, with a few alterations, and I altered it more still for my oven. Be sure to check out hers. My variation goes like this:3 cups of good bread flour1+ teaspoon of sea salt, finely ground¾ teaspoon yeast (just the standard Red Star packets)1½ cups lukewarm waterInstead of adding the yeast to the flour, I put it into the warm water first and make sure it’s dissolved for 30 seconds. I increased the salt and ground it fine for better distribution. The one thing I noticed about this recipe was that when you use store bought yeast the flavor was very mild. Who knew how much I was conditioned to the tyranny of sourdough? The salt adds a little tang. I do a much shorter bake, both when the dough is covered and once you uncover it, so check after ten minutes when it’s covered. If it looks baked but not browned, uncover it and start checking for a dry thump after 15 minutes: total baking time, 30 minutes. It took me three tries in my oven to get the exact ratio and cook time for the result I wanted. That’s nine smaller loaves to reach perfection. Cost per loaf: $0.36.