I never thought I came from a family of bakers. Oh there were cakes, pies and the occasional biscuit and cookie but no hard core baking. Until I found out that one of my grandfather's many jobs during the Great Depression was baker. My aunt told me that when she was a girl, Grandpa would bake bread, cakes and pies for the coming week. I never knew this. He never said a word. He was many things, a coal miner, deep sea diver, (really), vintner, marksman, hunter and conservationist, but I would have never have pegged him as a baker. Although, he did have the arms for it. Have you ever noticed the biceps on a bread maker? Which is one of the reasons I've always used a bread machine.
Now a bread machine makes decent looking bread, and it's edible. However, if you want old fashioned crusty bread or artisian bread, you need a bread oven. I'm not really sure of the mechanics but I think it has to do with steam at some point. Anyway, I read about this new method called No Knead Bread and then I saw a show on Cooks Country about it called Almost No Knead Bread. That's the method I used. It calls for an enameled cast iron Dutch Oven, which I've always wanted and never could afford. LaCrusette/no Monet. Walmart just happened to have a really nice one on sale, it's made in China not France, I'll get over that. I won't include the recipe, because it's not mine and I didn't change it one bit. You can get it from the Cooks Country website.
I must admit this was really easy to make and look at the result. I've never made a prettier loaf of bread. I'd like to think my grandpa would be proud.
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