Bittman's No-Knead Bread

I'm a year behind the rest of the blogging community on this, but I too tried out what's been dubbed Bittman's bread (though I'd prefer to call it Jim Lahey's bread if we really want to give credit where credit is due). The gist behind this bread is that you let time do the work to make the bread rise, eliminating the need to knead. Then you bake it in a piping hot covered casserole dish which allows the steam to do something (not sure what exactly) to the bread.

It turned out beautiful and delicious. I think it best if it's eaten within a couple days. By day three, the bread had lost some of its luster.

No-knead bread fresh from the oven

Notes: If you try this bread, the consensus seems to be that you should use 1 1/2 cups water, not 1 5/8 like the recipe states. Using regular dry active yeast (instead of instant yeast) is absolutely fine. A 3-5 qt. covered casserole dish should be plenty big. Enjoy.