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Press flat and divide in two. Round and let rest until relaxed, then deflate and shape into loaves. Place in greased 8″ 4″ loaf pans and let rise again in a warm, draft-free place until the dough slowly returns a gently made fingerprint. Slash the tops and bake in an oven preheated to 350°F for about 45 minutes, until done.

Herbed Dinner Loaf

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (¼ oz or 7 g)

½ cup warm water (120 ml) (can be potato cooking water)

⅔ cup cooked mashed potatoes (160 ml)

½ cup cottage cheese (120 ml)

½ cup hot potato or tap water (120 ml)

1 tablespoon oil (15 ml)

1 ½ teaspoons salt (8.25 g)

1 teaspoon dill weed or parsley

1 teaspoon chopped celery leaves

¼ teaspoon thyme

3 cups whole wheat flour (450 g)

The herbs are subtle, and the bread very moist: great for lunch the next day, toasted, alongside a bowl of tomato soup.

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.

Mix all the other ingredients together and then add the yeast. Knead until springy, about 10 minutes; the dough should be quite soft. If it seems too stiff, wet your hands as you knead to incorporate more water.

Cover the dough and let it rise in a very warm place for about an hour, or a little less. To check, poke your wet finger into the middle of the dough about ½ inch deep; if the hole does not fill in at all or if the dough sighs, you can deflate it and set it to rise again. The second rise should take less than half an hour if it has been kept warm enough.

Press flat, shape into a smooth round, place in a well-greased casserole dish or in a greased loaf pan, and let rise again as before. It should be ready for the oven in less than half an hour. Preheat well, to 350°F; bake for about 45 minutes.

*You can use ¼ cup fresh sprouts (3 days) instead of dimalt. Add to the orange juice, and blend smooth in blender.

Saltless Breads

Who these days hasn’t heard about the dangers of too much salt? Is there one among us who can down even a small bag of pretzels (much less potato chips) without a nervous twitch, a pang of guilt? But bread is not a salty food, so why this section?

All true, and unless you are on a sodium-restricted diet—or are one of the people who actually prefer bread without added salt—bread is one of the last places you would want to cut back: a little salt goes a long way in bread, not only transforming the flavor but strengthening the dough to make a lighter loaf. Even so, it can be done, and the saltless bread that tastes so blah at first gradually begins to taste just right if you are persistent and dedicated to reeducating your palate to a saltless regime.

And so if it is saltless loaves you want, tasty and light as they can be, we offer in this section some hints and also some really excellent recipes. Other breads in this book can be made without added salt, following the guidelines here. In general, look for recipes with a lot of flavor interest: the ryes and the sourdoughs, for example, will be most successful. Most of our recipes call for 2 ½ teaspoons of salt for two loaves; such breads do not depend wholly on salt for their flavor, but the ones that do call for a full tablespoon of salt are apt to need it.

If you are on a salt-restricted diet and have made an honest but futile attempt to get to like saltless bread, try using just 1 teaspoon in each of the following recipes, which is only ½ teaspoon per loaf—a third of what would be in a store-bought loaf of bread. Unless you eat a whole loaf in a day, you won’t be getting a lot of salt from it.

When you make bread without salt you will find that the dough rises quickly, so watch it carefully to make sure that it doesn’t overferment. To help control the fermentation, try making the dough with cool rather than warm water and letting it rise at room temperature. Keep the dough on the stiff side, and most important, don’t let the shaped loaves rise too long in the pan, but put them in the oven a little before you think they are ready; otherwise they can collapse.

Though a saltless loaf rises faster, it will