I've done the Mark Bittman no knead method and found it to be awfully complex just to save a little kneading time. Overall it is generally messier too. The no knead method I find very easy to do is the method in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. Their method is simple. For three loaves mix:
3 cups water
1-1/2 tbs IDY
1-1/2 tbs salt
6-1/2 cups all purpose flour
Mix with a spoon until there are no lumps or dry flour in a container with a non-airtight lid, let it rest and rise at room temperature for two hours and then put it in the refrigerator overnight.
When ready to bake, yank or snip off about a third of the dough, form it in a boule by tucking under (do not knead) and place on a peel with corn meal to prevent sticking and let rest for 40 minutes. 20 minutes before bake time pre-heat oven with a baking stone at 450 deg. When ready to bake slide it off the peel onto the stone and add a cup of water to a broiling pan on a rack in the oven under the stone. Bake for 35 minutes. You can also put this same recipe in greased bread pans.
That is their basic demo recipe. From there you can do all sorts of baking. For 6 loaves all you have to remember is 6, 3, 3, 13 for the recipe. The bread dough mix is good for 14 days in the refrigerator. As you use it up you can mix a new batch in the same bowl without cleanup and use the leftover stuck dough to the container as a sourdough starter. Basically cleanup is brushing corn meal and flour off your peel, stone and counter top, and washing the spoon and measuring utensils.
I've got two whole wheat boules in the oven as I am typing this. This whole wheat recipe I used needs to be baked at a lower temperature for a longer time. 350 deg. for 50-60 minutes.
