I love this idea! I haven’t tried it myself yet but I’ve seen photos. OK here’s what I’d do. I’d form the bread loaf on a floured surface instead of on the parchment paper (this can take some finesse and practice; I recommend looking up videos on youtube for how to form a boulé, which is the circular loaf of bread shape). Set criss-crossing pieces of twine on the parchment paper in the center – maybe 3-4 of them, so you have 6 or 8 sections total. Then place the formed loaf on top, tie the string on top, plop the parchment paper in the Dutch oven, and bake according to instructions. After it’s done baking you can snip the twine away! Please let us know how it turns out if you try it!

Sure! The general rule for substituting dry herbs for fresh is to use 1/3 of the amount (so, 1 teaspoon for every tablespoon). Hope that helps and good luck!

I’m excited to hear how it works out for you, please report back if you have a moment! :-)

Thank you so much for your reply. I am going to try these things out and see how it turns out.

Aw, bummer! So, this is kind of the nature of no knead bread. One day you can get a nice tall loaf, the next a flatter one. It’s a bit more finicky in that regard because it lacks gluten strength, which is traditionally developed through kneading. This no knead bread has even less because of its short rise time (a small price to pay, in my opinion, for a quicker loaf, but other no knead bread recipes use 1/4 teaspoon of yeast and allow for an overnight rise to help develop gluten strength with more time – still not as much as traditional kneading though!).

Anyway, sometimes I make this bread and STILL get a flatter loaf but it does get easier to get a more consistent result with practice. A lot of it has to do with how much the dough is handled during shaping and removal from the bowl. If it’s smushed around, the air pockets deflate, which can cause a flatter loaf. This is likely what happened for you.

Here’s my advice for next time:
1) Stir for a longer time to mix the ingredients together. This will help develop a bit more gluten. You can use a standing mixer to make easy work of this.
2) It’s possible your dough needed a little more flour or a brand that had more gluten. King Arthur All Purpose flour is very reliable in this way. Bread flour has more gluten than AP flour, if you want to try that route (you will need a little bit more water in this case – not too much, but bread flour will absorb it a bit more).
3) When you shape the dough and remove it from the bowl, try your hardest not to smush it too much. A shallower, rather than deep, bowl can help with easier removal, as well as using a spatula to help get it out instead of your hands.

One more thing – if it didn’t rise at all while it was baking, it’s possible the dough overproofed (rose, then stopped rising and deflated). To prevent this, allow it to rise to double and not more, which may take different amounts of time depending on the temperature and humidity of the surrounding environment and the type of yeast used.

Hope that helps!