Long-Rise Bread with Carrot and Walnuts by MollyDunlop

OK, here's the recipe for the long-rise bread. It's from Jim Lahey's book My Bread.

3 cups flour (I use 2 of bread flour and 1 of WW)
1/4 teaspoon dry yeast
1 to 2 tspns salt (to taste)
1 1/2 cups fresh carrot juice (I grate a couple of carrots and run them through the blender)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup currants (optional)
about 1 tspn whole cumin seed

Mix flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the juice to form a soft, "shaggy" dough; it should be just too wet to knead. Add water by tablespoons if required. Work in the walnuts and currants. Cover bowl with oiled plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 18-24 hours.

Turn the risen dough onto a floured surface and fold it over a couple of times. Shape it into a round loaf. Take a clean cloth (cotton or linen dish towel is ideal) and cover it heavily in flour. Scatter the cumin seed over the flour. Dump the shaped bread onto the cloth and leave it for an hour or so. Heat your oven about as hot as it will go, 450-475 F. Heat up a large, lidded cast-iron or earthenware pot in the oven. Once hot, remove the pot, dump the loaf into the pot (don't worry if it goes in upside-down), replace the lid, and put it back in the oven for about 35-45 minutes. Remove lid and bake to a deep brown (about another 25 min). Carefully remove the whole shooting-match from the oven and tip out the loaf. Tap the bottom to make sure it sounds hollow; if not, return to oven and bake in 5-minute increments until done (don't bother putting it back in the pot). Cool on a rack; freezes well. You can bake it as two loaves if you like. Or use a cast-iron skillet instead of the pot and don't cover it, but throw half a cup of water onto the oven floor just before you close the door on the loaf (the idea is to create a steamy atmosphere for crust formation).

The currants are in the original recipe, but I sometimes leave them out.