Here's the Lahey recipe I use:
3 cups flour (all purpose or bread flour)
1 1/4 teaspoon or so salt
1/2 teaspoon of dry yeast
1 5/8 cup of lukewarm water
That's it.
I mix the dry ingredients in a large plastic salad bowl then add the water and stir together until pretty well mixed. It will be a wet and shaggy dough and you might have a little unincorporated flour but it will all even out in the rise. Cover it in the bowl and let sit out of drafts in a room temperature quiet place for 12 to 18 hours. You want it double at least in volume and it will look lumpy and spongy and bubbly on top.
After the first rise, grease or spray with cooking spray the inside of your loaf pan. Put your bowl of bread and your pre-greased loaf pan next to each other on your work surface. Uncover your dough and lightly dust the top with flour. I use a wire strainer for this to get a more even and lighter dusting of flour. Now I tip the bowl toward me and scrap and roll the dough from the backside of the bowl toward me until I can dust half of the newly exposed bottom side of the dough. Then I turn the bowl around 180 degrees, tip, scrap, roll, and dust the other half of the bottom of the dough. You should now have your dough still in the same bowl and dusted with flour on all sides. Now punch the dough down flat in the bowl, dusting with more flour if needed. Roll up your flattened dough into a loaf the approximate length of your pan and quickly lift it out of the bowl and place it seam side down into your greased loaf pan. The dough will be floppy and stretchy so just do your best but quickly. Once in the pan go ahead and punch it down and out in the pan until it fills the pan and the top lays fairly flat and even. Spray or grease the top of the loaf and cover loosely with a piece of greased or sprayed cling wrap and let rise for a second time for about another 3 to 4 hours.
I've found that when the second rise is risen about 3/4 inch above the top of the pan it is ready. Any more second rising results in the bread drooping down over the sides of the loaf pan and does not make a convenient loaf for toastering. When the second rise is ready I prepare the oven by putting an oven rack where it will put the top of the loaf pan I will bake the bread in at the middle of the height of the oven. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Carefully peel off the cling wrap and bake for 30 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when thumped. Turn loaf out onto a cooling rack.* Done.
This sounds like a lot more trouble then it is. We are talking about 5 minutes or so of actual effort. I make the dough in a couple of minutes around 6 am, it sits all day. When I get home around 6 pm, I spend a couple of minutes punching and panning and it sits all evening. During "Daily Show" I pre-heat and bake. During "Colbert Report" I de-pan. In the morning it has sat and cooled uncovered all night and I turn it upside down, slice up with an electric knife, and toss it in the toaster.
This is a sort of rustic bread with a coarse grain and a crispy-chewy crust. When toasted that chewy crust becomes super crunchy. I like color on my toast and with our cheap little toaster I have to toast it twice on the toaster's highest setting. Your mileage may vary.
If you want faster lazy bread, I have upped the yeast to a tablespoon and been able to get both rises and the baking done in an evening with no loss of quality. This bread is bullet proof so don't worry about taking liberties.
* Heads up: Don't set a hot pyrex pan on a ceramic/glass cook top, especially if cooktop is damp or wet.
