For best results the water should be pretty hot as should be the place where you put the dough to rise. The top of the fridge is a good place, or in the oven on very very low.
Used different ingredients. Wonderful! This bread turned out great. It was a snap to make and it tastes great too! I used olive oil and honey in place of the butter and sugar. I heated my oven a bit, then turned the oven off and let it rise in there for the first rising. Then I sat it on top of the stove to rise in the tin while the oven heated. It rose very well, it's just flatter on top than kneaded bread, but all yeast batter breads are like that. I have a bread knife and the loaf hardly had crumbs at all while cutting. It sliced very nicely. Next I will try it with a little wholemeal flour. - 14 Jul 2008
Used different ingredients. I had to try this recipe. The first time it tasted great coming out of the oven but it was VERY HEAVY! I tried again the second time and it came out perfectly. As other people have mentioned it is important that the water is very hot. This is an easy recipe when you want a no hassle homemade bread. It is great with soups and stew although I don't think I would try it as sandwich bread since the consistency is a little bit different than a kneaded bread recipe. The only changes I made was to use olive oil instead of butter the second time and I mixed it by hand. - 14 Jul 2008
Used different ingredients. Easiest yeast bread recipe I've ever made with excellent results. I also made a cinnamon bread by increasing the sugar by 5 tbsp. After the first rise I sprinkled a mixture of 4 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon over the top then gently folded it in to make swirls of cinnamon. YUM! - 14 Jul 2008