Everyone knows that the best time to delve into the world of bread baking is soon after having a baby. What? Crazy talk you say? Maybe not. We've been getting onto the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day bandwagon lately and finding that it's completely feasible, even easy, for families (including new parents) to bake their own bread.
Having never baked our own bread before (we dimly recall a few failed experiments more than a decade ago), our attention was grabbed by the title of Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë Francois 2007 book, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. Usually with "sensational" titles like this our initial intrigue is quickly walloped over the head by a strong dose of suspicion and skepticism, but we must say that we are total converts to their method and their bread (as are the 257 5-star reviewers on Amazon).
You can find their master recipe* (which makes a classic boule) online and the book contains recipes for many other kinds of bread as well as a multitude of sweet and savory bread-based recipes. To give you a quick rundown, the idea is to stir together water, yeast, salt and flour into a large container that you store in the fridge for up to two weeks. There's an initial rise time, but no kneading! When you're ready to bake a loaf, take out a portion of the dough, form it into a ball, let it rise on the counter and bake. Voila! We're skipping over some of the subtleties of the process, but this gives you the gist of it. (The Kitchn reviewed the book and method and that's worth a read.)
There are other popular no-knead recipes around, but the reason we like this recipe for families is that a "batch" of dough makes four loaves (the recipe can be halved or doubled) so once you've done the initial work, it really only takes a few minutes (plus rising time) to get a loaf (or rolls, pretzels, pizza etc.) in the oven. We've found it incredibly easy to bring a batch together in a few minutes and then take just a few minutes each time we want to bake off a loaf. It's so quick that we haven't needed to wait for our baby's naps in order to fit it into the routine. It's also inexpensive, healthy and delicious.
Have you tried it? Jeff and Zoë also have a blog with additional tips and recipes.
* There have been a few revisions to the master recipe which can be found here.
(photo by Carrie McBride)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Not only have I tried it, I have become a proselytizing maniac telling everyone I know how easy it is and fantastic the results are. I have spread the bread religion to five moms in our playgroup and to my sister-in-law. I have been baking bread since right after Christmas and now regularly make loaves of oatmeal bread, Vermont white cheddar, brioche, and sun-dried tomato.
I will never go back to commercial bread. It has saved our family a lot of money (we were regularly paying $4 a loaf for commercial sliced bread and $7 to $9 when we bought bread at our local bakery). It has also given me tremendous pride to be able to be able to feed us something I thought was impossible to make at home, and know every ingredient that goes in.
See? Proselytizing home-baked bread zealot.
view Yolanda's profile
I like the idea of making bread at home, but I normally buy a sprouted grain bread...a little healthier and easier to digest. How would I do that at home?
view mirnada's profile
Yolanda - I'm with you! I received a recipe from this book compliments of some bread bakers at my local farmer's market last summer, bought the book, and have not looked back. I have not bought a loaf of bread since last August and I have been telling everyone I know how easy it is to bake their bread. My list of "converts" is growing as well!
view Kate N's profile
I am quite intrigued...I've put the book on hold and I'm going to try it out next week! (after I buy a baking stone and pizza peel, which I've been wanting to get anyway.)
view elizarock's profile
Well, you've got my attention. I'll be checking this out from the library and giving it a whirl.
Who knows, maybe I'll join your legions of bread bakers.
view wendy-rae's profile
yeah I keep a tub of potato and roasted garlic dough in my fridge at all times. It's an absolutely wonderful book. I'm kinda a homemade bread fiend and I've tried the other no knead stuff and the long knead thing but this is so convenient and delicious a recipe has to look really special and unique for me to try something else
view raegun's profile