Easy bread-making

[dodgetruckmom]

I have a wonderful book to recommend for bread-baking, called Healthy Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. My MIL gave it to me for Christmas. The premise of the book is that all the bread recipes can be made by mixing the ingredients in a 6-quart plastic bucket, allowing the dough to rise, then shaping it into loaves and baking it. For the last six months I've made bread three or four times a week and it really only does take five minutes. I make a whole-wheat sandwich-style bread using local eggs, local raw honey, and locally-grown wheat.

I do know how to make bread the "old-fashioned" way, but I won't go back to doing it that way.

[swoods]

You are so right. I have the book also, as do both my daughters. It is a great book and really does take only five minutes.

I like adding various seeds to my bread, sunflower, pumpkin, etc. as I really love bread with texture. My granddaughters don't like seeds, they always ask for bread without the nuts!!

[baygal]

Thanks. I just ordered the regular Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day after reading your post. I hope it works out for me because I love fresh bread!

[dodgetruckmom]

If you have questions, please ask! It took a few batches for me to get the hang of it, but now it's really really easy.

[OKGranny]

I've got the book and I do like it but I rarely make the bread that way. With just two of us a loaf goes a week. I wanted the book originally because I'm another one that wants a mix of flours and I love adding in seeds and bits of this and that. Bread is fun.

[CandyBabyE]

Thanks for this post. I used to make all my own bread using sponge starters so it was usually a 2 day process, but such wonderful textured bread with crispy crust.  I would love to be able to do bread again, so I will definately be checing this book out.

Thanks again.

Candy

[baygal]

If you have questions, please ask! It took a few batches for me to get the hang of it, but now it's really really easy.

What have you been baking your bread on (baking sheet, baking stone)?

[swoods]

You didn't ask me, but I can tell you what I do! I have a pizza stone and I use it. Stick it in the oven to warm up and I use the broiler pan on the rack below to put the water in.

[baygal]

You didn't ask me, but I can tell you what I do!

Thanks for your response. I just got my book yesterday and I didn't know that I should have purchased a stone and broiler pan ahead of time. The only thing I bought was a large container to store my dough in. I live in Spain and a lot of stuff that's easily available in the States is hard to find here. I'll most likely have to order a stone and broiler pan online. I'm trying to figure out if I should wait on the recommended equipment or just go ahead and make some bread using a cookie sheet and a cast iron pan or roasting pan to hold the water.

[baygal]

Before someone talks about what water will do to my cast iron, I have a pan that hardly has any seasoning that I'm not too concerned about. IF I decide to use it, it'll only be until my broiler pan arrives. I can re-season it. 

[HelenWheels]

I love these books - haven't made anything out of the 2nd (Healthy) book yet but made a lot of things out of the 1st book.

As far as the broiler pan, any shallow pan that you can put water in would be fine.

The baking stone shouldn't be that difficult to find... or maybe I'm out of touch with what can be purchased abroad.

[Nadir_E]

You didn't ask me, but I can tell you what I do! I have a pizza stone and I use it. Stick it in the oven to warm up and I use the broiler pan on the rack below to put the water in.

Same here.  As for the bread - it's awesome!  Yes, the title misleads ever so slightly (you'll spend more than five minutes making the dough, but once you do that, it only takes 5 minutes to prep a loaf, and then baking time of course). 

I've used small versions of these loaves for sandwiches and gotten rave reviews.

WARNING - the sticky bun recipe is super-duper good and will result in lots of people asking you when you're making it next.  Like every time they see you.

The only thing that didn't turn out (for me) was one of the recipes using honey - sorry, the name escapes me.  The middle of those loaves (in bread pans) never cooked, but the edges were yummy.

Definitely worth buying for the wide assortment of bread-based recipes in the book.

-N

[swoods]

WARNING - the sticky bun recipe is super-duper good and will result in lots of people asking you when you're making it next.  Like every time they see you.

LOL, that's no joke. My daughter made those and took them to church! She is now the sticky bun girl!

[mxitman]

well since i've been at home for the last few months I've been in charge of cooking and cleaning. I was turned on to the book by one of my wife's friends and it's way easy to make. All i've done is the basic recipe, with both white & whole wheat flour. I cook it on a pizza stone and it works great. Oh I did make some meat stuffed little rolls from some of the dough, I just pulled some out and put in some chicken apple sausage that I cooked beforehand, I rolled it up and place on the pizza stone made for a great breakfast roll.

[baygal]

WARNING - the sticky bun recipe is super-duper good and will result in lots of people asking you when you're making it next.  Like every time they see you.

It's funny you mentioned that. I was just telling DH yesterday that I'm going to make some for him. I'm prepared to face the consequences  I have semolina dough rising in the kitchen right now. I decided to start with something besides the basic recipe. Why, I don't know. I'll get to the sticky buns next.

[PermaWork]

Many bread recipes say to let the dough rise in a warm place (around 75 - 80 degrees) if the environment is cooler, can this affect the rising process?

I baked some bread a few days ago and all went great…
the temp in my house was warm…

But today I went to bake some more, its a bit cool, only the 60's and the dough didn't rise very well…

[LvsChant]

Oh... what I wouldn't give for a few 60-degree temperature days [we're having a heat wave in the DFW area].

What I do in the wintertime when the house is cooler is to place the dough in the oven with the light on. Gives just the right amount of heat to allow good rising.

[Herbal Prepper]

Thanks for posting this about this book.  I've been on the fence about getting it.  While I can bake just about any kind of cake, brownie, quick bread, etc., baking regular bread has just not worked out well for me.  I'm going to give bread one more try. 

Out of curiousity, is there a recipe in this book for pizza crust?  Or does anyone have a favorite pizza crust recipe?  Thanks.

[PermaWork]

Thanks LvsChant….
I'll totally try that…

[LvsChant]

Cat:

I don't have the book, so can't answer about pizza crust recipes in there, although I'd bet they'd work well. I've tried numerous recipes and really don't have one that is as good as pizzeria crust (probably because I don't have the fancy pizza oven -- maybe using a pizza stone would help). There are a few different recipes to try at the www.HillbillyHousewife.com site ...

[Herbal Prepper]

Cat:

I don't have the book, so can't answer about pizza crust recipes in there, although I'd bet they'd work well. I've tried numerous recipes and really don't have one that is as good as pizzeria crust (probably because I don't have the fancy pizza oven -- maybe using a pizza stone would help). There are a few different recipes to try at the www.HillbillyHousewife.com site ...

Thanks LvsChant.  I keep forgetting about that site, but there's so much good info there.  My son (almost 3) is a picky eater, and of course, pizza is one thing that he will eat no matter what.  We almost never have pizza, but for those nights where he truly will not eat anything, we'll get pizza.  I'd much rather make it at home to control what ingredient go in and on it.  Again, thanks.

[EmmaPeel]

Can someone let me know if there are any gluten-free recipes in the book?  I love freshly baked bread but we are gluten-free.  Some techniques don't carry from wheat to gluten-free flours.  Thanks.

[Nadir_E]

@Cat - there are 44 pages with 22 recipes on "pizzas and flat breads" (includes naan, stromboli, calzone, fatoush, etc.).

@EmmaPeel - Firstly, Good on You for going gluten-free - that's a tough row to hoe for most of us.  Secondly, I'm sorry to say, no, there aren't any gluten-free recipes in the book.  In fact, they make a point of saying how important gluten is to the rising process:

Gluten is the elastic protein that sets up a network of invisible microscopic strands, allowing bread dough to trap the carbon dioxide gas produced by bread yeast.  Without gluten, bread won't rise.  That's why flours that contain only minimal gluten (like rye) need to be mixed with wheat flour to make a successful loaf.

That said, I know there are people out there making gluten-free bread, so SOMEONE figured it out!   If you combine that outside knowledge with the recipes in this book, you'll probably enjoy some success, but at the cost of more experimenting to get it right.

-N

[OKGranny]

@Cat - there are 44 pages with 22 recipes on "pizzas and flat breads" (includes naan, stromboli, calzone, fatoush, etc.).

-N

I had to go get my book and check.  I wondered about that fattoush recipe since fattoush is really just a yummy salad with sliced or broken up pieces of pita bread.

[LdMorgan]

....I just got my book yesterday and I didn't know that I should have purchased a stone and broiler pan ahead of time.

I should have my copy of the book in later today. I'm really looking forward to it.

However...it never occurred to me that I might need a Pizza Stone.

I just hit the internet an looked up the price of one: $43.00, plus shipping.

Wow! Ow! Make that double-ow. I can think of a lot of things I could use $43.00 on that are a lot more urgent than a Pizza Stone.

Still, if ya gotta, ya gotta...and I really like fresh bread.

Nah. I hit the Internet again.

Apparently Pizza Stones are made out of baked clay.

Well, golly-gee: so are floor tiles.

I'm going to go buy a 16" x 16" terra cotta floor tile (unglazed), and maybe put some nice wooden handles on them.

I'll try it out and let you know how it works.


http://www.recipepizza.com/pizza_stone.htm

[Nadir_E]

LOL - that's good thinking LdMorgan!  I use a pizza stone I received as a gift - rather than wooden handles, it has a large wire handle that the stone sits astride (think rectangle - narrower than and longer than the stone - with the handles bent upward).  Maybe you could try making something like that?

I have to say, the impact of the stone on the process is impressive.  What I didn't buy was the pizza peel - the thing you slide the loaves onto the pizza stone with.  I found a very thin cutting board I use combined with a plastic pancake turner do the job just fine.

-N

[MaddoginMass]

LDMorgan, definitely let us know if the tile works.  I've been holding off buying a pizza stone due to the cost also.

[dodgetruckmom]

Re: Gluten-Free--the authors of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day have a second book called Healthy Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day which does include some gluten-free recipes (and the recipe for Chocolate Espresso Bread is worth the entire price of the book).

Re: Pizza stones and tiles--not sure I would use commercial floor tiles, because who knows what kinds of gasses/chemicals they would give off during the baking process. I got my pizza stones from Pampered Chef. The medium one was $24. Also, I would check local restaurant supply stores, as their prices are usually way better.

[LdMorgan]

Well, since Home Depot didn't have any unglazed terra cotta tile (aka Mexican tile)
we took a flier and bought a 12" square slate tile.

It would have been very expensive ($1.49) except that the barcode was messed up and it wouldn't register.

When they finally got a Manager over to the checkout, he took one look and said "Free."

So we saved $1.49.

The slate has been heat tested--I ran it up to 450 degrees F, and it didn't crack, chip, peel, or squeal.

Only thing left now is to toss some dough on it.

The 12" square may be a better size for us--i.e. using 2 small ones instead of one larger one.

We'll see.

Got my copy of the book. My Sweetie is in raptures over it. Lucky me: bread soon!

[cougar]

Not as cheap as tile, but we got our baking stones through pampered chef.  Pretty good stuff and it lasts forever.
http://www.pamperedchef.com/ordering/category_details.tpc?code=FH&id=9&parentCatId=9&parentId=
To avoid shipping, find out if there are any 'pampered chef parties' in your area.  They are fun if you can handle the estrogen levels (food samples and lots of neat kitchen toys to play with...but usually all or mostly women).  Or if you are willing to have them at your house you get a discount on stuff you buy.