Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day - Review
I read a review of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois and had to buy myself a copy of the book. I love fresh baked bread, but never seem to make it as often as I would like. This cookbook has master recipes for boule, challah, olive oil dough, bagels, light whole wheat to name just a few plus variations to make lots of different kinds of breads from the recipes.
The "secret" is to make enough dough for several loaves and store it in the refrigerator. You mix up a master batch of dough, let it rise for 2 hours and then you can shape and bake or store in the frig to use over the next couple weeks. When you want to bake the refrigerated dough, you just taake out as much as you need, add ingredients to make different recipes, shape into loaves, let rise for 20 minutes and bake.
I made a batch of olive oil bread yesterday and left it in my refrigerator. Tonight for dinner I made a piece into rosemary focaccia. It was delicious and my prep time was 5 minutes. It took longer for the oven to heat up.
I highly recommend this book for all the bread lovers out there.
eatmyfood
Jan 27, 2008 05:40PM
My husband and I are really enjoying this book. So far I've made the basic recipe, sun dried tomato and the spinach feta (flavor is subtle). Results have been good even with just a regular cookie sheet.
I was disappointed in the cinnamon rolls however.
I'm definitely trying the olive dough next. Has anyone tried the oatmeal bread or the challah?
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There is an additional 'secret': the water content of the dough is much more than kneaded bread, and it has to be, because the liquid helps break down the flour so the yeast can feed on it and produce a rise. Traditional bakers, like my s.i.l., refuse to accept this, but it does work. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/din...
Thanks for the reviews. I have used the freebie recipe in the Times, but the book offers so much more, and I will get a copy.
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What's to refuse to accept -- Harrold McGee responded to the no knead bread by saying that it's true, it will work.
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I've made the basic recipe, the peasant loaf, and the bagels (the regular ones, not the Montreal ones). I've found the dough rather hard to work with when pulling it out of the bin. It sticks to my hands before I have the chance to sprinkle more flour on to it. Having a third hand would probably help. Lacking that, I often have one of my kids standing by with the flour shaker. How do you all deal with handling the dough and shaping the loaves?
Regarding taste, I liked the peasant bread a little more than the basic loaf. It had a better flavor with the little bit of whole wheat and rye flours in it. The bagels tasted good, but they took much longer to bake than the recipe said. I had to turn up the oven another 25 degrees and still had to leave them in an extra 5 or 10 minutes until they would get brown. They weren't very pretty to look at, but they did taste pretty good. They were a lot of work, though, and I'll probably stick to Brueggers.
lvhkitty, what disappointed you with the cinnamon rolls? I was looking forward to trying them, although I have a feeling they won't look anything like the pictures in the book, based on the texture of the things I've already baked from it.
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Amy -- As far as getting the dough out of the bowl in the fridge -- it is very stretchy and elastic. What I did was pull a bunch out (I've been baking a "grapefruit sized" blob for the two of us for dinner) and then take a scissors to cut the dough away from the mass in the bowl. Not sure if that's "proper" technique, but it's worked fine for me.
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I guess I have kinda small hands, so I have a hard time pulling out a grapefruit sized blob with just one hand. But when I get the other hand involved is when I start having sticky problems, since that side of the dough hasn't been floured like the top has. I have a dough scraper that I use to cut the dough against the side of the container. Scissors is a good idea, too.
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how about using a smallish, thin-lipped bowl to scoop out dough against the inside of the container? Intuition tells me it would work.
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That's a good idea. I'm actually getting a lot better at scooping the dough. It gets much better with practice. Still kind of hard to judge the size of the dough ball, though.
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I probably made the mistake of using less butter than the recipe required. I was underwhelmed. I'm going to try it with a different filling but same concept.
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Butter improves everything!
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I didn't find any recipe for cinnamon rolls in the book, but this weekend I did make the caramel pecan rolls. They were fabulous. I used the challah dough for them, which is what the book recommends, although you can use other doughs as well. I found the challah dough to be very easy to work with. I had been worried about rolling out and messing with such a moist dough, but I didn't have any trouble at all except for a bit of initial sticking to my hands when I first pulled it out of the rising container. But with some flour on the outside it was fine. One problem I will note is that the butter/sugar mixture on the bottom bubbled out and overflowed the pan. I happen to notice this right before it happened and quickly got a baking sheet covered with foil onto the rack underneath the rolls. I was glad I did; it was covered with burnt sugar and melted butter when I pulled it out afterward. The book doesn't say to put anything under the rolls, but I highly recommend that you do. Also, the 9 inch cake pan didn't seem big enough. I may have pulled out too much dough (I have a hard time judging "canteloupe sized"), but I think I'll make them in a 10 inch pie plate next time. I'm sure there will be a next time. The kids really enjoyed them.
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I made the caramel cinnamon rolls this weekend (Feb 3) -- the recipe does include a cinnamon, sugar, and pecan spread that's rolled up in the dough. It is then baked in a butter, brown sugar, and pecan glaze that caramelizes as it bakes. Unlike AmyH, my rolls did fine in a 9" cake pan and I had no trouble with too much liquid as they baked. I used the book's brioche dough as the base rather than the challah -- and the result was scrumptious.
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I use the wet hands method that they use for some of the non-floured doughs, its a lot less sticky and in my case less likely to leave a big puff of flour somewhere to clean up. win-win
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An easy method of handling wet dough: latex gloves, rinsed free of residue or talc,
and lightly coated with cooking oil. I prefer the wet hands method,but this way is cleaner.
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You can pull the dough out with a spray of PAM on one hand, or both hands.
A method I use to get cold dough rising again is to put it in the microwave oven for 1 minute at power level 1 (the lowest). This gets a bit of gentle heat into the center right away.
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I've been wondering about this book--I actually gave it as Christmas gifts to a couple of folks I know who love to bake bread. Just curious--how does it compare to Bittman's "no knead" recipes? Is it similar to that or am I completely off-base?
~TDQ
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The Basic Crusty Bread is very similar in general procedure and water content. Much shorter rising time and way more yeast (which makes sense as a pair). I can't speak for any of the other recipes since I don't actually have the book...I just have that one recipe.
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If you look on the artisan bread website, they have a lower yeast version, too....
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I was anxious to compare the Bittman bread as well because I have loved it. So far, I've made the basic master bread recipe. The crust on the "5 minutes a day" bread was excellent. Maybe even better than Bittman's in my experience. Very crusty. The texture inside was dense and even, not like the Bittman bread which had a more open texture with holes (at least for me). The flavor was very good. I think I may prefer the Bittman bread -- but just by a hair.
All that said, the 'five minute a day" bread will be my new standard. It is very little work to put a batch together. Then you can have fresh bread every day for a week by just pulling a bit of dough out, letting it rise and baking. This book is going to save us a fortune in fresh bread. And we have been marveling at the quality of it.
I'm not sure the Bittman bread couldn't be stored in the fridge and baked this way over the course of a week as well. Someone should try that.
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see my response above....since the recipe can be adapted to a lower yeast version, I would say it should work....
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Not sure what you are saying. Do you think the Bittman dough could be stored in the fridge and baked like the "5-minute" bread? Has anyone tried that?
It would seem from looking at the ingredients that it should work.
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Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying..... sorry for the confusion.
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I have the book on order but have made two batches with the freebie recipe. Actually, my 5-year-old made the second batch - bread so easy a child can make it. It took her Mom to screw it up. I forgot to put it in the fridge after the 2 hours and it sat out overnight. Refrigerated it the next morning, baked a loaf 3 days later, and - other than a yeasty flavor due to the overproofing - it came out just fine. This is a very forgiving recipe.
My only problem has been transferring the loaf onto the stone. I don't have a peel so I've been using the back of a flat cookie sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Every last time the dough sticks to the sheet and my bread comes out tasty but oddly shaped. Any thoughts or suggestions, please?
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Use parchment or the nonstick aluminum foil. I've used both and it's worked great. Put the dough on a sheet of either when you take it out of the fridge to rise. Then put the dough with the parchment or foil on the stone. Easy to transfer. And it doesn't seem to interfere with the heat from the stone.
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Good idea using the parchment! I'm going to try that, too. I've also had problems with some loaves sticking to the peel. It seems to have to do with how much flour I am able to coat the outside of the dough with. If it's the least bit wet or sticky on the bottom it will stick to the peel, even with a lot of flour or cornmeal. I find it really hard to lift out the chunk (grapefruit sized) of dough, cut it away from the rest, and sprinkle it with flour, and shape it with only 2 hands.
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I'm not a baker, but after reading about this in the Chicago Trib, I had to try it. We've had fresh bread for two weeks straight. This is awesome!
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I did try parchment on the 3rd loaf and I felt that I didn't get as nice a bottom crust as I did on the previous loaves. I even put cornmeal on the parchment because I like the texture. I decided that I prefered the mutated blobs with great crusts to the nicer boule with a slightly softer crust. Thanks for the thought, though.
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If you haven't seen it, here's an interesting interview with the authors, followed by a question and answer session with home bakers. And for those who like to weigh ingredients, the authors give flour weight and hydration levels in the interview.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/5620...
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Thanks so much for this link. It had lots of good information, plus this link to the web site for the book. http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com On the book's web site they have a list of the errors in the book. Some of them could be important, like baking temps, missing or different ingredients, etc. People using the book might want to take a look and pencil in the changes.
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I've been using the book since Christmas (despite also dieting!) and have made the basic recipe, oatmeal bread, olive oil bread (with King Arthur Italian flour), and peasant (with rye and whole wheat) so far. After a year of No Knead Bread, I have to say I find "5 Minutes" much more versatile and equally if not more delicious. Friends raved about the oatmeal bread, served a sandwiches with turkey, caramelized onion, and a blue cheese spread, and the olive oil bread made a great foccacia (with lardo) and terrific pizza crust. But you do have to have a baking stone and peel, plus a pan in which to place the hot water to steam the loaves, unlike NKB, where a heavy casserole can do all the work.
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Except don't the heavy casseroles cost about $200? I don't happen to have one and wouldn't buy one for bread-making.
That being said, I tried using the pan portion of my crockpot and covering it, to make no-knead bread, and it worked fine, by the way, but that was the one and only time I made no-knead bread!
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I was making the NYTimes no-knead bread using a cheap cast iron dutch oven and it was working fine. (I had been using one of the enameled cast iron dutch ovens and the bottoms were burning. So I switched to the cheap cast aluminum (also turned the heat down a bit) and it worked great. A friend was using a covered pyrex casserole dish and was happy with it. So you definitely don't need an expensive pan.
I also don't think you need a peel to make the "five minute bread." Others may disagree, but I was getting good results letting my bread rise on a piece of parchment or nonstick aluminum foil and transfering that to the heated pizza stone. You do need the pizza stone, though.
I too am finding the five minute bread very versatile. Mainly because for very little initial work putting the dough together, you can have fresh bread every night for two weeks. How great is that?
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I made the naan tonight and it was excellent. I had some of the European peasant dough in the fridge, about half of the recipe, and it made 6 "loaves" of naan. It's really quick to make because you do it in a frying pan on the stove. It calls for a cast iron skillet but says you can use a heavy non-stick skillet, too. I used a big calphalon skillet that has a lid. You need to use a lid to keep in the steam. It was maybe half an hour from deciding to make it until all the loaves were done. And they were quite tasty!
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Zoe made the naan bread as one of the things she made at this class she gave recently, and it was just great. She cooked it in some ghee, which is easy to make and last a good while. One thing she said that was interesting is that the flatbreads are a great use for dough that is 9 days old or more. Because that dough will not tend to rise as much. If you don't want to make flatbreads and have dough that is going to get old, you can freeze it. Then defrost for 24 hours in the fridge before baking.
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Amy -- I made this at home and had trouble moving the dough to the pan (because it is so moist). It got kind of gloppy and twisted and then uneven in the pan. Then, because it was uneven, it cooked unevenly (some parts a bit burned, others underdone). Although it did taste fine. Any trick to moving the dough?
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If I remember correctly (it's been a while), I rolled out each ball of bread while the previous one was cooking. I think it took a good dusting of flour for them to roll well, and then they weren't terribly gloppy. I did have a problem with them folding over on themselves as I put them in the pan. some I was able to quickly rescue with a spatula, but some I wasn't, and those were rather thick. Or if an air bubble got trapped underneath, that part didn't come in good contact with the pan and did't get brown. It made them more "rustic" but, like yours, they tasted good.
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Will give this another try.
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I am interested to hear about everyone's experiences with this book. However, I am curious about one thing: are any of you baking at a high altitude?
We just finished our first year living above sea level, and I still don't have a feel for how quickly dough rises. Even left in the fridge, the rise seems to happen faster than I expect. So, I am skeptical about leaving dough in the refrigerator for days at a time. Has anyone tried this at 2000 feet or above?
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I live at 4500 feet and tried the master recipe this weekend - delicious,! I'll see how subsequent batches compare. After this first batch I've ordered the book. The authors have an excellent web site and appear to be very responsive to questions and to really want to help make it work:
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com
Some high altitude concerns are answered in a 01/28/08 post from Zoe under the topic of "Zoe's Bucket Collection"
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Thanks --- look forward to hearing how the dough ages!
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I have a question for those who have the book. The OP mentions that there's a recipe for "light whole wheat," but I'd like to know if there are any recipes for breads that are substantially made up of whole grains. I understand that, like the Lahey no-knead bread, none will be 100% whole grain, but as I haven't had a chance to see the book in person, I'm curious if it includes any doughs that have more than a smattering of whole grain flour(s).
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One of the authors talks about whole grain doughs in an interview on this site:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/5620/interview-zoe-and-jeff
And they have also included a rye recipe from the book on the site. The link to that is here:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/5621...
Another chowhound pointed me to these links and they have been very helpful and partly discuss your question.
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Actually, there is a recipe for 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread that calls for only whole wheat flour (page 76). The recipe calls for making it in a loaf pan but the description says you can also use it to make "lovely free-form loaves using the baking stone." The next recipe on page 78 is Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread Inspired by Chris Kimball (the guy from Cook's Illustrated Magazine). It has 1/4 cup rye flour, 1/2 cup wheat germ, 2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour and 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour (that's to make three 1 1/2 pound loaves). The English Granary-Style Bread (page 91) calls for 1 cup malted wheat flakes and 1 cup whole wheat flour to 5 cups all-purpose. The Oatmeal Bread (page 94) calls for 1/2 cup oat bran, 1/3 cup wheat bran, 1 1/2 cups rolled oats and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour to 4 1/4 cups all purpose. So yes, there are a variety of breads that have substantial amounts of whole grains. There are also some that have cornmeal and a few more with oatmeal or rye.
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Thanks much for your detailed reply, Amy.
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We loved the oatmeal bread -- great for sandwiches, and you can also add dried fruits and nuts for an excellent breakfast bread.
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I made the oatmeal bread this weekend. I did the raisin/walnut variation of it and also make a loaf with just chopped apricots. It didn't rise very much during the hour and 40 minute resting, so the result was very dense. But very tasty. I wasn't sure my kids would like it, but they did, and polished off most of both loaves. I still have one loaf-worth in the fridge. I may do it plain to see if it rises better without all the fruit and nuts. It's a fairly significant of amount of fruits and nuts to add (1 cup raisins or apricots and 3/4 cup walnuts) and that might have weighed down the loaves.
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No for some reason the oatmeal bread doesn't rise much at all, it still tastes good though.
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question.....when refridgerating the dough, do i punch it down? It doesn't say on the nyt recipe.
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I just checked the book. It does not say to punch down the dough.
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thanks so much. i made my first 2 loaves this a.m. i took out a grapefruit sized hunk of dough, divided, and formed into baguettes. i let it rise on floured towels on a couche and baked. unbelievable. i may actually buy the book. is it worth it for the other dough recipes? how many are there?
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The book is about 240 pages. There is a chapter with the master recipe and then chapters on peasant loaves, flatbreads and pizzas and enriched breads and pastries. So there are a lot of recipes. Some have whole grains like the pumpernickel and whole wheat breads, and oatmeal breads. Some others are the vermont cheddar bread (which I have seen has received rave reviews), garlic potato bread, pecan caramel rolls, and many more.
I have stuck with the master recipe so far. I have a new batch in the fridge right now. The almond brioche bread is high on my list of things to try soon.
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i'm sold. i ordered it!
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