After our discussion on my old school baking day, I had lots of great ideas for how I could get around actually buying a bread machine. One of our readers, named Noreen, suggested that I check out a book called, “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” which would help me get around the whole bread machine process and required no kneading.
As soon as I read her comment, I put a hold on it at our library and picked it up the next day. With a cup of iced coffee in hand, I read through the entire process and what I would need to complete it.
For copyright reasons, I will refrain from going into the recipes themselves, but I will explain the process of this method so that you can decide if this something you could/would do to make bread for your family. The master mix recipe I am using is actually located here so you could attempt the first recipe without even getting the book.
There are lots of different recipes in the book and then different ways of shaping the dough recipes. I attempted the master recipe which included just the basics- water, yeast, flour, and salt.
The difference between making this dough and the traditional dough is that you literally dump the ingredients in (no need to even proof the yeast) and use a wooden spoon to just mix everything together. The dough is very wet and easy to stir and you don’t even have to break out the mixer.
You cover the dough and let it rise for two hours and then you stick it in the fridge for a minimum of three hours and up to fourteen days. Yes, that’s right..fourteen days! According to the authors, the dough will taste better and better the longer the dough sits in there and you can even use some of your old dough as a starter for a new dough, much like the process of making a sour dough starter.
The first picture shows what this dough looks like when it is just incorporated- stringy and yucky looking. This second picture shows what the dough looks like after it rises. This master recipe was enough for four loaves so that is why it looks like there is so much. They have bigger recipes than this, but this is the amount of fridge space I could spare for the week.
I let this dough sit for two days before I made my first loaf. When you make your first loaf, you just “cloak the dough,” (sprinkle the dough on top with some flour) and then cut off a grapefruit section of the dough for your first loaf. Without any kneading or any real handling of the dough, you tuck the corners of the dough underneath and put it on a pizza peel (I used my extra pizza stone) that has been sprinkled with a little cornmeal. Now you let it rise and preheat your oven for 450 degrees. They suggested twenty minutes, comments on Amazon suggested preheating the entire forty minutes that the dough is rising to help achieve the best crust.
It should look something like the picture above. It is relatively smooth on top, but the corners are all tucked underneath. After you have shaped it like this and let it rise, you can slice the top two or three times.
You now slide the loaf (very awkwardly if you have no pizza peel) and then you fill a boiler tray with one cup of hot water and put it in the oven to help steam the oven up to give you a nice crisp crust. Don’t ever open the door and let it cook for thirty minutes.
When I took it out, it looked like this. Now remember, this is my first loaf so I am sure I will get better at it, but I am pretty impressed with how this first loaf looks. Next time I will score it a little more and I will probably make more than one loaf at a time. The exterior of this loaf is nice and golden, and it is solid and crusty on the outside. Perfection!
The interior was a bit gummy though so I may cook it for another ten minutes or raise the temperature. This will just require some tweaking on my part, but our family still thought it tasted pretty darn good.
Now that I have made this first loaf, I am so excited to try the other loaves in the book. The entire process took very little of my time and I had very little clean-up (my least favorite part of making bread) so it is a great solution for a busy mom who wants to make homemade bread, but doesn’t have the tools or time to make bread from scratch.
Let’s also talk about the cost savings too. In our town, our local market has artisan breads for sale that cost about $4 a loaf. I buy my ingredients in bulk at Sam’s Club and I am estimating that this loaf of bread costs me about forty cents or less. What a savings and how elegant is this to bring to parties and when entertaining? You just can’t beat it!
A big thank you to Noreen for the suggestion and I hope you can try this recipe and tell me what you think! I have a demonstration from the authors posted below- this might help explain the process further.
Have you experimented with no-knead artisan breads? Do you make your own bread throughout the week? I would love to hear your process for bread making!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMxJgIpe38Q]
I do occasionally make my own bread and enjoy it when I do. I need to look at that book you mentioned. We routinely make our own pizza dough and love it! My two-year old and I start it after naptime on Friday afternoons and finish it off just before Daddy gets home. Not only is it WAY cheaper than delivery, frozen or even Boboli, we control the ingredients and it tastes great! Our favorite crust is actually a flatbread recipe from Cooking Light.
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Hi Amy,
Your loaf looks good! I received this book for my birthday but have yet to try it. I do make the “almost no-knead bread” from Cook’s Illustrated. Also, if you have a heavy-duty stand mixer with a dough hook, you are good to go with making bread – my Kitchen Aid gets a workout at least once a week. The dough hook does all of the kneading and then you just cover the dough and let it rise.
Michelle
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We make bread all week, although I admit, I normally use a “kneading” process. I normally lay all the dry ingredients out the night before, they throw it all together as soon as I get up so it rises while I get my kids together.
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I love making my own bread and let me tell you, I started with a breadmaker, then moved to a kitchenaid mixer. Now I mix it all by hand and it is so easy and fun. I only get one bowl dirty. It takes minutes and the dough is ready. I have read a lot about no knead breads and I know people seem to love them. Your loaf came out incredibly!
Mercedes
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I wanted to mention one more thing: there’s a recipe to make your own sourdough starter on the Tightwad Gazette. The good thing is that you can keep this starter on your fridge and use it as you need it. I have written down if you are interested.
Mercedes
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I have had this book on my amazon wish list for so long, and I reminded my hubby and six-year-old that I really want it for my birthday next month. I should print out your post and scatter it around the house for a gentle reminder.
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I would just like to say, “You are simply amazing, Amy!”
You make me, the domesically challenged, THINK about doing this.
I will have my 13 year old wanna be chef give it a whirl.
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I actually ordered this book last week and am waiting for it to arrive. I heard such great things about it from other people, and I am a sucker for those expensive artisan loaves at the grocery store.
I can’t wait to start!
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I make my own bread all the time – I usually use my bread machine – which is now about 15 years old – right now I’ve got a loaf of Soaked Whole Grain Bread in the maker and it’ll be done in a couple of hours – I soaked the grain all last night and then started the bread maker this morning. I have also tried the artisan method but sadly I rarely have room in my fridge for the big bowl – maybe I’ll get a taller skinyier container and try it again…
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I was just curious, did you use a metal bowl to store the dough in? I know with an Amish starter it says to not use metal, and the recipe link you provided said to use a plastic container.
The biggest mixing bowls I have are metal, which is why I ask. Also, I’m not quite sure I understand why you aren’t supposed to use metal. I can’t wait to try this, but wanted to get your opinion about using metal utensils first. Thanks for the ideas!
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I’m so glad you did this post. I’ve been thinking about giving this a shot ever since you mentioned it the other day. Everyone is making it look so easy!
I’ve been baking my own bread because I had to stop buying from our local baker. (I loved that bread! – but my son has severe Peanut Allergy and we can’t buy it anymore due to the peanuts they use.)
I normally use my bread machine on the dough cycle and then put it in The Pampered Chef bread stones to rise and bake. I put the oven on at 200° for 1 minute and then shut it off before covering the dough and putting the pans in there for it to rise. (It works great if your kitchen is normally a little cool in the winter.)
Although, my sister just gave me another great tip. She uses the dough hook on her Kitchen Aid and it only takes a few minutes. Much faster than the hour and a half my bread machine was taking!
~ Jennifer
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Hi Amy,
While I have not made the no knead artisan bread yet, my husband has become quite the expert on it. He bakes every weekend. He has modified the recipe to replace some of the white flour with whole wheat. If you are having trouble getting the bread off the pizza peal just put it on parchment paper and toss that with the bread onto the stone. My husband does that and he doesn’t have to use cornmeal. So far the parchment paper hasn’t burned!
I swear I will actually make this bread one of these days!
Noreen
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Thanks for the bread post Amy- I enjoy reading about your adventures in cooking and then try to be brave and try it myself. You are really good at breaking the process down. The other Amy- I would love to have your pizza dough recipe! I have a 2 year old that would enjoy helping me make it!
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We make all of our bread and rolls from scratch. I either use a no knead recipe I’ve tweaked on my own, or a recipe from Artisan Bread in 5. My favorites of their recipes are the 100% whole wheat sandwich loaf and the brioche (um, donuts, need I say more??).
Congrats on making your own bread.
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If you google Breadtopia, he has some wonderful videos on no knead bread baking. I grind my own grains to make my breads and the flavor and health benefits are tremendous. He shows how to adapt for that also. Most of this started with the New York Times video with no knead bread. I haven’t gotten the book you use because the recommendations say there are a lot of errors in the recipes.
You talked about the bread being doughy on the inside, on the Breadtopia sight he uses a meat thermometer. I have much better luck when I use one. You might try that. When it is at 190 is when I take mine out.
Lori
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Heather – the recipe I use is here http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe;_id=1816361
Hopefully that link works, if not, its on cookinglight's website and is the flatbread dough from July '08.
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I haven’t tried this, but you’ve totally intrigued me. I like making my own sourdough breads, but they are so time intensive. I suppose this is, too, if you count the time that it’s sitting there, but at least I wouldn’t have to be doing anything!
Think I’ll look into it more. Thanks Amy! Glad you enjoyed the bread!
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I have the Artisan Bread book. Oh man — it is so good! I don’t usually make bread for us to use for sandwiches and whatnot, but I do use that bread as a side dish with spaghetti and the like. We also have a bread machine (that we got as a hand-me-down from my parents), but I like the artisan bread best.
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I tried this and it is my new favorite bread. I make two small loaves to have with soup. We had company and they were very impressed! Then, the bowl just sat and sat in my fridge. I decided to freeze the remaining bread and I put it into a regular loaf pan. The round loaves are great for show but I wanted to be able to have nice slices for sandwiches. We make bread frequently and I am always looking to try a new recipe.
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