Artisan Bread

How to Make Bread in the manner of “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day”

You will need a container with a lid that will cover but need not seal air-tight and will fit in your fridge for the long term. I use a Tupperware cake safe, upside down. Do not use a glass container, or a screw-top lid. For a single recipe, a five to six quart container will be large enough. A ten quart container is large enough for a double batch. Remember, the dough will rise to about double before you put it in the refrigerator. The dough will fall some in the refrigerator.

Please read the directions through completely before beginning this recipe, for the procedures are different than usual.

This recipe can be made as a half recipe or a double recipe, with equally acceptable results.

3 cups lukewarm water

1 ½ Tablespoons active dry yeast

2 ¼ teaspoons salt (if using Kosher salt, you will need more than this amount; different brands of Kosher salt substitute for different amounts of table salt)

6 ½ cups of flour (you may substitute up to one third of the amount of flour with whole grain flours. I typically use rye and whole wheat flour, and sometimes some rolled oats. It seems to us that a little rye flour in bread keeps it from going stale as quickly. I also add milled flax seed, about 2 Tablespoons, for additional nutrition)

Method: Put water, yeast and salt into your container, and stir well. Add all of the flour at once. Stir until all the flour is moistened. This will result in a rough dough. It is not necessary to use a mixer. I find a stiff, long handled, straight spoon most comfortable. The last bit of flour will be reluctant to mix in. Let the dough sit for a few minutes, then stir some more and it will mix in. Put the cover loosely on your container. Leave the covered dough at room temperature for two hours. Store the dough in the refrigerator after it has raised. The dough may be used immediately, but will handle easier if left in the refrigerator overnight. The dough should be used up within two weeks.

If you want a crisp crust, such as found on many European breads, place a low sided pan, such as a broiler pan or rectangular cake pan, on the oven shelf underneath the one (in the middle of the oven) on which you intend to place the bread pan. Have this pan in the oven during the preheating. Just after you have placed the bread into the oven, pour a cup of hot tap water into this pan and quickly shut the oven door.

The book, “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” recommends baking the bread on a baking tile, or ceramic tile. I haven’t tried that, though I keep a large ceramic tile on the main shelf of my oven to help hold the oven temperature steady. I use a baking pan, such as a 9” X 9” or 9” X 13” pan, for the bread. The bread comes out of the pan easily if the pan is first sprayed with cooking oil or greased with shortening or vegetable oil and then dusted well with flour, or corn meal. (I prefer to use a pan with sides on it for the bread. When I pour the water in, sometimes it spills onto the bread pan or the floor of the oven. When I spilled it onto the flat cookie sheet I used once, the water ran off and cracked the ceramic tile I had under the pan.)

To form the loaf, dust the top of the dough in the container with flour and dust your hands with flour, repeating as often as necessary. With your hands, scoop out a lump of dough the size you want, anywhere from the size of a grapefruit to that of a medium cantaloupe. Pat the dough in your hands with flour, repeatedly as necessary, to keep it from sticking to your hands. It is convenient to dip my hands directly into the flour canister. Gently make a smooth “gluten cloak” on the surface of the dough ball, by holding the dough in your cupped hands and gently stretching the top around toward the back, or palm side of the ball of dough, making a smooth sphere. If you wish to make the loaf oval, work it into that shape after making the sphere. Place it on the baking sheet. Let the dough sit there twenty to forty minutes at room temperature. The longer it sits in the warmth, the lighter the texture will be. (Once we let the dough sit for a couple of hours in a cool room, and the bread was great anyway.) Then heat the oven to 450 degrees F. When the oven is heated, slash the top of the dough with a sharp knife. Many designs will work. Put the pan into the oven, then immediately pour the hot water into the pan on the shelf under the one with the bread. Bake 37 to 40 minutes. Cool for easier slicing.

After you have removed the dough you want to bake, cover the container and return it to the refrigerator. If you have used up all the dough, add the water for a new batch to the container without washing it if you like a sourdough flavor, which will develop pretty soon. I use the long handled spoon to mix the dough fragments off the sides of the container to use as a start. I tried to leave about a cup of dough once to use as a start, and it took a very long time and was quite difficult to mix into the water. When I make the new batch, I use about 2/3 of the original amount of yeast, (for a half recipe, use 1 3/4 teaspoons yeast; for a single recipe, use 1 Tablespoon yeast; for a double recipe, use 2 Tablespoons yeast, or less), and mix everything else as at the beginning. The number of loaves each batch makes is entirely dependent on the size loaves you make. You never have to knead this dough. If the dough seems dry and stiff, instead of flouring your hands to shape the loaf, keep them wet with water while you are shaping the dough. If you have trouble, just call me.

Dad