The great “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes” project continues…

A few days ago I did a post on my experience with the cookbook Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. In case you missed it, the first part of this bread-bakin’-project can be found here:  Artisan Bread Project.

Today’s changes:

• Last Post = Loaf 1:  baked directly on stone with cornmeal dusting, used steam bath
• Loaf 2: baked on parchment paper, used steam bath
• Loaf 3: baked on parchment paper, no steam bath

In my last post (and my first artisan bread baking session), I baked one petite loaf – a size that I did not intend to create but loved just the same.   So the two artisan loaves that I baked today were of the same size to keep it all scientific and all.

When I pulled the bowl out of the fridge, the dough was nearly identical to the last “opening” in appearance.  Other than being just a bit drier, it looked quite similar to last time.

I stuck my hand in and was surprised to see how easily I was able to pull off a chunk of dough.  The dough did not seem quite as elastic.  It was still pretty sticky.  I tried to pull out enough to make another petite loaf and was successful.

I did the whole “gluten cloak” thing by pulling the top of the dough down and under as before.  I placed this loaf on a piece of parchment paper rather than on the cookie sheet dusted with cornmeal.  The book actually calls for a pizza peel, which I don’t have, and says you can substitute a rimless cookie sheet dusted with cornmeal.  I did not like the cornmeal dusting (it burns) and read somewhere that you can use parchment instead.

I should note that I mindlessly skipped the “cut a cross in the top” step on the second loaf.  And since I was trying to change as few variables as possible, I chose to not cut a cross in the third loaf either (which yielded a strange little surprise… read on!).

I did preheat the oven (with the pans in it), poured 2 cups of hot water into the cookie sheet for the steam bath and put the loaf and parchment paper onto the baking stone.  It baked for the same amount of time as last time and was perfectly done when the time was up.

The third loaf was a repeat of the second (and done later in that same day).  The only thing I changed was that I skipped the whole water/steam bath thing.  This loaf went in on the parchment paper too but I did not use the pan of water.  Honestly, I found the water bath annoying on the very first loaf and wanted to see if it really made any difference.

And here are my findings:

• The steam bath did not make much difference.  The second loaf (w/water) did rise just a bit higher than the third loaf (no water).  In my opinion, the water bath made no distinguishable difference and is not worth my trouble.
• The parchment paper is the way to go.  If you already own a pizza peel, give it a shot.  I found that the cornmeal dusting burnt to the bottom of the loaf.  The parchment got pretty toasty on the third/”no water bath”  loaf but it turned out just fine.
• Cutting the cross in the top will help your loaf look like a loaf of bread.  Whaaaat?

Take a look at this odd shaped loaf (loaf #3 if you’re following along).  The teenager thinks it looks like a dinosaur.  Doesn’t it look like a bird in a nest?  Or an animal looking over a wall?  Or…..

For some people it’s chocolate.  Others prefer to have it salty or fried.  For me, it’s homemade bread.  Call me a simple gal but my food of choice is bread.  From the kneading, to the smell of it baking, to the crispy outside and tender inside – I just love it.

So you can imagine how excited I was to see the cookbook that promises Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Could it be true?  Could I have a fresh loaf of bread with just 5 minutes of work?

The book is written by Jeff Hertzberg (a scientist) and Zoe Francois (pastry chef).  They met at a music class for their children and the rest is history, as they say.  Enough about the authors – on to the cookin’…

The premise of their method is that you make up a large quantity of dough and store it in the refrigerator.  When you’re ready to bake a loaf you pull some out of the big batch, use your five minutes a day to get it ready, let it rise, and then bake it.  Here’s my step by step of the process.

The master recipe takes little time to prepare.  Really , no time at all.  Basically you just stir all the ingredients in a large container.

The “master dough” sits on the counter for a few hours to rise and then it goes into the refrigerator.  It did rise over those two hours and leveled out.  Here’s how it looked before going into the fridge.  Notice how wet the dough is (that’s the key).

The book points out (many times) that your bowl needs to have a lid but not a tight fitting one.  I am going to guess that a tight fitting lid would blow its top.  I put the lid on this bowl (mine is a large Tupperware bowl) but did not seal it.

The next day, I pulled it out to make my first loaf.  I was worried that the lack of a totally sealed container would cause the top to develop a skin/crust but that did not happen.  The dough still looked moist.  The book says to pull out a 1 pound piece, or a piece the size of a large grapefruit.  Well, evidently, I have no idea what a one pound piece would look like as I took out a very small piece…  It looked big at the time…

After pulling the dough down and under (as instructed), here’s the mini loaf I ended up with.

That part of the process really only took a few minutes.  I am not even sure that it took five minutes.  Maybe with clean up.  It really was fast and easy.

The dough does need to rise at this point.  And it rises for about 40 minutes.  The book recommends you let it rise on a pizza peel that has a cornmeal dusting.  I don’t have a pizza peel so I dusted a rimless cookie sheet with cornmeal instead as I thought I would be able to slide it right off the prepared cookie sheet (wrong).  I have since read that a wooden cutting board will work well as will putting it on parchment.  I am going to try the parchment next time as I have found that a cornmeal dusting always burns on the bottom.

Notice the penny in the above shot?  My engineer hubby thought you might like something for a reference to scale the size of the loaf .

The bread can be left out, uncovered, on the counter to rise.  Very easy. I got it all ready and let it rise while I cooked dinner.  Right before you put it in the oven, you dust it with flour and cut a slight indentation in the top.

Be sure to preheat the oven (and the pans) thoroughly.  About 20 minutes into the rising time, put your baking stone into the oven along with an empty broiler tray.  The baking stone goes on the bottom rack and the book says to put the roasting pan on any shelf that will not hit the bread.  I do have a baking stone so I stuck that in the oven.  I don’t have a broiler pan anymore (where did that thing go???), so I substituted a jelly roll pan.  Preheat the oven for 20 minutes at 450degrees with the pans in the oven.  After the 20 minutes are up, slide the bread off of the pizza peel and onto the baking stone.  Pour about 1 cup hot tap water into the broiler pan and close the oven.

When I was pulling out my “one pound” of dough I was quite disappointed that I initially pulled off too little of the master dough.  With this being my first try at the recipe I was reluctant to try to go back in for more and decided to just move on.  In the end, I came upon a happy discovery…

Making a large master batch like this allows the baker to make a loaf of any size.  As it turns out, this little loaf was just perfect for four at dinner.  And with the master recipe “aging” in the fridge, I can make a small loaf every day if I want to!

Lessons learned:

• As I said, letting it rise on my cookie sheet did not work out well.  Even with the cornmeal dusting, the dough was stuck and was not going to slide off.  I had to use a spatula to lift it off.  The dough did pull a bit, but it ended up turning out just fine.
• And the one cup of water in the jelly roll pan dried up really fast.  If I were to mess with this part again, I will put in two cups of water instead of one.
• The one thing I did not like was having to mess with the water/steam bath.  I have since read (on other blogs – not in the book) that the bread comes out just fine without doing the water/steam bath.  I will try that on my next loaf and will report the results in…

Part Two of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.