Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking

I am a former chef and comfortable with bread baking but I had never used the moist dough techniques before and now I am a true convert! Just mix the 4 ingredients in a 6 qt container (I bought the Cambro 6 qt round food canister with lid on this site), let it rise on the counter for two hours and then it can keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks! The master recipe makes 6 medium loaves, when you want fresh bread just grab a grapefruit sized piece...let it rise for 30 minutes or so and bake for about 25 minutes. The result is a beautiful bakery quality loaf (I take that back, we don't have bread this good in our bakery) that is crispy chewy on the outside and soft and fragrant in the inside. My family of four adults will polish off a loaf for dinner and always look for more. There are endless variations you can create with this dough including dessert pastries. It is so easy, I feel like I'm cheating...minimal prep time and pretty much no clean up. The authors recommend a pizza stone for best quality but I chose to just use my cookie sheet and parchment and was very pleased with the results but I have just ordered a stone and peel because I now always have bread dough in my fridge and I can't imagine ever buying bread again. The best part of this book is the trouble shooting they do for you...giving you tips on why it may not have come out as perfect as you would like. This book is perfect for novice bread bakers but experts be warned, you will never knead a ball of dough again once you make it their way! Update: I've been using the book for a couple of months now. There is always dough in the fridge now and I have gone through three different recipe variations each one better then the next. We make pizza all the time now and always have fresh bread on the table for family dinners. I bought a pizza stone and peel and I think the results are superb. I leave the stone in my oven as it makes it hold heat more efficiently and lowers energy usage. Pizza is done in about 8 minutes! I feel more in control of the ingredients of my food. I can sneak some whole grains in the recipe and no one is the wiser. My pizza's are whole grain in part, use fresh tomatoes instead of sauce, sometimes some pesto...and I use less cheese that take out and enjoy it much more at a fraction of the cost. No more $5.00 bakery bread for family dinners. My wallet is just lovin it... I haven't made any dessert breads yet. I now buy flour in 25 pound bags...lol. UPDATE: It's been about six months now. I have made some amazing raisin bread and sticky buns with the sweet dough. I gave this book to my brother with a bucket and Danish dough whisk for his birthday and his just loves it! I will say that I learned in the beginning and was reminded again by my brother, that if you don't let the bread cool it will be gummy in the center as it continues to bake as it cools...no one can seem to wait so I have increased my oven time by up to ten minutes depending on the size of the loaf. I now try to have at least one bucket of dough in the fridge at all times...sometimes a sweet dough as well although it doesn't last two week (yeah like THAT would ever by a problem). Have picked up the "Healthy artisan bread" book but I love the first book so much I just haven't gotten around to making anything else yet...maybe tomorrow...

I have many bread baking books and was skeptical that this one would be any better or different. I expected either a catch in the "5 minutes", poor quality bread, or both. I made my first batch last week and was very impressed with both the ease and taste. You can really make the dough in just a few minutes and keep it in your fridge for use over the next 2 weeks. It was wonderful to be able to pull a chunk of the dough out of the container and have delicious bread (the last was more like a big roll) in just over an hour. I could make a loaf when I got home from work and serve it for dinner. There are many recipes included, but it also gave me a much more relaxed attitude toward the bread and I found myself making up my own additions by the time I was forming my second batch. I showed the book to a friend and rather than copy a few of the recipes, she decided to order the book herself because she said that everything looked good and it looked like stuff she would really make. Not many cookbooks earn that comment. The book frequently calls for a pizza peel and baking stone. A set of the peel (or a suitable cutting board), stone (or an unglazed ceramic tile from Home Depot) and this book would make a great gift. In fact, I thought that I could cross several people off of my shopping list by buying the set or just the books for all. Unfortunately, it is already out of stock. Looks like I am not the only one who is impressed by it. I can't even give my book away and wait for a new copy because I spilled olive oil on it while making the sun dried tomato and Parmesan bread. By the way, it was delicious! This is a great book for all cooking experience levels. The recipes are easy and the results impressive.

Artisan Bread in Five minutes?? Well I was a tad skeptical with the title. But I have tested out a great number of the basic ones..just as described. Bread was fantastic. Now I have been a baker for 40+ years, even had a job as a baker in the 70's. But for home breads I ran across TIME as being my reason things occasionally got too crumbly...or too heavy, or rose to much. Earthy, crusty, breads were generally not eaten in the South...so I managed to do the traditional soft loaf breads a country family liked. I used cool rise many times to whip up 3-4 loafs, put into frig, pull out for baking just before dinner. It worked...but the whole TIME issue...was my enemy. NOW with this book...you really CAN hand mix in a 5 minute time period a rough dough and cover it..sit it on counter 2 hours...put into frig..and for next 5-14 days...you have dough ready to grab and lightly shape it without flouring a whole bread board. 2 mins shaping...let sit on counter 40 mins. 20 mins into the rise you start the oven (with a stone in it).Total 40 mins out of refrigerator it is time to plop the loaf onto the stone (oven will still be heating to the max 450 of the recipe)...throw a cup of water into a pan on another shelf. And you have a loaf that actually "crackles" as it is cooling on a rack. Chewy crust...perfect if you can wait to cut into the bread for a few hours. Cut into it a little earlier the crustier the crust is. I have other books about no knead artisan breads...but they all want you to use a pre-ferment with a tiny amount of yeast..no salt..etc and let sit over night. Then BEAT the rather wet dough with more yeast..rise..then shape it. What this book does is make the recipes basic...put all basic ingredients in all at once yeast and salt. roughly stir it till no big lumbs of dry flour is seen...then ignore it. It amazingly does work. I have bread machine, dough mixer, food processor, etc. I don't need them now...and I don't have alot of clean up. It is sooo simple to get chewy rustic ARTISAN breads with only 5 minutes of dumping ingredients in a bucket, mix it just to wet all the flour. I have not had ONE dud loaf since starting testing this book. NO more worrying over...has it risen enough...is it time to put it in over or do I wait 10 minutes...etc. Now with this books' master recipes they say 20 mins out of frig...then 20 more mins preheating...and that gives you a 40 min rise...and it finishes the rise as the oven is continuing it's wait up to 450F. It is a sight to behold to have a tight round top. The ability to take refrig dough out...shaped in just a few mins...and you can start dinner. I put the bread in first...by time done I put it on a cooling rack..drop oven heat...bake a pie or cake...or add a casserole to the well heated oven. This book really is about the easiest bread book I have even read..and I have all the greatest ones around. This book keeps it simple. No messing up kitchen to knead dough,shape dough, or rise dough.

I am so totally thrilled with this book, it's caused a revolution in our house! And, I think, for the many friends and family who have been inspired by the bread I have served them and stories I have recounted. I am kind of lazy and very busy, a tough combination, but because of this book I now bake all of our bread - and we are a family of 4 who eat bread with at last two meals a day! Really and truly, I bake it all. The 100% whole wheat sandwich loaf for our day-to-day bread, school and work lunches. The master recipe in endless shapes and sizes for serving guests, taking to special occasions, round-the-house enjoyment. The olive oil dough is divine, I especially love it in the focaccia recipe. The olive loaf was devoured in seconds when I served it at a party. Endless great things to say... So, is it really that easy? Everyone asks me this and looks dubious when I explain but it truly is. Take the master recipe, in a nutshell: four ingredients put in a bowl, mix with a wooden spoon, wait, take a chunk out and shape, wait, bake. Done. That simple. And here is the added bonus: you can store the dough in the fridge, often for up to two weeks (depending on the type of dough), so that when you want to bake a loaf you just take out what you need, shape, wait, bake. If you have any curiosity at all about trying bread making and are daunted by traditional methods, give this a go. If you know how to bake bread but could not fathom doing it for all your bread needs, try their method. And if you just fancy smelling fresh bread cooking once in a while - this is the book for you! Oh, I have to go, it's time to put this morning's loaf in the oven!

Auf dieses Buch habe ich mich richtig gefreut. Als ich es dann in den Händen hielt war ich erst enttäuscht. Es gibt kaum Bilder zu den einzelnen Rezepten. Dazu wirkt das Papier grob, ähnlich dem Recyclingpapier. Aber nachdem ich dann anfing mich mit dem Buch zu beschäftigen war die erste Enttäuschung schnell verflogen. Es gibt eine gute und umfangreiche Einleitung mit vielen Tips und Tricks. Dann folgen Rezepte über Rezepte. Von herzhaft über süß bis hin zu raffiniert. Allerdings sollte man dem Englischen schon gut mächtig sein. Einige Zutaten habe ich nachschauen müssen. Aber mir macht das nichts aus. Das tolle an dieser Methode ist, dass man immer Teig auf Vorrat im Kühlschrank hat und nach Lust und Laune immer frisches Brot, Pizza oder süßes Gebäck zaubern kann. Die Teigvorbereitung ist so einfach, dass man noch nicht mal einen Handmixer oder eine Küchenmaschine benötigt. Lediglich eine große verschließbare Schüssel und einen Holzkochlöffel sind, neben den Zutaten, notwendig. Auch bei den Zutaten benötigt man keinen teuren oder ausgefallenen "Schnickschnack". Bis auf wenige Ausnahmen sind alle Zutaten problemlos im normalen Supermarkt zu bekommen. Ich kann dieses Buch nur empfehlen.

I use this book every single day. I no long buy bread from the supermarket, because it just doesn't compare to the amazing loaves you can make from this book. It takes a little longer than 5 minutes a day, the initial preparation takes around 20 minutes, rising time of 1-2 hours initially and 20-40 minutes each loaf and whatnot is not included, but it is easy, it involved NO kneading and the results are FANTASTIC. The only bad thing I can say about this book is the lack of colour photos, it would be nice to have one every recipe, but you can manage without it. I am working my way through this book, and so far my favourite has to be Challah. The bread is soft, slightly sweet and very palatable. Today I just made myself Italian Semolina bread, which is delicious and nutty. The recipes make a huge amount of dough, enough for many loaves, but it is supposed to last the whole week; if you are a small family and you wont use it all, try halving it, it's really very simple. If you are still making bread using bread machines or kneading your own dough, then I seriously recommend trying this book, because I spent years making my own bread by kneading and kneading, and the result was NEVER as nice as the loaves from this book. The crust is crisp and the inside is soft but not too dense, and unlike most homemade breads, it doesn't go rock hard when cold. The broiler is the secret to a loaf that isn't impossible to chew. And it's cheap to make too, because you don't need bread flour, we use value plain flour and it is perfect. It helps though to add at least 1 cup of strong flour to give it some extra "oomph" and I recommend ignoring some of the cooking times if they say 35 minutes, try 25 - it's usually done. All in all, I truly love this book, my children will grow up on freshly made bread every morning, what more can they ask for?

it's not difficult to make a nice bread easily if you read this book

This is a great project to have on the go all of the time. Simply mix four simple ingredients together, yeast,value plain flour, water and salt. Leave for two hours to rise and you have a great supply of dough to bake whenever you need it! Best thing is there's no kneading at all. the bread is wonderful and my children eat all of the crusts also! The whole process is fascinating for children to observe, from the growing dough to eating the finished product. A truly edible science! I chose the American version of this book because I find it much easier and quicker to use measuring cups than to get out the scales. Buy this book and bake your own bread!