Rather than being a reprieve from the rigors of the PA school curriculum, my first baking project was born of necessity. After 13 years at a bakery you get pretty used to having bread around, but after 6 days of not working at a bakery we were out of bread and needed something for dinner.
I decided to start with the much lauded "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois - specifically this version posted on food.com, with a few minor adjustments.
The recipe starts with combining water, yeast, flour, and salt in a bowl. The recipe called for 6.5 cups of flour, but (it's not like I decided to start a blog about baking or anything and) I found myself with only 3 cups of flour in the house. Adding in a little whole wheat flour, I halved the recipe.
Whoops, didn't I say I was making a half recipe?
*scoops out as much extra salt as possible*
*spends a second thinking about what twice the amount of yeast will do to a recipe*
*remembers there isn't any extra flour to start over with and decides to roll with it*
(Spoiler alert: it turned out just fine.)
The magic of "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" is that the bread does not require kneading. The recipe makes a wetter-than-normal dough that you simply stir together and leave to rise.
Combine the ingredients using a spoon, or if necessary, get in there with your hands (I found it was).
The recipe says the dough should rise for between 2 and 5 hours, but on account of yeast overload I checked it after a little over an hour.
Jackpot! Dinner time was coming up quickly so this was perfect.
Next, separate the dough into 2 (in my case, grossly uneven) pieces.
You'll want to dust the dough with enough flour that it won't stick to your hands and then shape it into a ball - stretching the edges, gathering them underneath, rotating a bit, and repeating.
The recipe calls for a 40-minute final rise before the bread goes in the oven. In the face of my aggressively leavened dough and a rapidly advancing dinner time I reduced it to 20 minutes, during which I preheated my baking stone and an empty broiler pan at 450°.
For the ease of transferring the loaves onto a baking stone, it's easiest to do the second rise on a moistened towel on top of a thin baking sheet. Fold half of the towel over the rising dough to prevent it from drying out.
When the second rise is completed, score the dough before popping it in the oven.
To actually transfer the loaves onto the baking stone in the oven, I held the sheet they were rising on in one hand while pulling the towel over the edge and along the bottom of the sheet with another hand, sliding the dough balls off the edge of the sheet. It took a minute to get my coordination right and to get over the fear of flinging my bread onto the bottom of the oven, but I was able to slide the breads off the edge of the baking pan and onto the preheated baking stone with zero casualties. I set a timer for 30 minutes.
I'll take a second here to introduce my BA (baking assistant) Johnny. Any time the oven is going he has his oven mitts ready so he was a natural for the job.
While we were waiting Johnny also discovered his pockets.
At about 26 minutes the loaves were golden-brown on the outside and fully cooked on the inside (verified by a 200° reading on a meat thermometer inserted into the middle of the loaf - thank you Cooks Illustrated).
One of the loaves was lovely. The other one... was very tasty.
Final verdict: this bread was very easy, super quick, and pretty tasty! The super-short rising time didn't give the bread time to develop a lot of flavor (butter: problem solved), and the original recipe notes that it tastes even better if allowed to sit in the fridge for at least 24 hours after the first rising. I would try this again, and (try to) follow the original recipe a little more closely.
5-MINUTE FRENCH BREAD
This recipe is adapted from "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois as presented in a post on food.com. Any deviations in my recipe are noted.
The dough can be made and refrigerated after the first rise is complete for up to 14 days.
INGREDIENTS
This recipe is adapted from "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois as presented in a post on food.com. Any deviations in my recipe are noted.
The dough can be made and refrigerated after the first rise is complete for up to 14 days.
INGREDIENTS
- 3 cups lukewarm water (my recipe: 1.5 cups of warm-to-the-touch water)
- 1.5 tablespoons yeast (my recipe: full amount)
- 6.5 cups all-purpose flour (my recipe: 3 cups unbleached flour + 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour)
- 1.5 tablespoons coarse salt (my recipe: full amount with approximately half scooped out)
- Pour water into a large mixing bowl. The hottest it should be is warm-to-the-touch. If it is too hot you risk killing the yeast; if it is too cold it will take longer to rise but will not damage the recipe.
- Sprinkle the yeast over the water. No need to stir.
- Add the flour and salt and stir to combine. You want a consistent mixture with minimal lumps, but there is no need to knead the dough. If it is too hard to stir it together, use wet hands to combine the dough.
- Cover the bowl with a moistened towel or saran wrap and leave it to rise in a warm place until flattened on top - about 2-5 hours. If your water was warm it will be on the shorter end; if it was cold it will be on the longer end. My warm place was the oven after turning it on for a minute and then turning it off. Since I accidentally used twice the amount of yeast I should have my dough was ready after an hour; while this is a valid shortcut the flavor will likely be better with correct proportions and rising time.
- When the bread has flattened on top, loaves can be formed or the dough can be refrigerated for up to 14 days (the original recipe notes that refrigerated dough is easier to work with).
- To form loaves: remove a 1-lb piece (described in the original recipe as "grapefruit-sized") and dust with enough flour that it won't stick to your hands. Stretch to form a smooth exterior by grabbing the edges, stretching them down and gathering them under the loaf. Rotate the loaf a bit and repeat, going around the whole ball of dough until a smooth exterior is formed.
- Leave the dough to rise an additional 40 minutes before baking on a rimless sheet covered with a moistened towel. Cover the dough with part of the towel to prevent it drying out. Before the last 20 minutes of rising, place a baking stone in the oven and a broiler pan on a lower shelf. Turn the oven on to 450°.
- When the dough is ready, dust the top with extra flour if needed and score the dough. To place the dough in the oven, find a way to get the dough onto the baking stone, OR, do what I did: pull an edge of the towel over the edge of the sheet and pull it underneath so that as you continue to pull it the dough would be pulled off the edge of the sheet. Set the edge of the sheet against the baking stone and pull the towel, sliding the dough onto the baking stone. Add 1 cup of water to the broiler pan and close the oven quickly to trap the steam.
- Bake for approximately 30 minutes until the color looks good. It is done when a meat thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf (through the bottom so the loaf stays pretty) reads 200°. Cool and serve - the loaf will be firm when taken out of the oven, will soften initially as it cools, and get firm again once cool.
