Bread, Glorious Bread

Last year I was searching for a good homemade bread recipe. I tried several. One recipe made way too much dough, it was good, but it was just too much: too much work, too much dough, too much bread, too much involved with the timing of it. I tried a nice sourdough starter I received, and even though it had the promise of great bread, I could never seem to coax a good loaf from it.

My friend Jen has had great success with a cheese bread recipe from King Arthur Flour, but I was afraid to try it for fear that it too would be another failure. Then, last week, I stumbled on a blog posting mentioning a dough you make once then keep in the fridge and cut off a piece whenever you want to make your bread. Hmmm... that sounds like my kind of bread!

I looked up the book at the library, put it on hold, waited patiently for it to be returned, and picked it up on Monday. The book is called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Let me show you how it turned out.

Isn't this a lovely little ball of bread dough? The recipe makes enough for four loaves, and it keeps for 14 days in the fridge. Four loaves in 14 days? I can do that.

When you pull the dough out to make your bread, you slice off a hunk, round it off into a ball then let it rest for 40 minutes. That's it. No kneading, no covering, no warm draft-free spots, no rolling it in a large bowl with a little oil, just set it out and rest. You can get the rest of your dinner going at this point, and you just spent 5 minutes making bread. Cool. Here my dough is rested and scored and ready to go in the oven.

Here it is 30 minutes later, lookin' good so far! The book recommends a wooden peel and baking stone for the best baking, but I have a cast iron pizza pan, so I used that instead and tossed the dough on it with some corn meal to keep it from sticking and it seemed to work fine.

The moment of truth came when I sliced it open and took the first bite. YUM-O! It has a crispy crust and soft, chewy interior. I am sold. I made another one tonight, and I still have enough for two more before I have to make another batch.

Now, I know you're thinking, sure, but right now you are home all day, you have the time to do this. True, but I made the batch of dough in about 20 minutes Monday night, and the first loaf took 5 minutes of work on Tuesday, plus 40 minutes of rest and 30 minutes to bake. If you took some dough out to rest when you walk in the door you will be ready to bake it for dinner. You can do it. See if your library has it and just try it once.