"Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" -- AWESOME!!!!!!

[azstinger]

Ok so I want to surprise my fiancee when she gets home from work today with a few fresh loafs of this bread and still have a couple of questions. In regards to the casserole method, would just a pyrex bole work just as well? My supplies here are pretty limited as is the size of her oven lol, not kidding its about half as wide as normal. So without a broiler pan/pizza stone any ideas? Thanks in advance for all your help.

[ZMace]

I have made it without a pizza stone, it seems to come out fine, if maybe less crusty, you can even leave out the water in the bottom of the oven if you like. Make sure you leave enough time to rise if you are trying to surprise somebody, (the best surprise would be bread just coming out as they got home, and the dishes already done/mess cleaned up.)

[azstinger]

I have made it without a pizza stone, it seems to come out fine, if maybe less crusty, you can even leave out the water in the bottom of the oven if you like. Make sure you leave enough time to rise if you are trying to surprise somebody, (the best surprise would be bread just coming out as they got home, and the dishes already done/mess cleaned up.)

Thanks for the tips. Going to try it without the water.

[Morb]

Dear god it should be restated...use a BIG BOWL. Seems it will rise to twice the initial size so now I have the blob making it's way across my counter LOL

[JTNieman]

Dear god it should be restated...use a BIG BOWL. Seems it will rise to twice the initial size so now I have the blob making it's way across my counter LOL

Yea, that's a lesson you should remember for -any- food that contains yeast, dude

What did you think "Let it rise" meant?

[Morb]

Yeah I figured it would rise...problem was I didn't correctly estimate what 6.5 cups of flower would amount to mass wise before it rose

Smells bloody awesome in here though.

This is the first time I've tried to bake bread...Wifey is pretty much expecting to see the fire department when she comes home but I'm determined to prove her wrong.

[Morb]

Sure looks like bread...and the taste test confirms it's fantastic!



The next loaf is topped with 10 year old Asiago. We'll see if it just burns or if it comes out. I coated the tops of the loaves lightly in melted butter and then sprinkled the Asiago over it. The butter acts as a glue of sorts and will flake the crust somewhat.

Or it will burn horribly.

Update: Seems to have come out just fine.

I made my recipe on a cookie sheet lightly powdered in flour. No pizza stone or fancy stuff.

[EeeNinja]

I just wanted to add in here that I've been putting about two cups worth of spent grain from my beer brewing efforts into my bread. Also I've been cooking it on my gas grill outside because of a broken oven and so far it has come out really good.... though I did lose one loaf... not exactly sure what happened, but it was hard as a rock.

Other than that just another idea for everyone to play with.

[kyleg]

Just made my first loaf last night using the recipe in the OP. It was devoured by my family in less than five minutes. My oldest daughter, who does not eat bread, wolfed down two pieces.

[mboyce]

This is pretty much the only successful way I have ever been able to make bread, and it is very good. I belong to a re-enactment group here in Arkansas that has a wood fired oven at a historical site for demos. They always use this recipe and bake it in that oven, DELICIOUS!

[colinz]

I'm so hungry that I may well try this when I get home from work (at 6am lol). Cheers for the recipie Chantrea, and cheers for all your experimenting/input you others.

[Lynxian]

Minor necro:

Just tried this out for the second time and for some reason, my bread, on both occassions, has come out pretty much like a ciabatta. Now there's nothing wrong with yummy ciabatta bread, but I'm just wondering: is it supposed to be like that? Because the bread I saw here on the pictures seemed to look more like actual bread or breadrolls. Anyone?

[Krustofski]

Mine was somewhere between a baguette and a ciabatta...

[Lynxian]

Mine was somewhere between a baguette and a ciabatta...

Hrm, interesting. I think I'll give it another go, then, lateron. I'll bake it slightly shorter (my oven seems a wee bit more powerful than its temperature buttons indicate; must be the enriched uranium I placed in the cooking drawer) and with less water. It was a bit sticky and apparently, when this is the case, Google says you've used too much water. Let's see what attempts 3 and 4 tell me.

[Lynxian]

Ah, much better, this time!

The misses and I immediately ate some since we found it yummy, which is always a good sign! The trick for me was to both lower the baking temperature as well as somewhat shorten the baking time. Here's the recipe I used, modified to European metric scales. Another note: I halved all the ingredients because I didn't have a large enough bowl to mix the dough in.

Approx. 0,75 ~ 1 tablespoon of yeast
Approx. 0,75 ~ 1 tablespoon of salt
Approx. 425 grams of flour
Approx. 350 milliliters of lukewarm water

I then baked the bread - taking into account the time the dough needs to rise and, after kneading, rest on the baking plate before being put in the oven - in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celcius (originally I used 230 degrees, as that's what 450 degrees Fahrenheit is in Celcius) for 25 minutes. As mentioned earlier, I have a very powerful oven, so other people might need 30 to 35 minutes. Just make sure it's a pretty golden brown and it's done.

One last note is that the dough was quite sticky. As mentioned earlier, a Google tells me this is due to too much water. Because of this, next time, I'm going to try this with 250 ~ 300 milliliters of water to make the dough a bit less sticky.

One last simple trick: in case it is sticky, asides from adding some flour, sprinkle a little water on your hands and then pour some flour over your hands. This should prevent it from sticking to your fingers too much.

[Cavediver]

My brother got me started on the 24 hour no-knead bread.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html
Since I live in the land of 100% humidity, I've started to reduce the initial water content. I've also upped the salt content a little bit.
I'm using 400g bread flour, 290g water, 10g salt, and 2g yeast.
I follow the rest of the recipe as written, allowing it to bake for 15 minutes after lid removal.

Allowing the bread to rise for an extended period seems to give it a very light sourdough flavor.

[ngbell]

I'm going to try this today.

[shrapnel]

Turned out well! But now I have Far Too Much dough. I'll be giving bread to my friends, I guess...

[callista]

Bread can be frozen and retain its flavor/texture for ~3 months. The biggest issue with bread is that when it's frozen, the water tends to condense as ice, and that means it may dry out in the freezer. This is largely solved if you freeze it before you slice it.

[palehorse1301]

Ok, I have questions. If I were going to bake this in a pyrex loaf pan, could I mix it and bake it in the same pan or would that make it stick to the pan like crazy? Also, has anyone tried this with bleached flour and if so how did it turn out?

[Krustofski]

Ok, I have questions. If I were going to bake this in a pyrex loaf pan, could I mix it and bake it in the same pan or would that make it stick to the pan like crazy? Also, has anyone tried this with bleached flour and if so how did it turn out?

I would imagine that giving the pan a very light coat of oil or butter would take care of the problem. I'm no expert, though. I used white flour. It looked... pale and unimpressive, and tasted just fine. YMMV.

[duodecima]

[img]http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1d722b3127ccefe5388960e3400000030O00AcOWzZq3cM2gPbz4e/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/[/img]]

Very easy! Not as pretty as some, but it tasted fine. I made it with half whole wheat flour. And preschooler-who-lives-by-bread-alone ate it, so between that and powdered milk I should be able to keep her alive in the ZPAW.

[palehorse1301]

I tried it for the first time last night, using 1/2 whole wheat flour that I needed to use up. Unfortunately, there are many INCORRECT sources in a Google search about how many packets of yeast equal 1.5 tablespoons. So I used one packet instead of the TWO needed. It's still quite good, just a bit thick/heavy.

[Confucius]

I tried it for the first time last night, using 1/2 whole wheat flour that I needed to use up. Unfortunately, there are many INCORRECT sources in a Google search about how many packets of yeast equal 1.5 tablespoons. So I used one packet instead of the TWO needed. It's still quite good, just a bit thick/heavy.

That's not a problem of how much yeast is in there, give it more time to rise, it'll get there.

Hell, I make a bread that's almost identical to this (has honey and olive oil added and isn't quite a large a batch) and use about a half a teaspoon of yeast and let it rise 12-16 hours. Comes out fluffy and super tasty.