Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day - Master Recipe

I've made a few breads out of Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice, and many more out of other sources, but I've found that the amount of time I need to invest to make a great hearth bread is much more than I can spare. The premise of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (Hertzberg and Francois) is simple. Mix up a large batch and use it to make bread anytime within 2 weeks. That means the only things you have to do on baking day is shape, rest, and bake, a super time-saver when you're making fresh bread. I'd read a lot about people's successes with this book, so I decided to test a batch. I started by reading it cover to cover just to get a feel for the kinds of breads I could make in 2 weeks. I'd need to plan ahead for meals a little bit, but I picked 4 different breads that would give me a sense of the master recipe's flexibility.

On day 1, I mixed the dough and I made one adjustment I'd seen online. I substituted 1+1/2c sourdough starter for 3/4c flour and 3/4c water. I maintain a sour mother in the fridge and thought it might help the flavor a bit. After mixing, the dough went into a large container to rest (and rise) and then I put it in the fridge. Game on.

Day 2 came and I baked a simple free-form loaf. I tried to use the new proofing basket I'd gotten but I didn't flour it enough and the dough stuck badly. My loaf turned out sort of ugly, but it had a full sour flavor and a good crust from steam.

On day 7, I used the dough to make fresh pita. I rolled the dough into small circles and tossed them directly onto a baking stone. They were done in just a few minutes, and had a crispy, airy texture and an almost potatoey aroma.

On day 9 I rolled and rested a batard and gave it to friends as a gift. The dough wasn't as wet as it was in the beginning, and the resulting loaf was denser than the first. Plus, the hot bread made the car smell like french fries. The potato smell was getting stronger, and I didn't know where it was coming from.

On day 10 I used up the last of the dough making za'atar flatbread. By now the dough was stiffer, but because it had been so wet on day 1, the final loaf I baked was still tender and fairly airy. I made homemade za'atar spice (crushed sumac, thyme, and sesame seeds) and sprinkled the dough liberally with it, salt, and olive oil. We ate it with Mediterranean-style goad, a perfect combination.

Perhaps the only drawback to this method is that you need a pretty sizable space in your fridge to keep this amount of dough for two weeks. Fridge space is at a premium in our kitchen because we both cook and there are a number of ongoing experiments that need the space too. But I'm definitely willing to ry this again with one of their other doughs to see how breads like pumpernickel and rye turn out.

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