Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Flour > Dough > Bread Bliss


When they say "Five Minutes a Day" they really mean it. Boy was this dough easy to make. I was laying in bed with my hubby the other night and got the bug to dig into this book (finally!)

Step #1 - Run downstairs

Step #2 - Throw flour, water, yeast and salt in the KitchenAid and mix

About 3 minutes later I had my dough!!

Step #3 - Cover in loose plastic wrap, put in fridge *Bonus* you can keep it in whatever container you mixed it in, so 1 less dish to clean

Step #4 - Skip back upstairs and get back in bed

The next day my dough had risen a bit, but not as much as I had imagined it would. To make the "Boule" (literally "Ball" in French) you pull out a grapefruit sized chunk of dough from your batch (the one you made in 3 minutes flat) with lightly floured hands, round it out by pulling the edges under to form a taught top. Place on a pizza peel (or wood cutting board if you don't have one of those) lightly sprinkled with cornmeal. Let rise for 40 minutes while you're cooking dinner or cleaning, or doing whatever needs doing.

Slice the top so the boule will have those nice markings you see on bakery bread, pop onto a pizza stone that's been pre-heated while the oven was pre-heating. Pour a cup of water onto a cookie sheet placed on the lower rack of the oven and close the door quickly! The water helps to make a steamy environment for the baking boule.

The Boule is the most basic bread recipe in the book, the one readers are to "become familiar with" before moving on to any of the other recipes. I think "becoming familiar" entails making it once. It was that easy.



What do you think? I think I need some photography lessons :)

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Ahh, What to do with all of this white space?! I am not sure what the first post to a new blog should be and seeing as how I do not have much to post about as of yet, I will leave you with this little tantalizing tid bit... Freshly baked bread! I received Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day yesterday and plan on getting my bake on soon. As it usually happens, the book came in the middle of one of my busiest weeks so I can't get elbows deep in dough just yet. Bahh! I hate when inspiration strikes when I can't get to my kitchen. Check back in a few days!!