Five Minute Bread

Going organic isn’t just about finding labels marked “USDA certified organic.”  It’s a lifestyle change.  It’s about making sure our food is something we actually want to feed our families.  And without getting too political, it’s about making sure our food is coming from a local, sustainable source.  For us, that means setting a goal to grow and make as much as we can at home, with no additives, no preservatives, and no health inspector standing over our food to reassure us it was handled with care.  If we’ve grown it, made it, canned it, preserved it, raised it, there is no doubt it was. 

Recently, a friend of mine sent a book called “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking” by Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. and Zoe Francois.  I was kind of skeptical at first since I’ve baked bread before and it just isn’t that simple.  The bread machine made baking accessible for me so when I want fresh bread, that’s how I make it.  The problem with bread machines is they take up a lot of space and they leave a weird hole in the bottom of the bread, making sandwiches crumble.  When we went organic, I found organic bread often cost $5 or more per loaf.  In addition, it was difficult to find specialty breads such as hamburger or hot dog buns, English muffins, bagels, pitas, and other sweet breads.  I could go to Pike Place Market, but wow is that a trek for a loaf of French bread.  Even then, it was impossible to find a good organic bagel.

These books, however, revolutionized the way we make bread and we haven’t bought a loaf since we got the books.  My actual time spent in the kitchen is about five to ten minutes, including clean up.  I can have a hot loaf of fresh bread on the dinner table every night with little effort.  All I have to do is pull out some dough when I first get home, and 40 minutes later, shove it in the oven.  Honestly, there is no reason to buy bread when you see how easy it is using this method.  I’m not trying to sound like a commercial, just encourage you to let you know that learning how to cut expenses out of your budget and to switch to organic foods isn’t that hard if you slowly change your habits one at a time.  This is a good one to begin with since it’s easy, cheap, and nothing is more satisfying than a crusty, hot loaf of bread you baked yourself. 

I’ll give you the recipes for the basic dough and an example of what you can make with that basic dough to get your started, but I highly recommend you buy the books.  I’ve adapted the recipes slightly for our use, and you may do the same as you get more comfortable with how the recipes work in your kitchen and to your family’s liking.  Good luck!

Master Recipe

makes 4 1-pound loaves which can be doubled or halved

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 tbsp granulated yeast (2 packets)

1 ½ tbsp. kosher salt

6 ½ cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with the scoop-and-sweep method

cornmeal

Gently stir the yeast into the water

Mixing and storing the dough

Warm the water slightly: it should feel just a little warmer than body temperature—about 100 degrees F.  Add yeast and salt to water in a resealable, lidded 5-quart (not airtight) plastic bucket.  Don’t worry about getting it to dissolve.

Scoop the flour from the container and use the flat end of a knife to level off the cup

Mix in the flour to incorporate it, but do not knead.  Add all of the flour at once, measuring it in with dry-ingredient cups by gently scooping up the flour into the cup and then sweeping the top of the cup with the flat end of a butter knife to level it off.  Do not press the flour down into the cup.  Mixing with a wooden spoon right into the bucket is easiest, but you can use a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook or a high capacity food processor with the dough attachment.  You will have more dishes to clean, however if you use the stand mixer or food processor and they aren’t necessary.  When everything is uniformly moist without dry patches, you are done.  Use your hands if necessary, but do not knead.  The dough should be wet enough to conform to the shape of the container.

Just leave the dough to do its thing for a few hours, then put it in the fridge for up to two weeks.  It's really that easy.

Allow the dough to rise.  Cover with the lid and allow to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse, about 2 hours.  Letting it rise longer will not harm the results.  After this period, you can use the dough at any time, though fully refrigerated dough is less sticky and easier to work with.  For best results, refrigerate overnight before trying to shape a loaf.

On baking day: do not knead the dough, just shape it into a loaf.  Prepare a pizza peel or you could use a large, flat cutting board with a piece of parchment paper on top of it sprinkled with cornmeal to slide the loaf onto a pizza stone in the oven.  We use a large, domed clay oven, which eliminates the need for a pizza peel and a steam bath, which I will talk about later.  Sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour and pinch off a piece the size of a grapefruit.  Add just enough flour to your hands to keep it from sticking.  Gently shape it into a ball by turning the dough a quarter turn in your hand as you fold the dough under to form a ball.  The bottom of the dough might look ugly, but it will flatten as it bakes.  This process should take less than a minute.  
  
Rest the loaf and let rise uncovered on the pizza peel, the parchment paper, or on the clay oven bottom for 40 minutes.  It may not look like it has risen much after 40 minutes—don’t worry.

Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F with a baking stone in the oven to preheat as well.  Place an empty broiler tray or a metal pan on the lowest shelf.  You can omit this step if you are using a dome-covered clay oven as it will trap the steam from the bread as it bakes.

Dust the bread liberally with flour and slash a ¼ inch deep cross over the top of the bread with a serrated knife.

After 20 minutes, slide the loaf off the pizza peel or parchment, or put the lid on the clay oven and put it into the preheated oven.   Add a cup of hot tap water to the broiler tray or the metal pan.  Omit this step if using the clay oven or your clay oven will crack.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch.  Allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Store remaining dough in the refrigerator in a lidded container (it doesn’t have to be the 5-quart bucket) for up to two weeks.  Just cut off dough, shape and bake as you need it.  The dough can also be frozen in 1-pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.  You can also bake off the bread and freeze the loaf for croutons, bruschetta, bread crumbs, or bread pudding later.

Variation 1: mix in 2 tsp of dried thyme and ½ tsp chopped rosemary into the water mixture for an herbed bread.

Variation 2: for sourdough, don’t wash the bucket once you’ve used all the dough; immediately mix a new batch of dough in the dirty bucket and scrape down the dough left sticking to the sides.  It will ferment and incorporate into the new dough.  

These are the dishes I had to clean after making one of the more complicated recipes: Pumpkin Oatmeal Bread

Cinnamon rolls

Makes 6-8 cinnamon rolls

For cinnamon rolls, about two hours before you want to eat them, begin this recipe provided you already have some dough in the refrigerator:

Choose a topping for the cinnamon rolls:

Caramel Topping/Sticky Buns:

6 tbsp salted butter, softened

½ cup brown sugar

1 cup pecan pieces or halves

Cream together the butter and sugar and spread in the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan.  Scatter the pecans on top of the butter and sugar mixture.  Set aside.

Cream Cheese Icing:

8 oz cream cheese, 2 tbsp corn syrup

2 tbsp heavy cream (you can use half and half or milk)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or use a hand mixer.  Beat on low speed until combined about a minute, and increase speed to high.  Beat until free of lumps.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Powdered Sugar Glaze:

1 ¼ cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

½ tsp vanilla extract

Mix ingredients until it’s free of lumps.  Set aside.

For the cinnamon roll filling:

4 tbsp salted butter, softened

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

½ cup chopped and toasted pecans (optional)

Cream all ingredients except nuts together and set aside.

For the cinnamon rolls:

Dust the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a grapefruit sized portion.  Carefully stretch the dough by tugging slightly while rotating the dough in your hands a quarter turn.  On a large surface lightly dusted with flour, roll the dough out into a long 1/8 inch thick rectangle.  You could lay down wax or parchment paper or cover the surface with plastic wrap for easy clean up and to aid in rolling up the dough if you don’t have a bench scraper.  

Spread the filling evenly over the top of the dough and sprinkle with nuts if using.  Starting with the long side, roll the dough into a log.  With unflavored dental floss or a very sharp knife, slice the log into eight pieces, or if you want smaller or larger ones, how many pieces suit your needs.  

If you are not using the caramel sticky bun recipe, then butter the pan liberally.  Place the rolls into the prepared pan of choice, either swirled edge facing up.  Cover loosely with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and allow to rise for an hour, or 40 minutes if you are using fresh, unrefrigerated dough.

Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  If you aren’t using a pizza stone to keep the temperature beneath the pan, 5 minutes is adequate.  Bake for 40 minutes, rotating once halfway through, or until they are brown and firm in the center.  While they are still hot, run a knife around the edge to loosen them and invert onto a large serving tray.  Ice them while warm if necessary.