First, Nefer. With one of the faraway expression she has when sitting on the router warming her butt.
( cut for pic )Next:
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
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OK, that's a bit of hyperbole, both the
Revolutionizes!* language and the five minutes, but it is an interesting way to approach making bread. It's sort of like that no-knead bread that took the Internet by storm a while back in that it's a no-knead solution, but with this you make a large batch of dough and store it in the fridge, lopping offf a pound or so at a time when you want to bake.
The five minutes refers to the amount of time you spend directly working with the bread on baking day, not counting the resting stage and baking stage, but the mixing is only about fifteen minutes or so.
This appealed to me because my wrists, while not hurting during most normal daily activities, are too badly damaged by RSI to knead bread. Five minutes kneading bread and I can't type without pain for a week. Also, because the loaves are SMALL. Toby and I like bread, and like to buy it, especially from the local baker here, but the loaves are always too big and we never finish an entire loaf before it starts molding.
So today we made up our first batch. You mix it in a large container that can hold at least five quarts, stirring it with a spoon or, if it gets too stiff, pressing it together gently with your hands. And then you let it rise for two hours, after which you stick it in the fridge. Although it's easier to handle if you chill it for at least 3 hours, after an hour we were already starting to get hungry, so I went ahead and took out a pound or so. You don't knead it at this stage, either, just gently stretch it and roll the edges under until it's smooth and dome-shaped. They explain that you're creating a 'gluten cloak,' working the gluten on the outside until they gluten fibers (or whatever they are) are lined up.** That created a crusty loaf.
You let it sit for 40 minutes, then bake it on a baking/pizza stone (you can do it on a cookie sheet or loaf pan, but the crust isn't as nice) and in half an hour or so, you have bread. Woo!
( And here is our first loaf! )You can see the size. It's perfect - cut into quarters, it's two servings for each of us.
This loaf isn't perfect - there were some oven-temp issues which resulted in it baking at a lower temp than it should, so it took longer and the interior was a bit too moist when I got bored and took it out. But the crust was still nice! The issues were that I heated the over to 450°F, like it said, then after I got the bread onto the baking stone and the water into the broiling pan on another shelf to steam it (it's a crust thing), the temp plunged to 350°F and stayed there until the water boiled away, much much later. So we'll need to play with the positioning of the water, I think, and heat the water even more before it goes in.
It was good anyway! We just used the master recipe, which makes about 5 loaves. There's a number of recipes and variants in the book, from rye to pita to I don't know what else. And instructions for nifty variants like baguettes and this funky shape that looks like a wheat sheaf.
Highly recommended if you're interested in home-baked bread but don't want to spend much time at once messing about with it.
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* I envision the loaf of bread with a little red beret and a flag...
** I actually don't remember the wording, and the book's in the other room and I am too lazy to get it.
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