Life A.B. (After Bread)

Homemade bread is a hurdle that every home baker is eventually faced with. There are so many different authorities, techniques, questions, preferences, and problems (both real and imagined), that it can be hard to know where to start.

Luckily, popular bread making techniques are focusing on minimizing the amount of work needed for the proper processes to occur. Two good ones are the No Knead bread, and also the 5-Minute bread: each of which promise to deliver the much desired artisan style loaf. These breads are wonderful tools for the beginning bread baker. They are in essence gateway breads. Once you get a taste of how easy it is to make your own bread, you won't be able to stop.

I was really excited when my brother's best friend showed me this recipe. (My grandma couldn't believe it: a boy baking bread from scratch. Unheard of!) Although I am familiar with yeast from making my own pizza dough from scratch, I have been slow to enter into the world of home-made bread. My excuse is not wanting to put my zillion dollar le creuset in the billion degree oven with it's plastic knob (the metal replacement is in the mail as I type). That is why I was so excited when I saw this recipe: I realized that could bake the loaf on my unbreakable cast iron skillet. It works really well, and the bread tastes delicious!

Sit back, and let time and the ingredients do the work for you.

5-Minute Artisan Bread

This recipe makes enough dough to make multiple loaves. The idea is to keep it in the fridge and keep pulling from it to make fresh loaves.

3 cups luke warm water

1 1/2 Tablespoon granulated yeast

1 1/2 Tablespoon Salt (Morton's Kosher, no iodine)

6 1/2 Cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Mix the ingredients in a large bowl or plastic tub (it is going to rise a lot, so it needs room to grow. I split my dough into two bowls so that it wouldn't overflow). Cover the container loosely, but make sure that it isn't sealed completely. Let it sit at room temperature for 2 hours (at this stage you want it to be a little on the warm side, to encourage the yeast, so don't put it in a cold drafty area).

After 2 hours, it can be used immediately or put in the fridge to be used as desired (it should keep for about two weeks). Either way, when you are ready to bake a loaf, break off a large piece (about the size of a grapefruit), place it on a floured cutting board and shape it with your hands. To shape it you want to cup the dough in a ball in your hands and gently pull it downwards toward the bottom of the ball, creating a smooth circular surface.

Let the dough sit for 60 to 90 minutes. Pre-heat

the oven to 450 with either a pizza stone, or a cast iron skillet on the middle shelf. Place a heat-safe container of water on a shelf below (this will create steam which will improve the crust). Score the top of the dough with a serrated knife, making 4 or 5 parallel incisions. Slide the dough onto the hot pan, and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown. Let it cool completely before slicing.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert bread-maker! If you have any questions I recommend checking the 5-minute artisan bread website, they have more thorough explanations.