Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes

I stumbled upon the website Man Made DIY which led me to this recipe here.  It sounded doable, even though I've never made bread from scratch before. I like that you make a big batch and can keep it in the fridge for a week, baking fresh bread as you need it. It turned out great.

Mmmm hot and fresh!

Artisan Bread     Adapted from ”Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François

•1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
•1 1/2 tablespoons salt

•3 cups water

•6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough (*you can replace about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of white flour with any whole grain flour with great results).

•Cornmeal

1. In a large bowl, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups warm water. Add flour, and stir to combine completely. Let dough rise in a warm place for at least two hours, until it rises and collapses (up to 5 hours - or even overnight won’t hurt it). The dough may be baked at this point, or refrigerated for later use.

I mixed it in a gallon ice cream tub with a hole poked in the lid.

After 2 hours of rising, covered on the counter. I refrigerated it over night and baked the next day.

2. Cover dough, but make sure it is not airtight - gases need to escape - and place in fridge. When you are ready to use it, throw a small fistful of flour on the surface and use a serrated knife to cut off a piece of the size you desire. (The authors recommend a 1 pound loaf - which means cutting off grapefruit-sized piece of dough). Turning the dough in your hands, stretch the surface of the dough and tuck in under. The surface will be smooth, and the bottom with be bunched.

16 oz. of dough. Silly me, I forgot to dust the parchment paper with flour, so it stuck. Woops!

3. Dust a pizza peel (or any flat surface - I use a rimless cookie sheet) with cornmeal. (This prevents sticking, and adds a nice, rustic crunch. You can use flour instead, but you’ll need to use a very generous dusting). Allow dough to rest in a warm place for 40 minutes - longer (up to an hour and a half) if you use some whole wheat flour in place of the white, or if you make a larger loaf.

4. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450 degrees with baking stone (or overturned baking sheet) inside on the middle rack, plus a shallow pan on the top rack. Throw a small fistful of flour over the dough, slash it 2-4 times with a serrated knife (in a cross, a tic-tac-toe, or a fan), and slide it into the oven, onto the baking stone. Throw 1-2 cups of tap water into the shallow pan, and quickly shut the oven door to trap steam inside. Bake for 30 minutes, or until crust is well browned and bread sounds hollow when you knock on the bottom.

Yum! I only let mine rest for 40 minutes, so it was very dense. The next batch I will let rest for an hour or more so it's more airy. It was a great, crusty addition to the chicken parm. my husband made for dinner. Mmm! Even the Wee One liked gnawing on it. :)

The Man Made DIY instructions recommended taking it off of the parchment paper after baking for 20 mins. so the bottom would crust up, then bake the remaining 10 mins. I did it, and it worked well. Also, it recommended, letting it cool completely before cutting into it, or the inside will get gummy.

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