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Better, Faster Bread: Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

Published on October 19, 2016 By Emily. Updated on October 20, 2016

It seems like forever ago that one of my friends first mentioned Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day : The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.  The conversation happened in the context of a chat about the bread baking process I’d been using.  I wrote a long post about it in 2013, but the short version is that any time I had a free Saturday, I was spending it at home baking my own bread.  I loved the recipe I was using and the resulting product, but sometimes getting bread to happen on my schedule was less than easy.

My brother-in-law and his wife bought me Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day  for Christmas 2014, but it took me until the following May to get up the nerve to try it.  Even though the book’s whole premise is that bread baking can be easy, the introductory explanation made me nervous.  There were instructions about how to scoop the flour, solutions to baking problems, and a 6 page explanation of the Master Recipe.  But I was hooked with the first loaves I attempted (seen below):

Here’s the key idea of the book: “pre-mixed, pre-risen, high-moisture dough keeps well in the refrigerator”.  The “5 minutes a day” concept works like this: you mix up the dough for the recipe you want to make (most recipes make 4 loaves per batch), let the dough rise for a couple hours and refrigerate the dough until you’re ready to bake.  Sometimes my dough sits in the fridge for a day, sometimes it sits there for a couple weeks before I get around to baking it. Yes, some recipes can last 14 days between making the dough and baking.  Talk about flexible! When you’re ready, remove the amount of dough needed for the loaf you want to make, allow it to rise (around 40 minutes), and bake it.  Most of the loaves I’ve made have required between 30 and 45 minutes to bake (the “5 minutes a day” is active time, not total time).

IMG_4867

Despite my initial concerns, I’ve actually found the recipes in Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day to be flexible and forgiving.  I’ve made adjustments to my favorite recipe, European Peasant Bread, to include more whole wheat flour.  I’ve gotten really fast at mixing up batches up dough by hand, forgoing my stand mixer.  Sometimes I bake one loaf and put the rest of the dough back in the fridge, sometimes I bake 2 loaves at once and then the other two right after.  The resulting loaves are generally smaller than what a standard loaf pan would make (though some recipes do use a loaf pan!), but since it’s so easy to make and turns out so well, I don’t mind.

rye bread

Brian and I love the bread that this method makes – the inside is soft, the outside has a great crust.  And it seems like everyone else we’ve shared it with has loved it as well – and has been shocked that I made it. For a while, I was tasked with bringing loaves to adult Sunday School every week to feed the other members of my class.  That’s all we’d have – bread and cheese.  Our families also adore this bread and I always bake up several loaves in advance of any of our parents coming because I know they’re going to eat a lot of it.  And that brings us back to the brilliance of this method – if I have a batch of dough waiting in the fridge, I can bake more loaves for breakfast while people are waking up and then set up another batch to do again the next day.  It’s so simple. When I’m feeling especially organized, I make a whole batch of bread and put a couple of sliced loaves in the freezer, which means I’ve got all kinds of bread options available when I need them.

olive bread

I’ve tried a bunch of recipes since I started working with this book, including bagels, rye bread, pretzels, foccacia, zatar flatbread, and olive bread.  Everything I’ve attempted has turned out delicious, though some of my loaves have definitely looked better than others.  There are still more recipes I want to test: ciabatta, raisin walnut, pizza dough, spinach feta bread and chocolate bread, to name a few.

artisan bread in 5 minutes a day

I have found that having a few of the recommended tools are helpful.  I already had a baking stone when I started making bread from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, but adding a pizza peel to my kitchen was a great move as well.  Also, you may recall my pilgrimage to King Arthur Flour last year to get a dough rising bucket.  The dough rising bucket has allowed me to make the full, 4 loaf batch of all the bread recipes, which makes Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day even more efficient.

So here we are – it’s 7 pm on a school night and I just started a batch of bread.  Because I can.  Want to try it for yourself? There are some great deals on Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day on Amazon or you can check out the second edition of the book (which I have no experience with) The New Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

Disclosure:  This post contains Amazon affiliate links, but is not a sponsored post.  I’m just sharing because I love this book! Thank you for your continued support of Relishments.

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Filed Under: books Tagged With: baking, bread, review

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Emily
Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring a sitter for a rare night out. We went to dinner at @publicna and took advantage of the opportunity with drinks, appetizers and dessert.

Pictured:
- Citrus Braised Beef Tacos
- "Chicken and Waffles"
- House Fries with Garlic Aioli
- Fried Chickpeas
- Blood Orange Cheesecake
It was no surprise that Public was close to full on a Wednesday night - everything was so good. 

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#igers413_food #igers413 #BerkshireFoodies #InTheBerkshires #EatLocal #WesternMA #WesternMass #Berkshires  #VisitTheBerkshires #NorthAdams #NAmazing #PublicEatAndDrink
New year, new theme word! This year's word is "enr New year, new theme word!
This year's word is "enrich" and I'm really excited about it.

I've written more about this year's theme on the blog. Click in the link in my profile or follow the link below to read the post.
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https://www.relishments.com/blog/my-2023-theme-word-enrich/
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#YearlyTheme #MyOneWord #2023 #enrich2023 #NewYearsResolution
It's not New Year's Eve without a Top 9 post. It's It's not New Year's Eve without a Top 9 post.
It's almost all #Berkshires content this year, which is great.
1. A pasta salad reel that took longer to create than the recipe took to make.
2. A reel from North Carolina where I could have watched birds all day.
3. The @thelazygenius book giveaway.
4.@plantconnector 
5. @berkshiremuseum 
6.@sculpture.now at @themountlenox 
7. @massmoca 
8. @mountainviewfarm413 
9. The #AshuwillticookRailTrail
New on the blog: My 2022 reflections on last year' New on the blog: My 2022 reflections on last year's theme word - resume. 

I was able to get back to many activities that were meaningful to me this year and I'm calling this theme a success. Follow the link below or click the link in my profile to read more.
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https://www.relishments.com/blog/reflections-on-resuming-in-2022/
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#resume2022 #newyearsresolution #myoneword #yearlytheme
New on the blog: My Favorite Recipes of 2022. For New on the blog: My Favorite Recipes of 2022.

For the fourth year, I've recapped the best new (to me) recipes I made this year in the hope that they'll give you some new dishes to try. This year's list is short, but delicious. It includes @budgetbytes My Favorite Recipes of 2022
Published on December 30, 2022 By Emily. Updated on December 30, 2022

It’s hard to believe that 2022 is basically behind us. Though overall this year found me getting back to the person I want to be (post-babies and “post”-pandemic), I did not try nearly as many new recipes this year as I used to. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I’d made note of any new-to-me recipes I wanted to share in this post. This year’s list is short, but delicious. It includes recipes from @budgetbytes, @smittenkitchen and @howsweeteats.
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Read the post by visiting the link in my profile or 
https://www.relishments.com/blog/my-favorite-recipes-of-2022/
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#RecipeRoundUp #BestRecipes2022 #FavoriteRecipes
@coastalmainebotanicalgardens continues to be one @coastalmainebotanicalgardens continues to be one of the highlights of all my return trips to Boothbay and their annual Gardens Aglow event continues to impress. It was great to be back to walking the gardens instead of the pandemic drive through and there seemed to be more lights than ever.  I'm already looking forward to next year.
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#Boothbay #BoothbayMaine #CoastalMaineBotanicalGardens #GardensAglow #BotanicalGarden #MidcoastMaine
It has been a while, but there is finally a new CS It has been a while, but there is finally a new CSA menu plan on the blog! Visit the link below or in my profile to see how I plan to make use of some of the @mightyfoodfarm produce seen here.
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https://www.relishments.com/blog/welcome-to-winter-farm-share-csa-menu-plan-148/
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#MightyFoodFarm #EatLocal #EatSeasonal #VermontGrown #CSApickup #CSAshare #KnowYourFarmerKnowYourFood #MenuPlanning #MealPlanning #igers413 #igers413_food #BerkshireFoodies
Fall in the Berkshires is always incredible, but t Fall in the Berkshires is always incredible, but this year we've had weather that has also been outstanding. The past 2 weekends have included time at Jaeschke Orchards, the Greylock Glen, and the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail as well as stopping to photograph any random foliage I see. 
Check out the last slide for video of some feathered friends we saw on a walk.
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#igers413 #InTheBerkshires #EatLocal #WesternMA #WesternMass #Berkshires  #VisitTheBerkshires #FallFoliage #FallColors #autumn #AshuwillticookRailTrail #JaeschkeOrchards #GreylockGlen
@freshgrassfestival continues to be one of my favo @freshgrassfestival continues to be one of my favorite events each year, and it doesn't hurt that it's just minutes away from home. Enjoying the festival with my kids is definitely a different experience than without, but it's still a good time. The weather was especially cooperative today which was great for all the laps I did around the @massmoca campus pushing a stroller. I'm already looking forward to next year.
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#igers413 #InTheBerkshires #WesternMA #WesternMass #Berkshires  #VisitTheBerkshires #NorthAdams #NAmazing #FreshGrass #FreshGrassFestival #MassMoCA #MusicFestival
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