Sunday, December 27, 2009

Artisan Bread at Home

I have not had much luck with anything that involves yeast over the past 1-2 years. I have had dud batches of bread in a few bread machines in the last year and some recipe flops with homemade bread before that.

My mom expressed interest in the Artisan Bread in Five Minute a Day book so I got it for her for her last birthday. She looked through it and handed it over to me to try out first.

In order to make this recipe one needs a lidded but not airtight 5 quart container. After scoping out the grocery store ice cream aisle, I determined that Roundy's brand vanilla ice cream pails are a perfect fit. Paul and I and various guests have been slowly, slowly, slowly eating our way through the 5 quart container of vanilla ice cream for almost a year. We finally finished it off and last night I made the bread starter for the Artisan Free Form Boule (free version of the recipe can be found here).

This morning, before heading over to my mom's house, I baked the first loaf by cutting off a hunk of the dough and following the directions. According to my visual review of the bread, it looks like it worked! Since the book is my mom's and I was going over to her house today, I felt it was only right that I bring her this loaf. So, Mom, you'll have to tell me if it passes muster.



I hope that my yeast curse has passed, because if I can bake bread like this and the many other recipes in the book, I will be overjoyed and save a lot of money.

8 comments:

  1. I have that book but have yet to make anything from it :) But I did get Healthy Artisan Bread in 5 Mintues a Day for X-mas (lots of whole wheat stuff) so maybe I'll try something from that one first...

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  2. yum, looks fantastic! does the book relate how to do it with all whole wheat? or, as the above commenter mentioned, should i look into the other book she noted? i've actually been thinking that i wanted to start making more of my own bread...

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  3. The bread looks amazing! I've always fantasized about baking bread but I'm just starting in the kitchen. Thanks for the book suggestion, maybe I will give it a shot! Best of luck~

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  4. Oh my gosh, I am looking through the recipes in the book and there are TONS of other recipes. Included are multiple recipes with various levels of whole wheat, some with rye, potato bread and on and on. I haven't checked out the Healthy bread book yet, but I am sure that one is fabulous, too.

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  5. I love this book, I've been making 3-6 loaves a week since I got it last year and not one has been a loser. The Eurpean Peasant (part whole wheat and part rye) is my go-to loaf. Check the website fr errata- they made a mistake in the book, if you buy your yeast by the packet it is 2 packets to each batch (not 1 1/2 packets )

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  6. Dense and delicious! Thank you for sharing! Love you, Mom

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  7. That looks so beautiful! Great work!

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  8. Hey there...happened upon your blog today, and love it!

    I just got the Artisan bread book from a friend for Christmas, and can't wait to try it out. The ice cream pail sounds genius, I was puzzling over what kind of container to use?

    You'll have to let us know how the bread turned out!

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