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.