Our New Book, a New Look and a Giveaway! [WINNERS WERE ANNOUNCED 6/15/09, CONTEST CLOSED]
As many of you know Jeff and I have spent the past year working on a new book, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients
(HBin5). It is a project that started with you! Because of your questions, comments and requests for breads made with whole grains, seeds, nuts, fruits, veggies and even gluten-free ingredients, we set to work to create new recipes. We liked them so well, we decided to do another book. We’ve been playing with ways to make breads that are not only nutritious, but incredibly tasty and still fit into our busy lives. The methods will still be fast, easy and only take 5 minutes, but the results are wonderful breads made with ingredients that will keep us happy and healthy, no matter our dietary needs. Who better than a pastry chef and a doctor to write such a book?
Writing a cookbook takes a long time, not only to test and retest and then test again the recipes, but the editing and designing of the book after we write it. Although it is nearly done we still have more work to do before it comes out this fall. HBin5 will be available in the book stores on October 27th of this year. In the mean time Amazon has posted it for pre-orders for those of you who want to avoid the mad rush at the book stores! 😉
In honor of HBin5 we’ve launched this new home page on our website. My husband Graham designed and built the site for us and Jeff’s wife Laura, who is also our copy editor, wrote much of it. We are so fortunate to have such a creative and talented team to help us. We want to thank them for all of their work!And THANK YOU for inspiring us to write our second book. As a thank you we are giving away 5 signed copies of our CURRENT book: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
Here is a little glimpse into our life of writing HBin5:
On any given day I have about 5-8 buckets of dough in my refrigerators. (Yes, I have two and at the moment there is little room for anything but dough!) I generally wake up in the morning, shape and let rest several loaves of bread and then once I get my boys off to school I bake them. I have a double wall oven, nothing fancy, but having two ovens makes testing a dream. I can bake about six loaves at a time. Jeff is simultaneously doing all of this across town at his house as well. Between the two of us we could qualify as a chain of bakeries.
Once the loaves are baked and cooled, Jeff and I meet and have a tasting. We sample each others breads and do a critique on taste, texture, the look of the loaf and even the sound of the crust. If one of us isn’t absolutely in love with the bread, we discuss how to improve it and go back to the bucket! Sometimes we hit it on the first try and others take several variations. After a tasting we usually walk around the lake, to work off all the sampling and then head back to our kitchens.
As we test and talk and retest and change things and have others test for us, we write everything down. The stack of notes and versions of the recipes that you see here is only my stuff. Jeff has a similar pile in his kitchen, along with a testing schedule and excel spread sheets of all our progress. (It is a blessing to work with someone who loves excel!) This process is a lot of work, but we absolutely love it. I wake up in the morning totally excited to see what my buckets of dough have brought me for the day. As Jeff always says, “if your not having fun the bread won’t taste good!” You are so right Jeff!
Oh and let me not forget the photo shoots with Mark Luinenburg. He did all of the gorgeous photos in ABin5 and this time for HBin5 we have twice as many. He does wonderful work and is so much fun. And Nan the make-up artist who did her very best to make me look like Audrey Hepburn and told Jeff he looks like a young Paul Newman. She will forever be in our good favor!
Leave us a comment about your favorite bread and you will be eligible to win one of the 5 signed copies of our current book: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day! We will announce the winners next week.
While we were loading the new front page of the website we ran into a little snag and ended up losing the last 2 days of our comments. So, if you wrote to us in the past 2 days and haven’t heard from us that is why. Please, write to us again and we will get back to you. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Thanks, Zoë and Jeff
My favorite is the basic boule. So easy, comforting, and delish. I will keep my fingers crossed to win a book. I keep checking out my library copy over and over.
Even though it’s one of the newest, ABin5 is, by far, my most stained, spilled-on, well-used cookbook! Can’t wait for HBin5! My favorite bread? It has to be Bran-Enriched White Bread–all the great taste and versatility of the master recipe with the bonus of added fiber. Or maybe it’s the European Peasant . . . or it could be Oatmeal Bread . . . or . . .
I would like to add my congratulations on your new book!! Can’t wait to check it out.
My favorite bread is sourdough…followed closely by oatmeal.
Thanks for the giveaway chance. I like the basic but the potato pizza is great too.
Bread! Did you say bread! I love any home made bread. It is one of my diet down falls.
Thanks for the give away.
I love grainy breads — the browner and crunchier the better. And, see, so many of my friends have told me about your book and I don’t have a copy, so it all comes together in a beautiful kismet… if I win one, I’ll have one and then I’ll be all geared up for the healthy breads in October.
Thanks!
I have only tried one of the breads in your book, which my uncle made, so I have no idea what kind it was…but it was absolutely AMAZING and I plan on making my first batch of the master recipe today. Hooray for yummy bread!!
My favorite bread is the 100% whole wheat – it’s so good, so comforting. It’s my go-to bread to bring to people when they’ve just moved or just had a baby or just need good bread.
I make the light whole wheat dough a lot more often though. It usually gets turned in to pizza or za’atar bread.
I can’t wait to check out the new book.
Cannot wait for the new book. I’m cleaning out the refrigerator to add more container of dough. Have two containers now. With the master recipe in one and brioche in the other. Need space for a whole wheat dough. Thanks for great bread!!!!!
We all got a big kick out of your comment on page 58 in the book about European immigrants enjoying a good piece of bread more than a good dessert. Being a Dutch immigrant myself, my kids have had to listen to me for the past 30 years about American bread that is just too sweet and spongy. Our favorite bread is the bran-enriched white bread, which reminds us a lot of the good Swiss bread we had while we lived in Switzerland for a while.
love marble rye…can’t wait for the new book!
I just got the book and LOVE it! I have only made the master recipe, but it is very good. I am so excited about your new book coming out and I would very much like a free copy!
My favorite is the basic recipe made into a Ciabatta.
It worked beautifully the very first time thus breaking my family’s tradition of only turning out brick/construction grade breads!
I am just getting into bread making! I can’t wait for the new book! Congrats!
We love all the breads we have made, but always have a light whole wheat with more whole wheat flour and ground flaxseed added… makes pizza, grilled pizza, rolls, sticks, english muffins, loaves, everything!
Thanks so much for sharing your fantastic recipes.
Ordering your new book now… been waiting for more whole grain recipes!
My kids just love the Ciabbata. Can’t wait for the new book.
I absolutely ADORE your book! Even though I am a seasoned baker of homemade whole wheat bread, I had many failed attempts at whole grain artisan bread (and few good ones) before I read it. Now, I make beautiful whole grain artisan bread all the time for family and friends, with much less effort than the failed attempts. I can’t wait until HBin5 comes out – thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Congrats on the new book! It’s looking fabulous!
My favourite is walnut bread, with a spongy interior and crusty exterior.
Deli rye is to die for! I’ve always loved rye bread, but never new how fantastic fresh rye from the oven could be. Ambrosia! Store bought rye bread – never again.
Thank you both so much!
I love the light whole wheat. Can’t wait for the debut of the new book! And hoping to win a copy of your current book.
I can’t wait for your new book! We have eaten so much bread since discovering your book and seldom visit a friend without bringing bread along. We use it for pizza several times a week and are never without at least one batch of dough. My husband’s favorite is cinnamon rolls made with the challah dough. I’m counting the days until the book comes out!
I love whole grain bread, especially anything with lots of seeds in it. Congrats on your new book!
I can’t decide between the deli rye and the brioche. But you both look gorgeous! (Do I win?)
Bravo!
Just today made your focaccia~Delicious!
I personally am in love with Zingerman’s farm bread but sourdough’s a close second.
I’ve just been introduced to your book and checked out a copy from the library. I have always loved baking bread, but with 4 littles I find myself with less and less time to get it all done! So far I’ve only tried the “Master Recipe” (today, in fact), but we all loved it and are eager to try more. Kudos on a great book and concept!
The first time I made the Boule, my 14 year old son declared the crust “Awesome”. The second time I baked a loaf he declared “you must bake this everyday”. Something tells me I could bake every recipe in the book but we’d still come back to the master!
Congrats. Love the book, love your blog, but most of all love the process!
Can’t wait for the new book! My current favorite is the original boule. The kids devour it! (OK, I do too)
Congrats on the new book! It is wonderful that you have GF recipes in the new offering. My favorite bread is ciabatta.
“Favorite” is kinda limiting, isn’t it? When we were in New Zealand, my 5-yr old and I loved making the light wheat (with herbs) and kept a bucket of brioche for the occasional blueberry-plum bread (from something we saw at the local farmer’s market). We gave ABin5 lessons to some NZ friends and left our stone and peel with them. Now that we’re back in California, we’re making pumpernickel constantly. … still not an answer to the favorite… perhaps my favorite (most impressive) for company was the braided spinach-feta-pine nuts bread (added lamb sausage when in NZ).
I’m looking forward to the new book – I’ve been adding oats and various other grains a bit haphazardly – I’m looking forward to reading the wonderful breads that you’ve created. Cheers! Linda
This is so awesome and you’re so cute!
My favorite bread at the moment is OatNut. Thanks for the opportunity!
I love whole grain breads, so I can’t wait for the new book! I don’t know that I can pick a single favorite bread, but I love ones that have a variety of seeds and nuts, with a little bit of fruit for sweetness. It’s hard to go wrong with those additions!
I love any “simple” type of bread – not with a lot of flavorings or spices.
I’m just about to try my first bread, but am so excited about this. And am even more excited about the new book, b/c all I could think while I was reading ABin5 last night was, “But this is going to be REALLY bad for my diet…”
I’ve only just discovered ABin5 and we use the basic master recipe. Its winter here so it makes a great loaf to have with soups, stews, as well as toasted in the morning. Haven’t had a bad loaf of the basic recipe yet!
I do need a bigger fridge now so I can experiment but still have the master dough on the go!
Thanks for sharing your recipes and methods 🙂
I love the olive bread made with the basic boule. I use kalamat olives. The family LOVES it.
In your next book, can you include workouts? Baking several times a week and eating perfect bread is a challenge to my wasteline. And I do mean wasteline, not waistline. Two months into the bread-baking diet.
Ha ha. Seriously, bless you for the bread.
Kalamata, not kalamat. But they sound good too.
I started out making boules and I am trying to make more of the breads, but the boules are so easy and wonderful, I always go back to them!
The brioche — and specifically done as almond brioche — is a favorite treat. I’m relatively new to the book, but the master recipe also is a superstar and so versatile! I could never have the discipline to do small tastes of that or any of the other breads in the book, particularly over months and months of recipe perfecting. Zoe and Jeff must be very, very disciplined!
I’m a cook, not a baker. That said, in the year before I *just* got the book “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” I’d made several breads off a yummy milk bread dough (and played with forming and braiding the dough), made a few delicious loaves of challah, baked up a couple of salted rye breads from an Inn at Little Washington recipe, baked some small kalamata olive and olive oil infused loaves and finally had some success with the no-knead breads popularized by Mark Bittman (and given analysis by Cook’s Illustrated and others).
Our family also has long baked yeast rolls off of a very wet dough (sound familiar?) that can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks at a time.
So I wasn’t a complete novice before discovering your book. And I didn’t find bread baking a chore, at all. The reward of a fresh baked loaf (or two or three!) coming out of the oven is a pretty powerful incentive. Still, it wasn’t as easy or instantaneous as I’d have liked. Your technique has changed that. Now, my biggest problem is finding a way to burn off all those delicious breads I keep baking and eating — and finding more space in the fridge (especially during the summer months when dough is competing for space with bushels of fresh market peaches)!
Incidentally, I use my thin cutting board (or sometimes a sheet pan) with parchment paper as a makeshift peel for transferring loaves.
I’m really looking forward to the healthier, more nutrient-rich bread options in the new book. And I’m eager to know more about that red bread in the pictures above. Please, tell us more!
I make a loaf for every dinner party I go to. My favorites include the European peasant bread and the cinnamon raisin bread. I have had several people ask me to teach a class on bread making. I tell them they don’t need a class. They just need your book!
Your book – and your new work in progress – look fantastic! My favorite bread recipe so far – that I have yet to try and can’t wait to dig into – is a cinnamon swirl bread made with mashed potatoes. At our high altitude in Colorado, anything that can help provide a little moisture is a welcome addition and I’m always looking for creative ideas like this in hopes they might take the demanding conditions here and turn out fabulously. Thanks for all the inspiration!
Love Ciabbata.
Congrats and thanks for everything!
OhWEEEEE – a lot of great comments here- I have only made a few loaves so far but I AM IN LOVE WITH THEM ALL!! Peasant bread might be my fav so far – Can’t Wait for the new book and all the new adventures that await!!! Thanks for sharing the Inside Scoop too 😉
I love french bread right out of the oven 🙂
I love the challah in your first book… I can eat an entire loaf of it straight from the oven- no need for butter or anything. So good. I make a batch of dough every week, basically.
My wife has talked of little else since finding your website. I’d love to surprise her with this book… and, yes, that’s a pretty selfish desire. This bread looks incredible — she hasn’t made any yet, but I hear there’s a great sourdough. I’m already drooling…
Great to hear about this new book – I’ve been using Artisan Bread for the past 2 weeks with great results and have been VERY pleased. Thanks so much!
I can’t wait for the book. I like the whole wheat bread!!
I love the oatmeal bread. Each time I bake a new loaf of bread my 16 month old wants a taste! We are transitioning to all homemade bread! I am sharing the ease of ABin5 with all of my friends!
Baking bread this way is my plan for a family summer project. I hadn’t had a chance to get the book yet; I’m waiting for it at my local library. Congratulations on your new book!