Missing instructions and missing recipes from the website: Some of the web-based recipes don’t have everything I need to make the bread, and some recipes are missing altogether

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I’m sometimes asked to provide details that don’t appear in a web version of a recipe here on our site.  In many cases, the web versions contain the full recipe, including all baking instructions, temperatures, etc.  But in most cases, I can’t do that.  Why not?

Well, to make a long story short, my publisher would disown me if I put all our full-detail recipes up here on the website, for free. There’d really be little reason for anyone to buy the books.  This site is mainly a way of reaching out to readers, and supporting them as they work on recipes that appear in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day and Gluten-Free Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and any of our non-US editions. If the answer to your question appears in one of the books, I’ll probably just refer you there.

I really enjoy connecting with readers this way, and I’m proud to be among the few cookbook authors who personally answer questions from people who’ve bought my books (thank you!).  I hope to talk with all of you about our recipes soon.  –Jeff

Note: BreadIn5.com is reader supported. When you buy through links on the site, BreadIn5 LLC earns commissions.

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33 thoughts to “Missing instructions and missing recipes from the website: Some of the web-based recipes don’t have everything I need to make the bread, and some recipes are missing altogether”

  1. I’ve had a alot of problems slashing (master recipe, p.26: AB). I’ve tried both the flour dusting and water on both the knife and the surface of the loaf. I have come to the conclusion that it is the knife. I’m using a bread knife, but it must not be very sharp (although new). Do you recommend a brand of bread knife? There are too many from which to choose.

    I have orders from our extended family for many loaves…we love this bread and the ease of making it. If only I could get past the slashing problem.

    Thanks and Happy Holidays!

    1. John: Can’t say I favor one knife over the other– I’m pretty sure that’s not the issue. Make sure you are stabilizing the loaf with your other hand– I use my thumb and forefinger (don’t cut yourself!). If you don’t stabilize, the loaf tends to move and you don’t get your cuts to take.

  2. Jeff,

    Thanks for the speedy reply!

    I’ll try again of course. The knife seems to drag the soft dough, not all making a “slash”. Best I could call it is a “tear”.

    Thanks again.

  3. In HBin5 pg 182 Stuffed Sandwich Loaf recipe, there are no doughs listed as stated in the recipe.

    What doughs would work best with this recipe? Also, for the spinach, feta and turkey variation, does the spinach need to be sauteed prior to filling the bread? Or does it just go in plain? Should it be chopped? Should the turkey be chopped as well?

    1. Andrea: on p. 182, it says “any lean or enriched dough to your liking.” So anything in the book will work, it’s just a matter of taste.

      You don’t need to saute the spinach first. It will disintegrate to some extent so there’s not much need to chop, but if you want to be sure no one gets a big piece of spinach, go ahead and chop 1st. Same for the turkey. Since you slice the bread, that’s where these flat ingredients get fragmented. If you chop too much, the pieces may fall out of the bread as you slice it; keeping them whole prevents that. Jeff

  4. Hi

    Adding my question here as I see this post has recent answers. 🙂 I searched for “sour”, couldn’t find my answer so looked in “faqs”.

    I mixed up my first batch and made rolls later that same day. When I made rolls on the second day, my husband asked was it a different recipe. The bread I made last night has a sour taste. As in sourdough, not spoiled. I like it but guess the rest of the family doesn’t. Is the sourdough flavour normal? and if not, any idea why that happened? Thanks

    1. Lori: Absolutely normal, sourdough flavor develops over the 14-day storage, but that depends on which recipe you’re using. Which of our books/page number are you baking from? To avoid the flavor development, store in a cold part of the fridge and use up before 5 days.

      About free recipes on people’s blogs– I’m sympathetic with folks trying to protect their recipes. This is not an easy way to make a living, so I’d cut them some slack! Jeff

  5. And FWIW, I’ve been disappointed when a food blogger I follow, presumably helping them become popular, decides to publish a book and takes the recipes off the site. (not saying you guys did that, I can’t remember) Completely fair to not publish new recipes but disappointing when the old ones disappear.

  6. In Healthy Bread, p. 109: Narrative mentions cracked wheat, white whole wheat, and traditional whole wheat. Recipe includes all-purpose flour, but no regular whole wheat. The dough was extra wet and hard to manage, and the bread was fairly flat, though delicious. Did I miss something, or did you?

    1. Hi Barb,

      The opening paragraph mentions regular whole wheat, but that is a mistake, the recipe doesn’t call for it. Was the dough chilled before you used it? If so, how long. This dough needs some time for the cracked wheat to absorb the water.

      Have you made other recipes successfully?

      Thanks, Zoë

  7. Hi Zoe,

    Yes, the dough was chilled overnight – probably about 12 hours. Just checked the remaining dough, and it looks like perhaps the absorption process just took longer, so I’ll try a loaf tomorrow.

    Yes, I’ve tried several other recipes successfully, and find them very satisfactory — as in, delicious. And when reading the comments yesterday, I learned how to make a lighter crumb. I use King Arthur flours, along with Bob’s Red Mill, and will experiment with the extra moisture in higher protein flour.

    Thanks so much for all that you and Jeff do to make our lives richer!

    Barb

    1. Hi Barb,

      Great, I hope that is the answer. Let me know if you are still having issues with it.

      Cheers, Zoë

  8. Still wet, Zoe, but very tasty. I ended up putting today’s loaf in a loaf pan, so it wouldn’t spread into flatbread. That helped. I’m going to try a new batch soon, and triple check what I do. I’ll let you know what happens.

    Thanks again,
    Barb

    1. Hi Barb,

      Thank you for keeping us posted, I am very curious to see how the next batch comes out.

      Best, Zoë

  9. Hi Zoe,

    Today I baked the first loaf from the new batch of cracked-wheat dough, and it’s perfect! Just crusty enough, beautiful crumb, and delicious.

    I think the problem with the first batch was pilot error, or a senior moment, or something of that nature. This time, I made sure I had the measurements exactly right, and surprise, surprise! It worked!

    I’ve enjoyed 100% Whole Wheat and Flaxseed, 10-Grain, Whole Grain Rye, and Quinoa. Next on my list is Lentil Curry.

    Thanks again,
    Barb

    1. Hi Barb,

      That is fantastic! Thank you so much for stopping by to let me know!

      Enjoy all the bread, Zoë

  10. I just bought your book and wanted to make “Betsy’s Seeded Oat Bread”. It isn’t in there. It had an ingredient I need to buy but now I have no idea what is is.

  11. I just made the Whole Grain Garlic Knots with Parsley and Olive Oil (pg 64/65)… fantastic! The kids and grandkids ate them up and loved the interesting look. I wound up putting the parmigiano on at the end but it mostly fell off. I didn’t find that the instructions indicated when to put it on, or in, the dough. Next time, I’ll plan to include in the warm parsley/garlic mixture. What did you have in mind? Thanks so much!

  12. Hi there, I recently bought your book, The New Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and have been enjoying making my own bread and pizzas. I just wanted to ask about adding cracked grains and seeds to the bread?

    I added about a cupful to my latest dough mix. I have just baked a loaf and it’s very dense and craggy looking. Any advice? I did wonder if I should add it to the original dough, or mix it through in some way just before baking? Or maybe I should have added extra water to the dough?

    Anyway, any advice would be gratefully received! Thanks.

    1. Craggy-looking doesn’t surprise or concern me, and you won’t know how it affected density until you bake off a loaf. So try one. My guess: yes, the seeds absorb some water, and next batch, maybe compensate. Don’t know how much. Or even work in a little water now– but then add a little flour too, to set up a new fermentation so that you don’t lose your rise.

  13. I made the dough for the Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread in Health Bread in 5 on p. 92., although I halved the recipe. When I went to pull the bread out to bake it was so loose, gloopy and sticky that I couldn’t manage to get it out of the storage container. I reviewed the recipe and I think I halved all of the other ingredients but might have added the full amount of water (oops). Can I salvage the dough by adding more flour? If so, how much? Can I make other things besides loaf bread with the dough.

    Thanks. I love your book and the recipes.

    1. You sure can! Just calculate the amount of flour you left out of a full recipe– basically, all the other ingredient amounts divided by two. Then let it rise about two hours and you should be fine.

      You can make pretty much anything in the book with that dough. Except the dessert stuff. It should even make a good pizza, though you may need to turn down the heat or the eggs will burn (but maybe not).

      1. Thanks Jeff! I sort of just guestimated and added flour until it felt manageable (although still looser than some of the other recipes in HB5 like the Whole Wheat and Olive Oil). It came out pretty good. I have two other questions now:

        1) I’ve made several of your recipes in HBi5 and I don’t seem to get any oven spring at all. In fact, when I was making bread the old-fashioned way, I didn’t get very much oven spring either. I’m wondering if it’s because I keep my flour in the fridge? I used to keep it out but stopped baking as much and didn’t want it to turn so started keeping it in the fridge. Would that effect anything? Any other suggestions?

        2) I’m getting a slight bitter after-taste in the bread. Do you know what might be causing that?

        Thanks. I really love the book and love making homemade bread.

      2. I can’t imagine that refrigerating the flour’s affecting spring, but you can experiment with keeping it out. When you say “no oven spring,” esp since it’s with all homemade bread, I wonder about oven temp being inadequate, so check temp (at full preheat) with something like https://ow.ly/8CVPU . Is the bread dense? if not, it’s possible that your loaves are just spreading sideways rather than upward. If we think that’s it, we can suggest things…

        Bitter taste may be either 1) whole grain, which is somewhat bitter, or 2) yeast– you can try our low-yeast version, see the FAQs tab above and click on that topic. If it’s whole wheat itself, you can try fresh-ground whole wheat, which some folks say is less better (though I like that flavor). See my post on this at:https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=1165

  14. I am trying to mix up the flour for your gluten free Master Recipe and wondered if I can substitute the sorghum flour with something else. I didn’t find the sorghum flour at the store.

  15. I have your New healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book. Your Pumpkin Pie Brioche recipe has me confused. It has Lukewarm water amount of 2 cups, and later down the recipe is 1 1/4 cup of lukewarm water. There is also the notation of decreasing the water to 1 cup if omitting vital gluten. Do I use 3 1/4 cups of water if using gluten or when do I use the second amount of water listed?

    1. Sorry about that Penny. Yes, every published cookbook has a few errors that sneak through. We list them on our website, if you click above on About/Corrections/The New Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day (2016). The problem is exactly as you describe; just strike the first water line-item from the list. Correct amount of water is 1 1/4 cups, but you decrease it to 1 cup if you aren’t using vital wheat gluten.

      If you have any of our other books can check those for errors in the same way.

      1. I could not find any suggestions for making a softer crust. I am making rye bread (page 111) hot dog buns and would like a softer crust. Is there any way to do this?

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