Category: FAQs

Fresh Bread made with Older Dough

BreadIn5 36 Comments

Old dough boule | Breadin5 04

You may open a bucket of dough that’s been untouched for several days or more and find it’s gray, leathery and has some liquid on it (pictures below), with a strong “sourdough” smell to it, since it had been fermenting for a very long time. For those of us who like that kind of character in our bread, it’s great. The best thing to do with this older dough is to incorporate it into a new batch. It jump starts the flavor in your new dough, without having to wait days for the fermentation. It is like having a sourdough starter, that you never had to feed.

Old dough boule | Breadin5 07 Read More

Corrections to first printings of The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (2013)

jeff 131 Comments

These errors snuck through in the first printings of The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day–the important problems were with the gluten-free recipes:

Page 83, Crock Pot Bread, Step 1:  Add the words “Place it on a sheet of parchment paper.”

Page 176, footnote under Ingredients: Remove “can substitute white whole wheat.” That won’t work well in this recipe.

Page 224, Step 4 in Spinach and Cheese Calzone: Should call for an orange-size piece, not grapefruit-size.

Page 268, Ingredients list for Gluten-Free Master Recipe: The metric weight of brown rice flour should read 155 grams, not 160.

Pages 268 and 275, Ingredients lists for Gluten-Free Master Recipe and Gluten-Free Challah doughs: Early editions of the book omitted sorghum flour, which is essential here. If your copy of the book doesn’t call for sorghum flour in those recipes, add 1 1/4 cups (5 1/2 ounces / 155 grams) of Sorghum flour to the Ingredients lists. If your copy calls for sorghum, don’t make any changes, except… on page 268, note that the correct gram-equivalent for brown rice flour is 155 grams, not 160 grams (it’s not a major difference in the result).

Page 272 (Gluten-Free Whole-Grain Seeded Bread): The metric weight of brown rice flour should read 310 grams, not 280.

Page 286 (Gluten-Free Sweet Brioche): note new quantities for rice flour and tapioca, and the addition of cornstarch. The Ingredients list should be changed as follows:

White rice flour: 1 1/2 cups (8 1/2 ounces / 240 grams)

Tapioca flour: 1 cup (5 ounces / 140 grams)

Cornstarch (new ingredient): 4 cups (22 ounces / 625 grams); add it in Step 1, page 287

Use only melted butter in this recipe, not oil (omit oil from ingredients list)

Page 325, Step 9 (Soft American-Style White Bread): Increase baking time to 60 minutes.

Larger loaves, or multiple loaves: How to adjust?

jeff 92 Comments

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Larger loaves: In my books, the standard size for a loaf-bread is 1 pound (450 grams), or a piece of dough about the size of a grapefruit.  Why opt for these relatively small loaves?  Because for beginners, they reliably brown without burning, and are easy to bake through to a nice result in the center of the loaf. At that size, the baking time is usually about 30 to 35 minutes.

Larger loaves need more baking to avoid a gummy result in the center, and that means longer baking times at the listed temperature.

  • Two pound loaves need about 45-50 minutes
  • Three pound loaves need about an hour. 

Let the crust get nice and dark, but keep an eye on the loaves as they bake–your own oven may not require this much extra time, or it may require more.  When baking large loaves, temperature is critical, so you must check your oven temp with an oven thermometer (click to see one on Amazon). 

Multiple loaves: In larger ovens, there may not be much extra time needed, but in smaller ones (or if baking without a stone), you may need to increase baking time by 10% to 20%. If the recipe calls for steam, you don’t have to increase the amount of water you use.

More in The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and my other books. Note: BreadIn5.com is reader supported.

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

Freezing the Dough: Can I do it?

jeff 63 Comments

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Yes, you can, just wrap it very well or seal it in airtight containers, anytime after the initial rise. Defrost overnight in the fridge when ready to use, then shape, rest, and bake as usual.  How long to freeze is a bit controversial — our dough loses a bit of rising power over time in the freezer, and that’s especially true for enriched doughs like challah and brioche.  Our testers were happy with lean dough frozen for four weeks (dough made without eggs, butter, or oil). For enriched doughs, we’d recommend shorter frozen storage times: challah, three weeks, and for brioche, two weeks. There’s no need to increase the yeast or make any other changes to dough that will be frozen.

This can be very handy when you don’t use up the entire batch before it reaches the end of its storage life in the refrigerator.

Same recommendations for our gluten-free doughs…

More in The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and our other books.

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Three Ways To Get Steam Into Your Oven For a Great Crust: VIDEO

jeff 165 Comments

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In Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, we talked about a way to get steam into the oven to create a great, crispy, caramelized crust on lean (un-enriched) loaves:  pouring water into a pre-heated METAL (not glass) broiler tray or other pan just before you close the oven door.  To be extra-safe about your glass oven window, protect it from the water with a towel before you pour the water; remove the towel before closing the oven door. Some older non-tempered glass windows can crack if you get water on them when they’re hot.  This metal-tray method works well in most ovens.

But some ovens are a bit temperamental about this.  Really large ovens, or really well-vented ones, and in many cases, professional-quality ovens installed in homes, seem to let the steam escape and you end up with a dull, pale-colored crust that never gets crisp.  We’ve got a video of some excellent alternatives… Read More

I posted a comment to this site but it hasn’t appeared. What happened?

jeff 505 Comments

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If you don’t find the answer to your bread questions on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) tab, we encourage you to post into any of our “Comments” fields by clicking on the line that says “Leave a Comment” or “X Comments” just under the date of each post.

But please remember, our blog/website is moderated.  That means that your comment doesn’t appear on our website until it has been approved, especially if you’ve never posted to our site before.  That could take up to 24 hours.  Here are some guidelines for comments that we are not willing to approve for our site:

  1. References to commercial sites or endorsements for products, especially if the Authors haven’t used or otherwise can’t vouch for the product.  In particular, our webmaster has asked that we not have visitors put website addresses (URLs) into our site, so we take those down. The converse is also true– if you say that you dislike a product, we may remove or edit your comment unless we’ve had the same experience with it.
  2. Website URLs: Please don’t direct people to your own site. We reserve the right to remove any URL from comments.
  3. Health claims: The science behind health claims made by products and about ingredients is often murky and controversial.  We’re happy to answer questions about the health of ingredients or techniques in our books,  but please don’t make complex health claims here on the website–in particular, claims about weight loss or disease prevention/control related to food ingredients. Like product endorsements, we’re likely to remove those kinds of comments.
  4. Incorrect material: If you post instructions or tips about baking that we know are wrong or won’t work well with our method, we reserve the right to take them down or not approve them in the first place. Our site serves as an information source for bakers and we have to be careful about recommendations that appear.
  5. Offensive or rude remarks: Usual manners apply!  (Thank you)
  6. Pingbacks: Please don’t set up your own blog to insert Pingbacks into our site.

Pretty much everything else is fair game.  One other thing— very rarely, we simply miss someone’s comment.  It’s just an oversight; if we haven’t answered you within 48 hours and you met the guidelines above, please “comment” again.

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Left the dough on the counter overnight! Can I still use it?

jeff 218 Comments

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After mixing the dough, our recipes only require two hours at room temperature for their initial rise (assuming you’ve used lukewarm water); then the container goes into the refrigerator where it can be stored for up to two weeks (depending on the recipe). According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the answer to this question depends on whether or not there were eggs in the recipe. Their website says that eggs should be refrigerated after two hours at room temperature (see their website, scroll down to relevant section).

For our doughs without eggs, when we’ve occasionally forgotten a batch and left it on the counter overnight, we’ve found that this has little effect on the final result, maybe just shortens the batch life by a day or two. If you find that you aren’t getting enough rise in two hours for non-egg dough rising at room temperature, you can go longer.

So, what would USDA recommend if you’re doing a long rise with dough containing eggs? Sounds like the first two hours are safe at room temperature, then into the refrigerator to complete the rising. We leave it to our readers to decide about how to handle egg doughs in light of USDA’s recommendation.

More in The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and our other books.

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Traditional recipes: How can they be converted to the ABin5 method?

jeff 104 Comments

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People sometimes ask us for simple formulas for converting traditional bread recipes to our stored-dough method.  Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer to the question.  Developing recipes for our books takes lots (and lots) of trial and error.

If we put our our testing methods and approaches up here on the web, our publisher would kill us!  If you want to try to convert a traditional recipe to our high-moisture, stored-dough method, read through our books or check out our recipes here on the website to get a sense of the moisture level that’s needed, then check out the rest of the FAQs here on the website.  Pay attention to our “videos” tab as well.  It may take a bit of work, but you should be able to transform your existing repertoire.

Happy experimenting! More details on our method in The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and our other books.

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Stone just broke! What did I do wrong?

jeff 105 Comments

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Short answer:  Nothing.  I’ve found that stones do not last forever, though my first one lasted through 11 years of daily baking. It seems clear that the 1/2-inch thick ones are very durable, and and some brands (not all) of the 1/4-inch thick stones are less so.

Incidentally, you can often use the broken pieces of the stone, depending on the size and shape of the fragments.

Alternatives to these ceramic stones include the newer cast-iron pizza “stones,” or even just a cast-iron skillet, which I’ve found work quite nicely.  Or try a Dutch Oven or a baking cloche, though our best guess is that cloches, being ceramic, are eventually going to break like the stones.  Iron, definitely not–these should never have a problem with cracking.

For a review of stones, click here. More in The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and my other books.

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Can I use your recipes on my website, in my class, or in a publication?

jeff 131 Comments

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I love it when food-lovers talk about my books or website content on their own websites, in classes they teach, or in publications.  I get lots of questions from them about whether they can use these recipes or other material.  The answer is a little complicated.  I can’t extend written permission to copy recipes, text, or even Q&A material from my books or website.  That would be seen as waiving my copyright, which my publisher tells me I can’t do.  But, the recipes can be used, in modified form.  Here’s how my publisher and I understand copyright law, and this is what we’d ask you to do if you want to teach your own readers my recipes:

1.  Copyright law prohibits you from using text from the books or website without expressed written permission (which my publisher, Macmillan, has advised against).  It also prohibits you from copying recipes or Q&A into your website, class materials, printed books, magazines, electronic books, or elsewhere.

2.  My first choice is that you only use your own photos, that you’ve taken of my breads. Then, refer people here to my website or to our books in order to get the recipes. That said, copyright law allows you to use modified versions of my written recipes. This applies to websites and to printed materials.

3.  Photographs from the books and on this website are copyrighted and cannot be used without expressed permission. To arrange special permission in specific circumstances, please contact us through this website.

4.  Please mention my books and website (BreadIn5.com) as sources for the full and original versions of the recipes.

Thanks for your enthusiasm!

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