Mary Hunt blogs at EveryDayCheapskate.com, and she’s put up a marvelous review of “The New Artisan Bread…” When you visit, scroll down and you’ll see the holiday gift basket she’s put together, plus some very kind words:
“I may as well be president of the Artisan-In-Five fan club. for how this book and its method changed my life…”
Mary Hunt, EveryDayCheapskate.com
Thanks Mary!
This week is the one time a year when we purposefully make our food look creepy. Halloween is great fun for the kids, but we adults love to play with our food too, and its great fun to watch people squirm just a bit. Even though these breadsticks are ghoulish, they are crunchy and delicious as well. Stick a few in the lunch box to give your kids a little Halloween thrill at school. Read More
This started out as a dessert post, but then I looked out the window, and it’s October in Minnesota, and fresh berries from the U-pick farm are long over with. My family needs something warming tonight, so I dropped my almond cream and raspberry idea, and jogged to the store for spinach and feta to go with the pine nuts I already had in the house. Not only is this thing delicious, but I stashed gobs of spinach into it and it was super kid-friendly anyway. Read More
It is coming up on baking season and we want to get you all ready and in the mood. As you may have heard, we did a Craftsy video series that shows all the tips and techniques for creating our favorite breads. The class is based on our Master recipe from The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, but the course is helpful for baking any breads and pizzas from all of our books.
As a big THANK YOU to our Breadin5 community, we’re giving away our Craftsy Artisan Bread in Minutes class to a random winner. All you have to do is click on the link below to enter. Good luck and enjoy the class. Read More
Slashing your dough properly creates a beautiful loaf of bread, but can also help it rise in the oven. If your slashes are not deep enough, the dough may tear open on the top or bottom of the loaf. Leaving you with bread that tastes delicious, but doesn’t live up to its artistic potential. The loaf can also end up being a touch dense if you don’t slash deep enough, because it won’t open up and make way for a dramatic oven spring. So, for the most beautiful crust and best interior crumb, you’ll want to follow these few tricks for slashing. Read More
Even as an adult, peanut butter and jelly is still a favorite combination. A few times a year I’ll still make a ‘pb & j’ with the kids for lunch, enjoying some junior high nostalgia along with a glass of milk and a handful of potato chips. I decided maybe it was time to class peanut butter up a bit, by turning it into an almost-brioche loaf that is perfect for toasting, or a sandwich bread with extra peanut butter power. Peanut butter swirl buns are also a good idea, and I think French toast might have to be next on my to-do list. Read More
Last weekend I lived the ultimate bread bakers’ dream. Thanks to my friends at Red Star Yeast I travelled to the heart of wheat country in Kansas and had the great honor of judging the National Festival of Breads baking contest. The contestants submitted their recipes and were chosen from hundreds of bread bakers from across the country. Eight women came to Manhattan, KS and baked in a theatre-style kitchen in front of about 1,500 bread lovers. They deserve a prize for that alone. The breads were all amazing, but one by Lisa Keys of Good Grief Cooks was the one that stood out to all the judges. Her Smokehouse Cranberry Cheese Bread had a combination of flavors, texture and beauty made this the clear winner. You can read all about the contest (you should consider entering for the next one), the contestants and their winning recipes at the National Festival of Breads.
Another absolutely gorgeous loaf that was baked for us was a chocolate swirl bread. I’ve recreated that idea with our Whole Wheat Brioche dough and a swirl of Nutella. It is healthy and decadent all at the same time and it’s baked in a crock-pot. I turned to my crock-pot when I turned on the AC for the first time yesterday and I really didn’t want to heat up the kitchen by cranking up the oven. The crock-pot is ideal for this Nutella swirl bread, since it fits the shape and we want a soft crust. The result was perfect.
From Portland, Maine on June 10, 2015. Click on the image above, or here to view the whole review:
“This method removes so many steps from the usual bread-baking process that homemade gluten-free bread every day is not only possible, it’s easy.”
Today is National Doughnut Day! Well, actually it appears there are several ‘National Doughnut Days’ in our country. But, it’s completely understandable that many people want to celebrate doughnuts as often as they can. I’ve decided to go all out today, and bring you an amazingly delicious yet slightly ridiculous doughnut: a s’mores doughnut. This beauty is made from brioche dough, glazed in chocolate, coated in graham cracker crumbs, and then smothered in toasted meringue. Each bite will leave you with a marshmallow mustache and sticky hands, but I promise it’s worth it.
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.
