Reviewing the Master Recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Artisan Bread | Breadin5

It’s the dead of winter here in Minnesota, and everyone I know is baking again–so it’s time to review the basic recipe from my BreadIn5 books. Back when the cookbooks first came out (2007!), authors didn’t generally put their most important recipe out on a website for free.

I took a different approach.

You can really teach people a new method, and communicate with them in near real-time (about problems they’re having with recipes). That means using this technology to let people sample the method, and comment back. So this is one of my sites most popular posts, and it contains the most important method that really made these books a success–the stored-dough recipe for a round European-style loaf, that tastes better the longer you let the dough age in the fridge (to a point–up to 14 days with this dough, in this post!). Here’s the recipe, from The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

For the Master Recipe…

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Broa (Portuguese corn bread) with Caldeirada de Peixe (Portuguese fish stew)

broa.jpg

I may have made a resolution about not complaining about the weather this year, but too bad!  Greetings from Minnesota, where I’m freezing at my desk, so today’s a soup and bread day.  In the book, we included a Portuguese Corn Bread (Broa) and an accompanying Portuguese Fish Stew (Caldeirada de Peixe) to go with it–it’s a perfect combination.

The Broa dough is simply the Master Recipe, substituting 1 1/2 cups of cornmeal (yellow or white, stone-ground or regular) for 1 1/2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour.  Bake as usual as a round loaf.  In the picture above I used a lightly greased and stove-top pre-heated black cast-iron skillet (my skillet doesn’t come with a cover or I’d have tried that, see this about baking in covered cast-iron).  Amazon carries the Lodge brand (click here to view).   Here’s the Caldierada de Peixe recipe: Read More

Fresh-Picked Strawberry Danish

Strawberry Danish

The secret of great fruit tarts and danishes? Great fruit, of course. If you have great stuff, it’s not all that complicated. Take out some stored dough, and just a little more effort gets you a great dessert. My family and some friends visited Sam Kedem Nursery Garden, near Hastings, Minnesota, where we heard they had perfect strawberries ready for picking (they’re on to raspberries now). So we are well stocked with great strawberries.

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Our interview with ABC-7 News’s Steve Dolinsky in Chicago: the podcast

Hungry  Hound photoWABC-7With Steve Dolinsky after podcast at Floriole

Former Minnesotan Steve Dolinsky left Hopkins to make his fortune in Chicago as ABC-7 News’s “Hungry Hound,” with a great show about food in the Windy City. We’ve been on Channel 7 with Steve before (view segment), but most recently, we did a podcast with him from Floriole Bakery and Cafe in Chicago, back on October 28, right after we launched The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Great bakery, and a great time taping the podcast with Steve. Click here to listen (go to “Artisan Bread Made Easy, Jan 29, 2014”)!

Keep baking bread all summer long–outside!

cover-on-the-grill.jpg

Below, one of my posts from years back, on baking loaf breads on the gas grill in my backyard.  Some folks were having trouble with the bottom scorching and one solution is to crumple a bunch of aluminum foil and put it under the loaf so it insulates under the parchment.  And here, click on the video for a TV appearance where I had a chance to show how to handle the dough for flatbreads on the grill (didn’t actually go outside).

Other summer posts:

Grilled pizza

Grilled flatbread

Baguette on the grill

Pumpernickel done on the grill

Rustic fruit tart on the gas grill

Brioche on a grill

Bread on a Coleman stove while camping

Kohlrabi Greens Pizza right on the grates

Fruit pizza on the grill baked with the stone

Pumpernickel done on the grill

Fourth Of July berry pizza

Even in Minnesota it’s 83 degrees today, so out to the gas grill I went.  Last summer, we did pizzas, and other breads on the gas grill (I like the Weber gas grills for this), but I never tried baking on a gas grill with a closed cast iron pot.  The results are terrific– the crust is much better than last summer’s projects because the Dutch Oven traps steam next to the bread–you don’t have to add any other steam to the baking environment.  But you also need to use a pizza stone under the pot, or it can scorch. Read More

TV spot on Pittsburgh’s CBS affiliate, making “Pain du Football” for Super Bowl Sunday (and eating raw bread dough with host Jon Burnett!)

on-kdka-pittsburgh.jpgIn 2009 I was in Pittsburgh just before SuperBowl (go Steelers!) and mixed up a batch of Master Recipe dough with host Jon Burnett on KDKA-TV Channel 2 (the CBS affiliate).  Pittsburgh was awash in Steelers mania, and I couldn’t resist cutting a loaf of Pain d’Epi (wheat stalk bread) but calling it Pain du Football (page 75 in the book).  I’m bringing this bread to a Super Bowl party because each individual roll is shaped like a football– well, something like a football.  Perfect for dipping into chili in front of the game.  Jon was disappointed that my baked bread was a bit stale (I’d had to bake it in Minneapolis and it was two days stale!) so he insisted on eating the RAW bread dough instead.  Click here or on the video screen above to view the TV segment, this was great fun.

Have a look at this post on Pain d’Epi (wheat stalk bread) for some nice shots of the cutting technique.  Remember to cut at a very shallow angle with long-bladed shears, almost all the way through the baguette you form.

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Zucchini Flatbread with Roasted Tomato and Pine Nuts for the Minneapolis Bread Festival

Sometimes you just don’t know when to leave well enough alone.  This savory flatbread was in Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day (2009), and I was making it tonight as a side dish for a simple baked Coho Salmon with dill.  I’m back on a pizza and flatbread kick again, since our new pizza and flatbread book is coming out in 28 days:

I wanted something to brighten up the flavor and color of all those soft lovely green things—roasted cherry tomatoes did the trick.  The tangy acidity was perfect for cutting the softer flavors of the zucchini, parsley, cheese, and nuts.  The tomatoes weren’t in the original recipe, and neither version has ever appeared on our website before, so here goes.  Plus, I’m going to be doing a demo this Saturday, October 1 at 10:15 am at the Minneapolis Bread Festival, and they’re asking for something like this.  Hope to see you at the festival, but if you can’t make it, give this a try here.  Our pizza book is available for pre-order on Amazon and will ship October 25. Read More

(Thinking about trying to re-create) gorgeous pastries from France, plus, an even better way to do Dutch oven bread on the grill

The pastry above is layered with chocolate pastry cream, flan, and on top, a very whimsical patisserie (pastry shop) in the Marais district in Paris has placed jelly beans, candy blackberries, and a little pile of minced pistachio.  For some reason, I seem to find the need to put a baguette in every picture.

My family and I’ve been home from France for a month but I’m still not exactly “home.”

More photos if you click below; plus new tips on getting a perfect Dutch oven bread on the outdoor gas grill (I’m going to keep refining this).  I’d planned on trying to re-create this pastry—-baking up brioche (on page 300 of the book) , slicing it thinly, and layering it with pastry cream (recipe for the cream on page 348 of the book. But as I said, I always seem to end up with bread… Read More

Our Pizza Book is Available for Pre-Order on Amazon

(Photo courtesy of Mark Luinenburg)

Though the official publication date for Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day is October 25, 2011, you can place an order for our third book on Amazon now (they’re discounting the book 34% as of today).  If you’re only interested in the electronic version, that can’t be pre-ordered; you’ll have to wait until October.  If you do pre-order the bound book, nothing comes off your credit card till the book is shipped in October.  If Amazon decides to discount it further between now and when the book’s first available, they guarantee that your final price will reflect the deeper discount.

I for one would like to see this thing in my hands.  Two years of eating pizza have gone into this book (nice work if you can get it!), and we are terribly excited.  Timing will be perfect for cooler weather (though we do pizza on the grill all summer, more about this in the upcoming months here on the site).

Your Pizza Idea in our Next Book (CONTEST NOW CLOSED, WINNING PIZZA CHOSEN)

photo by Mark Luinenburg

We can’t stop thinking of pizza even though we made deadline for our upcoming pizza and flatbread book (Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day, Macmillan/Th Dunne Bks Oct 2011).  Even though we’re technically done, there’s still time to put a new recipe or two into the book, and you can see that there are a world of ingredients that could end up on pizza other than mozzarella and tomato (though we love that too).

We’d love some help with new recipes.  All we’d need is your concept, as in “how about yak sausage, lemon rind, and Slim Jim on a pizza?”  We’re not looking for full recipes here, but something imaginative, like Zoe’s pizza with a fresh cracked egg and an assortment of Tuscan goodies:


The winning concept entry will be selected by a jury (Zoe, me, and our editor at Thomas Dunne Books), will win a copy of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and have their concept published in our pizza book this October (see “Betsy’s Seeded Oat Bread” in Healthy Bread -first names only in the book).  See rules for our contests, the most important being US entries only.  In addition, for this contest, the Authors reserve the right to decline to publish any recipe in the upcoming book if none meets with the jury’s approval.  Also, the winning entrant agrees to grant all copyright for the winning entry to Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.  Five random entrants will also receive a free copy of Healthy Bread in Five. Contest CLOSED!

Be imaginative– it doesn’t have to be a main course, so even desserts are fair game.  And remember that many of the ingredients and ideas you might think of are already in our almost-finished manuscript, so being creative increases your chance of selection.  Entries are due anytime before January 19, 2011. Contest CLOSED!