… and it’s available for pre-order on Amazon. We are so excited, and it comes on the heels of the Wall Street Journal’s weekend announcement that our first book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, had made the Journal’s best-seller list for the second week in a row. Best-seller lists are not common for books that have been out for four years. Thanks to all of you for helping our work come to fruition this way.
Our pizza book’s official publication date is October 25, 2011, so if you pre-order now, Amazon guarantees that your actual price will reflect the deepest discount they’re offering at the time the book ships (it’s 35% off list price now).
And in case you thought we stop making bread in the summer, think again. Here are some great grilled flatbread and outdoor Dutch oven baking ideas with our doughs– just click on these links:
As a doctor, I’m constantly being asked whether you can eat bread without gaining weight. The evidence suggests that you can maintain a healthy weight by limiting your energy intake, whether your diet’s low-carb, low-fat, or has a balanced limitation of calories. There’s no evidence that limiting calories from carbohydrates (like bread) is better than limiting it in fat or anywhere else. I bake and eat lots of bread, and I don’t gain weight, even though I spend lots of time testing bread recipes for our books and website. There’s some evidence that whole grain breads, like this 100% Whole Wheat Pita with Honey, are a better choice than refined white breads.
So I’ve been following Michelle Obama’s initiative to tackle childhood obesity: LetsMove.gov. I keep hoping she’ll answer my e-mail about getting kids to bake the whole-grain breads for their families. I may have to keep waiting on that one. About this recipe… Read More
In the video above, I’m not entirely clear on baking times. You bake with the lid on the pot for the first two-thirds of baking, then remove it so the top crust can complete its browning for the last third of baking. If the loaf takes 30 minutes, then the first 20 are covered. Play with your grill to get the temperature stabilized around the level called for in our recipe (you need a grill with a thermometer), but be aware that you may need a lower temp than what’s called for– in some gas grills the bottom will scorch at full temp.
If you don’t have a cast-iron pot, you can use any oven-proof lidded vessel, including a cloche, but simple inexpensive things work as well. For cast-iron, you can use an enameled pot as in this post, or simple un-enameled black cast-iron.
If you do go for the Le Creuset enameled cast-iron pans (here’s a two-quart version on Amazon), they’re terrific, but you might need to replace the standard composite lid-knob with this metal one for high-heat baking, on the grill or otherwise. The composite degrades at temperatures above 375F or so, though some seem to say otherwise in the product literature. Check with the company if you’re in doubt.
If you use the 1-quart pan, that’s about exactly right for a 1-pound loaf, and will contain sideways spread. But… larger pans also work beautifully– the pan will be larger than the loaf and won’t contain sideways spread. You’ll see what I mean…
But here’s what the final result looks like (yes I’ve switched pots on you here, this is from a different baking session–the slashing on this loaf was parallel cuts rather than the cross I did in the video):
