...to fill a kitchen with warmth, eager appetites, and endless praise for the baker who took on such a time consuming task. Now, you can fill your kitchen with the irresistible aromas of a French bakery every day with just five minutes of active preparation time, and ARTISAN BREAD IN FIVE MINUTES A DAY: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking, will show you how.
Buy ARTISAN BREAD IN FIVE MINUTES A DAY at these retailers and independent bookstores nationwide.
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Brioche à Tête on Mother’s Day!
by Zoe, May 8, 2008
Filed Under Special techniques | 2 Comments
This is a fabulously simple bread to make, and incredibly quick if you have a bucket of Brioche dough on hand. You can bake the bread in a loaf pan but for the Brioche à tête (tête means head) you really want to have the traditional fluted pan. It will be wonderful served with Lemon Curd (page 228) and jam on Mother’s Day this weekend. Not to mention its shape reminds me of the Venus of Willendorf, the ultimate 25,000 year old symbol of being a mom!
Happy Mother’s Day to all the proud moms!
Now let me show you how to shape the Brioche à tête. Read more
Garlic-parsley roll for one!
by Jeff, May 3, 2008
Filed Under Special techniques | 11 Comments
I’m pretty lucky about lunch. My wife and I both work at home, and most days, we have lunch together. Not yesterday; I was on my own, so there was no need for a whole loaf of bread. I took a cue from Zoe’s mom and made myself a single roll (it’s basically still winter here in Minnesota so it’s not so bad to turn on the oven. I’m afraid I’m not kidding).
I took a peach-sized chunk of four-day old Light Whole Wheat dough (page 74), and stretched it, knotted it, and shaped it a bit (a round lump would have worked well too). It turned out more like a Kaiser roll than I’d intended, and I can’t say it was intentional. More about what I did for shaping in Book #2 (for which we’re busily writing/testing/eating!). But it was the roll’s toppings that made my leftovers special (see the roasted salmon with red onion compote just north of the roll). The topping was simple but it elevated the bread to a different level—nothing more than garlic and parsley sauted in olive-oil, with the whole mixture drizzled over the roll before baking for about 25 minutes at 450 (with steam; see page 30). When there’s a lot of oil or butter in the picture (like here), don’t bake directly on a stone or the fat will smoke– use a greased cookie sheet or silicone pad. After the roll was drizzled, I sprinked a bit of coarse salt all over the roll, which you can see in the picture. Salt can be a pretty photogenic mineral.
Great coverage in “The Week” Magazine, but there was one little problem…
by Jeff, April 27, 2008
Filed Under press | 4 Comments
Our book had great coverage in “The Week” magazine on April 18th (page 30 in the paper version). But their version of our recipe has you throwing in 4 cups of water, rather than the correct 3 cups (see the fine print on the right, above). Please use 3 cups, or you’ll have pancake batter! The correct version of our basic recipe in the book (page 26) is:
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Cornmeal for the pizza peel
And then, you know the drill. Mix with a spoon in a food-safe bucket, let it rise at room temperature for 2 to 5 hours, then into the fridge for two weeks. Tear off chunks, shape, rest, and bake as needed. And you all know you can decrease the yeast (http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=85) and the salt if you like it. Details in the book.
But there it is, pretty much.
Going back on the road in June!
by Jeff, April 19, 2008
Filed Under TV/Radio/News | 23 Comments
Hope to see some of you this summer, we’ll be doing classes on our book and its recipes in Chicago, including the Tribune’s Printer’s Row Event (June 5-June 8), Seattle (June 19-June 22), and San Francisco (June 26-June 29). We hope to have some TV/radio/newspaper exposure as we did in Phoenix and in Atlanta in March (at Fox 5 TV News Atlanta, above).
More details when we know them! To keep track of our up coming classes please visit the Events page on this website.
Calzone for Lunch!
by Zoe, March 27, 2008
Filed Under Recipes | 65 Comments
These days it is a struggle to find something my boys want to bring for school lunch. It has to be easy to eat in the 15 minutes they are given, taste good, not produce a huge mess and make them the envy of their peers! Well, I served a calzone (page 142) for dinner one night and my son announced that this was the perfect food for his lunches. The beauty of it is how versatile it can be. I basically fill it with whatever I have in the refrigerator (once it has been approved by the 3rd grader!) Because it is all wrapped up in the pizza dough I can get away with stuffing it full of things that a sandwich just won’t tolerate. Such as spinach, fresh whole-milk ricotta cheese and homemade meatballs. Read more
Crazy for Fresh Doughnuts!
by Zoe, March 13, 2008
Filed Under Recipes, Special techniques | 31 Comments
This weekend I made a batch of chocolate filled beignets for a dinner party. The next morning the oil was still on the stove, albeit cold and I had brioche dough left in the bucket. My boys were waiting for something to eat and the coffee machine was doing its magic. In as much time as it would have taken me to make oatmeal I whipped together a batch of warm fresh doughnuts. The boys were thrilled and my coffee had the perfect companion! Read more
Baking in Atlanta, and now, Phoenix!
by Zoe, February 28, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized | 16 Comments
OK, next stop, Phoenix Arizona to teach two classes at Les Gourmettes Cooking School (March 10, 6:30 PM, & March 11th, 9:30 AM). We’ll also appear on Channel 3’s “Your Life A to Z” on March 10th, and will be interviewed for an article in the Arizona Republic. Hope to see you all in the sunshine!
Jeff and I are going went to Atlanta to bake. We loved meeting all of you that live in the area! Please check out our Events page to see where we will be over the weekend.
We will check in periodically to answer your questions, but it may take us a while to get back to you!
Thanks, Zoë and Jeff
PS: Zoe and I have become swamped here in Atlanta… lots of fun opportunities to get the word out. But this means that we won’t be able to attend to the blog till Monday. Don’t worry, your questions are all in here, and we’ll post soon. Jeff
Books Available at Costco (at least in MN)
by Zoe, February 25, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments
I was just shopping at the St Louis Park Costco yesterday and found two large stacks of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day mixed in with the cookbooks. I thought I’d let you know because they are selling it for an excellent price! I’m not sure if it is available nationally, yet?
It is also available at a few independent book stores locally: Common Good Books, Cooks of Crocus Hill, Kitchen Window and Magers and Quinn.
How to Form the Pan d’Epi (wheat stalk bread)
by Zoe, February 22, 2008
Filed Under Special techniques, bread questions | 37 Comments
The classic wheat stalk shaped bread is impressive and somewhat intimidating, until you see how easy it is to make. We love the Pan d’Epi not only for its gorgeous appearance but because it is the crustiest loaf there is. All of those cuts and angles leave more surface to crisp in the oven. Something a little more sophisticated to serve with dinner than ordinary rolls but just as easy!
Here’s how it is done: Read more
Q&A MISC. Bread Questions
by Zoe, February 10, 2008
Filed Under bread questions | 287 Comments
Until we can figure out a more sophisticated way to handle your feedback, your praise and your questions, we hope the following series of Q&A posts will help. Our goal is to get a conversation going about a particular topic in one location. Hoping that it will be easier for you to follow and get the information you need to bake gorgeous bread.
If we haven’t started a thread on the subject you are interested in then leave it here and we can create another post!
Thank you so much for all of the conversation. We enjoy it immensely and are learning so much from you all!
Zoë and Jeff
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