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Buns for Hot Dogs or Bratwurst, Baked Outside on the Gas Grill!
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by Jeff, July 26, 2010
Filed Under Recipes, Videos | 22 Comments
The heat wave isn’t nearly as bad in Minnesota as it is in on the East coast, but I can’t say that I’m itching to fire up the oven and bake fresh buns for hot dogs or bratwurst. It’s a cinch to do it on the same grill that you use for your hot dogs or bratwurst, and this video shows you how. Use any lean dough from either of our books, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, or Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. If anything in the video’s unclear, just visit back and post a question into the “Comments” field.
One word of caution: I can’t vouch for the durability of baking stones placed on a gas grill. I haven’t had any trouble with my half-inch thick stone but the thin ones crack at the drop of a hat. My guess is that if you call any stone manufacturer, they will tell you not to do this. None of them warrant stones against cracking (one company did in the past, but they’ve withdrawn that). I haven’t been listening.
This summer, the son of one of our book’s first testers started a bread business and is delivering bread door to door, by bicycle, right here in Minneapolis. Check out Bicycle Bread… They were recently featured in the Southwest Journal and were on TV, on Fox9 News (click here to view).
Another interesting little home-town business is the Gourmet Girls, who are making fresh breads using our books as the recipe resource. Send an e-mail to inquire about homemade artisan bread via local delivery (southern Westchester County, NY).
Click here if you’d like to see the list of past postings on summer grill-breads again… Read more
Breads from Istanbul to Naples!
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by Zoe, July 14, 2010
Filed Under travels | 52 Comments
For the past month I have been traveling with my family in Turkey, Greece and Italy. Our goal was to eat as much bread, pizza, pita, pastries and gelato as we possibly could. We succeeded on all fronts and here is a quick look at some of the breads we devoured on our way.
Istanbul, Turkey. On our first day in Istanbul we were introduced to simit, which is as ubiquitous on the streets there as soft pretzels are in NYC. Not all of the vendors wear them on their heads, but they all have a personal flare to attract attention. Read more
100% Whole Wheat Honey Pita on the Gas Grill (NEW VIDEO)– Michelle Obama’s LetsMove.gov initiative
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by Jeff, July 7, 2010
Filed Under HBin5, Recipes, Videos | 35 Comments
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
How this whole adventure started and what we’re up to now!
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by Jeff, June 17, 2010
Filed Under press | 42 Comments
… it all started with a question for Lynne Rossetto Kasper on The Splendid Table NPR radio show, on April 4, 2000 (see video below).
But first a bit of news that’s more important than how we started writing books (a publisher heard this call-in interview and made a book offer): Zoe and I are well underway in writing our third book, tentatively titled Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day, and we have an interim deadline on July 5… so this is crunch time, and we probably won’t have time to answer many questions here on the website. So please be patient… if you post a question, it may not appear immediately, and the same is true of our answers, but as always we will get to them. The most immediate source for answers to your questions is often the FAQs page (click the tab above).
In the meantime, some summer breads you can do right on the gas grill:
Grilled pizza: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=237
Pumpernickel done on the grill: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=245
Rustic fruit tart on the gas grill: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=267
Brioche on a grill: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=294
Bread on a Coleman stove while camping: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=318
Kohlrabi Greens Pizza right on the grates: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=846
Fruit pizza on the grill baked with the stone: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=248
Grilled flatbread, workhorse summer bread: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=768
OK… this video is really mainly an audio recording… we can’t vouch for this as a way of getting a cookbook idea noticed– it was a bit of dumb luck:
Announcing winners of the King Arthur gluten-free ingredients, and NEW VIDEO on how to roll fruit and butter into lean dough
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by Jeff, June 10, 2010
Filed Under Videos | 22 Comments
In case you have one of our lean doughs in the fridge (no enrichment or sweetener), but you want to bake up a morning bread or other sweet buttery thing, hope is not lost. I started with our basic light whole wheat recipe, and rolled some delicious things into it. More on that in a second, but first, these winners of last week’s King Arthur Flour Giveaway were notified by e-mail.
The Ancient Grains Gluten-Free Flour Blend: Lisa, Ephraim, Nora (the first one in the Comments), Jenny, and Chris (again, the first Chris).
Gluten-Free Flour Blend: Marie, Lori, Kate, Karen, Brie
I’ll need to hear from you with a snail-mail by 6/15 in order to claim the prize. If there’s any doubt about people with the same first names that we didn’t catch– if you didn’t get an e-mail, you didn’t win a prize.
More about rolling in the fruit, brown sugar, and butter… Read more
I posted a comment to this site but it hasn’t appeared. What happened?
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by Jeff, June 1, 2010
Filed Under FAQs | 11 Comments
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:
- 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, we’re not likely to approve website addresses (URLs) in this situation.
- Health claims: The science behind health claims made by products is often murky and controversial. We’re happy to answer questions about the health of ingredients or techniques in our books (or in other publications), but please don’t make complex health claims here on the website.
- Offensive or rude remarks: Usual manners apply! (Thank you)
- 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 in a day or more and you met the guidelines above, please “comment” again.
Gluten-Free Baguettes (Egg-Free!) ~ WINNERS SELECTED for King Arthur Gluten-Free Flour Giveaway!, CONTEST IS CLOSED
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by Zoe, June 1, 2010
Filed Under Gluten-free | 331 Comments
The flour company I know and trust the most has come out with a gluten-free line of products. King Arthur Flour now has mixes for brownies (which my family love), cakes, muffins and other quick and tasty treats. They also have many of the ingredients to make the breads from our gluten-free chapter in HBin5. I made these baguettes with the ancient grains and multi-purpose flour blends, both certified gluten-free. I love the ancient grains, which is a combination of amaranth, millet, sorghum and quinoa. It lends a whole grain flavor and look to the loaf, not to mention all the iron and fiber.
Many of you who are baking the gluten-free breads from our book have asked about making the dough without eggs. I had heard that using ground flax as a replacer was an option, but honestly I doubted it would work. Well, I am happy to report that I was wrong. I’m not sure yet about the science behind this substitution, but it works and provides a wonderful alternatives for those with egg sensitivities.
After testing the breads and loving the results I asked King Arthur if they would be willing to share some of these products with you. They have gladly agreed to send out 5 boxes each of the Ancient Grains and Multi-Purpose flours. See below for more details about the King Arthur Flour Giveaway: Read more
Cast iron pot-baked peasant loaf: outside, on the grill! NEW VIDEO
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by Jeff, May 25, 2010
Filed Under Videos | 58 Comments
It’s basically summer, even here in Minnesota, and I’m baking loaves outside on the grill already. Last summer, we did a lot of grilled flatbreads (and there’ll be more to come), but a few days ago I baked a peasant loaf in a closed cast iron pot, right on the gas grill. We’ve had lots to say about baking in a closed vessel, which works great indoors. Well, it works great outdoors too. Use any lean dough you like; try our regular white recipe, from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, or the whole-grain version, from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. After you view the video, come see the finished product (picture at the end of this post).
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):
Stay in touch with us on:
… our YouTube Channel: www.YouTube.com/user/BreadIn5
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/ArtisanBreadIn5
… or on Facebook (click here)
Underbaked! My loaf didn’t bake through to the center. What am I doing wrong?
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by Jeff, May 17, 2010
Filed Under bread questions | 75 Comments
When we talk with people with a loaf-center that won’t bake through, it’s almost always one of these explanations:
- The oven temperature is off: Usually it’s running too hot, and the outside looks brown before the center is baked through. But a low oven temperature can fool you too– you think you’ve baked long enough, but it’s actually running 50 degrees too cool. Home ovens can be off by 50 to 75 degrees F, so check with an inexpensive oven thermometer like this one: http://bit.ly/czmco2
- Inadequate pre-heat: This is a problem mostly for really large ovens, like some of the professional-line models out there that are now being marketed for home use. You may need up to an hour of pre-heating with large ovens.
- Mistakenly using bleached flour: Where white flour is called for, our recipes use unbleached, not bleached flour. If you use bleached, it doesn’t absorb enough water and the dough will be too wet, resulting in a center that doesn’t bake through. Check the label carefully.
- Measuring flour volume incorrectly: The most common mistake is that someone isn’t measuring the way we describe in our books. We use the standard scoop-and-sweep method. See our video on this for proper technique. Do not spoon the flour into the measuring cup before sweeping– if you do, the cup will be too-lightly filled, and the dough will be too wet, leaving you with a center that won’t bake through. Consider weighing flour if you want to get away from the uncertainty of volume measurement, see the post…
If you’re really struggling with underbaking, you can try an instant-read thermometer. For lean breads (no eggs), the temperature at the center of the loaf should be 205 to 210 degrees F (96 to 99 degrees Celsius). For egg-enriched doughs, the temperature should be about 185 degrees F (85 degrees Celsius).
One other thing– thanks for a great review of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day on Mary Hunt’s EverydayCheapskate.com, click to view.
Left the dough on the counter overnight! Can I still use it?
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by Jeff, May 6, 2010
Filed Under FAQs | 12 Comments
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). Occasionally, we’ll forget about a batch and leave it out overnight. We’ve found that this has little effect on the final result, maybe just shortens the batch life by a day or two.
So don’t throw out that good dough if you forget about it overnight!
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