Elle said...
December 8, 2008 at 11:43 am

That. Is. Gorgeous! And you’re right, it looks so simple! I’ll be baking my first loaf of your bread tonight, and I cannot wait to taste it!

Adrienne said...
December 8, 2008 at 1:42 pm

Oh man, it’s like a circle of pain d’epi! I made an entire batch of epi (4!) for Thanksgiving, it was a huge hit – maybe I’ll make it in a circle for Christmas

Deborah Mele said...
December 8, 2008 at 3:21 pm

Well, I know what my next bread is going to look like! It is gorgeous and you make it look so easy!

Elizabeth F. said...
December 8, 2008 at 7:54 pm

This is amazing – by far my favorite Christmas recipe I have seen yet!

Stefan Bert said...
December 8, 2008 at 8:03 pm

Susan says I should bake TWO for Christmas! I will,
best,
Stefan

PJ said...
December 8, 2008 at 9:14 pm

I’ve tried baking with parchment paper but 2 things happen to me 1) it burns/smokesalot and 2) somehow the moisture in the bread makes the paper adhere to the bread permenantly. It’s been disasterous- an thoughts?

Celene said...
December 8, 2008 at 10:09 pm

Zoe, your tricks of the trade are priceless, matched only by your willingness to share them with us and show us how to create something impressive with an easy technique. I *love* learning new spins on your breads, especially those which are merely a change in form. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

zoe said...
December 8, 2008 at 10:35 pm

Thank you all for the wonderful notes! I’m so glad you are excited about the wreath, it is so much fun to make and is a lovely crusty loaf!

Cheers! Zoë

zoe said...
December 8, 2008 at 10:38 pm

Hi PJ,

I think it is the type of parchment that you are using. It must have some kind of a coating on it. Make sure that it isn’t wax paper, which is an entirely different beast. I have tried using the “parchment” rounds that I buy at cake supply stores and it does the same thing that you are describing. I’m certain that parchment is coated with something, but I’m not sure what???

Try another brand, once you get a good one you will love it!

Thanks, Zoë

gaga said...
December 8, 2008 at 11:17 pm

What a gorgeous loaf of bread. So festive, I love it! What a great idea.

Veggie Wedgie said...
December 9, 2008 at 4:25 am

That is so beautiful and smart!I want to try it now!

Kelly said...
December 9, 2008 at 6:26 am

Gorgeous! I think this might be going in my Christmas baskets for the neighbors. So festive.

jeff said...
December 9, 2008 at 8:00 am

Most of the parchments that I’ve used are treated with silicone and those don’t stick.

Happy Cook said...
December 9, 2008 at 8:58 am

I have the bbook, but i love that you have showed like this in the blog.
Looks so beautiful.

Sylvie said...
December 9, 2008 at 9:54 am

These are so beautiful that I had to try them myself straight away. They are as simple to make as you promise and look so wonderful. I have posted on my blog about them and I hope you don’t mind, as I linked to you from my post.

Barb said...
December 9, 2008 at 11:51 am

Your book is on my gift giving list AND for those in my circle who receive a card from us are also receiving a newsletter with news of your amazing book, recipes etc along with the internet links!

I will be making your wreaths for the potluck lunch at our school next week.

Thank you so much for your generous share of techniques etc. You are both so kind!

warda said...
December 9, 2008 at 5:20 pm

it look very beautiful.can you please send me the recipe f the dough. thank you

Olga said...
December 9, 2008 at 5:47 pm

This looks beautiful! I bet people are going to spend hours trying to figure out how you made this bread.

Thip said...
December 9, 2008 at 7:11 pm

Beautiful!

PJ said...
December 9, 2008 at 7:35 pm

Thanks Zoe and Jeff- I will try another brand and be mindful to look for a silicone treated one. I SO appreciate your book and the bread- as does my wife!

Susan said...
December 9, 2008 at 8:04 pm

What a wonderful idea and this will certainly grace my holiday table. Thank you!

Flo Makanai said...
December 11, 2008 at 1:44 pm

Magnifique, bravo!

Glaucia said...
December 12, 2008 at 2:59 pm

wow! this bread looks amazing, and given my recent fanatics with no-knead bread, I think I’m just gearing up for a challenge like this. But I have a question… is granulated yeast the same thing as the breadmachine yeast by fleishmann’s? That’s what I have for the no-knead bread, and before I wasted a bunch of flour, I want to make sure…
Thanks, and I can’t wait to read and bake some of your recipes…

zoe said...
December 12, 2008 at 3:35 pm

Thank you all for the lovely notes! I’m so glad you are enjoying all the bread you are baking!

Zoë

zoe said...
December 12, 2008 at 3:37 pm

Hi Glaucia,

Thank you for stopping by! Yes, you can use your bread machine yeast. We have found that it doesn’t really make a difference what kind of yeast you use in our dough, they are work equally well!

Enjoy!

Zoë

Janet said...
December 13, 2008 at 9:50 am

I recently tried the Master Boule Loaf recipe that I found in a magazine and loved it! I just ordered the book and I am so excited about it. What you have done is amazing! Thank you!!

Glaucia said...
December 13, 2008 at 9:59 am

hey zoe

I just tried the bread and it was great. I made the dough late last night, and made bread this morning. There’s just nothing better than fresh bread in the morning.
It didn’t rise much, but I think I handled it too much and deflated the gasses. But I think I know what to do different next. I hope I get the book for Christmas; if not, I will go and by one the day after! Thanks for sharing your knowledge so freely.

zoe said...
December 13, 2008 at 11:05 am

Hi Janet and Glaucia,

Thank you so much! Enjoy all the bread!

Zoë

Amy K said...
December 14, 2008 at 7:28 am

Wow! I made this for breakfast yesterday from 8 day old master recipe and we (two of us!) ate the whole thing!! Crusty rolls with butter and preserves – I was in bread nirvana. It was perfection. I have had your book for about a month and bake fresh bread 3 or 4 times a week. I am giving several books as holiday gifts.

Mary Timme said...
December 14, 2008 at 9:11 am

Am making my first loaf today and looking forward to seeing what happens with it at nearly 6,500 ft. altitude. We are almost 0 degrees today so turkey vegetable soup with crusty bread sound great to me.

zoe said...
December 14, 2008 at 10:00 am

Thank you Amy!!!

Hi Mary,

Please let us know how it comes out. If you haven’t already looked at our high altitude baking post, you may want to see this:
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=144

Enjoy! Zoë

Susan Marsh said...
December 14, 2008 at 6:17 pm

That is just gorgeous. I have been using the basic recipe for communion bread – I think I’ll use this as a decoration as well as eating it…

Cindy said...
December 14, 2008 at 8:11 pm

My dough has been getting weepy after just a few days. I haven’t changed the way I’m doing anything. Any ideas?

jeff said...
December 15, 2008 at 8:06 am

Weepy isn’t a big deal. I can’t say why it’s suddenly different, but the bread should turn out fine. If it’s too loose you can work in a little flour after pouring off the fluid, which is often dark-colored but does not signify mold (then let it sit at room temp for a couple of hours).

But you don’t need to do that if the dough is basically still about the same consistency, except with a little fluid collecting on top. Jeff

Darryl said...
December 15, 2008 at 2:46 pm

My wife was watching KARE 11 and thought while Zoe was talking about the Master dough and producing the Holiday Wreathe Bread, that eggs/egg were put in it and that was the thing that limited it’s refridgerator life to 2 weeks. I haven’t been able to find any reference to such an ingredient. Did she not hear or see correctly? Thanks – Darryl

jeff said...
December 16, 2008 at 4:51 am

Darryl: There are no eggs in the Master Dough; that’s why it stores for up to 14 days. Enriched recipes in our book (ones with eggs) should only be refrigerated for 5 days. Then they go into the freezer. You could make a wreath bread out of enriched dough too, that’s probably what got confusing. Jeff

Barb said...
December 17, 2008 at 6:45 pm

So ironic you should be talking about the wreaths for I have been experimenting with them myself! I have a luncheon tomorrow so I added raisins and nutmeg to the enriched Brioche dough recipe (which is totally worth buying the book for alone!!!)

I made the wreaths small, snipped them the way you have done to the one above. It is SO simple and pretty. After I baked these little beauties I drizzled them with icing made with icing sugar and vanilla yogurt and then decorated them with orange flavored cranberries and pumpkin seeds to look festive. Another little drizzle of icing helps hold them on.

You can see a photo of them (with your book behind of COURSE) here on my flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25623482@N00/3116469593/?addedcomment=1#comment72157611377393820

Suzanne said...
December 18, 2008 at 3:12 pm

I found your original recipe in the Mother Earth News magazine and had to try it right-away. One week later I owned your book and today there are two doughs sitting pretty in my fridge. I have made some awesome bread and am getting more and more adventurous with the dough. I just bought a plain plastic container/bucket at the store and punched a hole in the top so I can use it for the dough. I have a hard time finding a bucket big enough for when I double the recipe (I’d love to double it so I can let it sit for longer and have it get even better). last time I used a HUGE bowl and covered it with my non-sealing kitchen aid lid – about a fourth of the dough ended up on my kitchen counter — ooops…
I’ll keep trying!
I also stood in my kitchen and figured out how much one cup of flour weighs and all that – I find it easier to just scoop out flour into my bucket that is sitting on top of my scale (my scale shows grams and works with any bowl and I can set it back to zero after I add an ingredient)I just add the water to my bucket and then set my scale to zero, add the yeast, hit zero, add the salt, hit zero, and then the flour — from the containers straight to the bucket – sooo easy. It makes less of a mess and I have the dough ready now within less then 10 minutes!
Just wanted to let you know that I love all the recipes that I have tried so far. THANK YOU for making baking bread so easy for the rest of us!

Diana Kinkor said...
December 18, 2008 at 4:13 pm

I heard you talk with FM107.1 radio talk show host Stephanie Hansen. After hearing the discussion, I had to go out and buy the book. I love artisan bread, and was so afraid that it would be hard, that I never tried it. Your recipe & book is priceless. I have made the first 4 loaves, in less than a week. My 12 yr old picky eater chows thru the bread like a machine. My husband loves it and so did my co-workers. Just fantastic. Bravo..Bravo!!!

jeff said...
December 18, 2008 at 6:02 pm

Suzanne: Yes, we use weights too.. see my post on that http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=392. Thanks for your enthusiasm. I’m so glad we were serialized in Mother Earth, that’s been very good for our little project. Check in with us anytime you have a question.

Diana: Thanks so much, we enjoy being on Stephanie’s show (we were her first-ever guests last year). Come back anytime you have questions, and look for our second book, focusing on whole grains, in 12/09. Jeff

Theresa said...
December 21, 2008 at 6:10 am

I originally checked your book out from the library and after renewing it as many times as allowed (9 weeks) I went out and bought myself a copy and 8 more for Christmas gifts! I can’t tell you how much my family and I LOVE your recipes! We’re in the middle of making the holiday wreath bread for each of our neighbors. They are turning out great, but I’m curious what diameter to which you stretch your ring.

jeff said...
December 21, 2008 at 7:21 am

Theresa: Thank you so much!

With ring breads and bagels, the important thing is to stretch the hole so that it’s diameter is about three or four times the width of the dough in the “rim.” Otherwise the hole closes up. When I stretch 1 pound of dough into a ring, it gets to be about 10 inches in diameter. Jeff

glaucia said...
December 21, 2008 at 4:03 pm

Hey guys

This is the third time I’ve written on this entry.
Here’s a new question…
Would using bread flour affect the results?
I made my first master recipe last week. Over the course of a week, I made four loaves and they were great. The only thing is, they barely rose. They were like a tiny loaf that my family of four got all of a slice each, and maybe there was one slice to spare. I used bread flour, and I’m wondering if that’s the culprit. I am a recent baker, and have become a fan of the no-knead bread, and based on all the reading I did through out your site, I understand and have tried to handle the bread as little as possible, but that doesn’t seem to have changed the results.
I want to make the wreath for Christmas, but being as I will have more people here, if all I get is a tiny loaf, I don’t think that will work. For the wreath pictured, did you use just the grapefruit sized ball of flour? And if I handle that, to shape it, won’t the same problems arise.
I have just put your book on hold at my local library while I wait to see if I get one for Christmas… Any suggestions will be awesome! I’m so excited at having fresh bread whenever!!!!

jeff said...
December 21, 2008 at 8:37 pm

Glaucia: Bread flour would make it a little drier but shouldn’t have harmed the rise. I think you’re just finding the 1-pound loaves to be too small. Make it a cantaloupe size, let it rest of an hour (not forty min), and bake longer to get the deep brown crust. See what you think.

You may be listening to us a little too closely about handling as little as possible. You have to form a nice “cloak” or it spreads sideways rather than rising up. Take a look at the videos under the “media” tab on our website. Jeff

Geoff Kennedy said...
December 22, 2008 at 10:52 am

I am planning to make this for Christmas dinner and did a test run with peasant dough last night–it worked great. I noticed you do not call for the broiler pan and water. How come?

jeff said...
December 22, 2008 at 2:07 pm

It was an oversight, thanks for catching! Sorry about that. Jeff

Beth said...
December 22, 2008 at 7:53 pm

Hello again. I have my panetonne dough ready to go to bake on Christmas Eve. Can I form it and let it rise in the fridge overnight? Thanks in advance. I hope you both have a Merry Christmas!

jeff said...
December 22, 2008 at 7:57 pm

Rise overnight in fridge, but let it sit outside the fridge for about a half hour before baking. Let us know how it goes. Jeff

glaucia said...
December 25, 2008 at 4:07 pm

wow Jeff. I watched some videos and read your tips. I made the dough with regular flour, and then with a bigger ball of dough, I made the holiday wreath bread!. It was awesome! My best loaf yet! My dad called me a professional baker!

jeff said...
December 26, 2008 at 7:14 am

Excellent! So glad it worked well for you– the videos can really help. I don’t know how people wrote cookbooks before the web!

Laura said...
December 27, 2008 at 8:32 pm

I made my first boule tonight and it was fantastic! We are rearranging the fridge to fit the dough bucket – it will become sacred space. One thing I have not seen mentioned is regular bake vs. convection bake. Do you have some thoughts or stats on this? I used convection bake at 445 degrees w/ a stone and the (small) loaf took about 30 minutes. The color was beautiful and upon taking it out of the oven, it sang! Just like you said it would! I have loved baking bread for decades (!) but I think this method and your great recipes will take us into the next many years! I plan to make the holiday wreath tomorrow for our annual celebration w/ friends. Cheers to the New Year!

jeff said...
December 28, 2008 at 8:19 am

Convection works great (http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=67); the only reason it’s not in the book is because not everyone has it. Lower the temp 25 degrees F and test the temp with an oven thermometer (my convection setting really “fools” the thermostat). Things bake about 10% faster too, and the crust seems a little better (you may have to turn the loaf around in mid-bake).

Thanks for all the kind words! Jeff

jeff said...
December 28, 2008 at 8:20 am

PS: You may not need to lower the temp, sounds like you didn’t need to and got a great result. Crust is everything.

Beth said...
December 30, 2008 at 8:37 pm

I made the wreath bread for Christmas for my inlaws and my sister saw it and already requested one for next year. It was beautiful. The panetonne was great. I let it rise overnight and let it sit out for about 45 min. I just made rye baguettes for party pizzas. They look great. I can’t wait to try them tomorrow. Happy New Year!

jeff said...
December 31, 2008 at 7:07 am

Happy New Year Beth!

Michelle C. said...
December 31, 2008 at 2:33 pm

I made this the other day, using my perpetual batch of dough. It looks so nice and impresses everyone. What a great way to make dinner rolls when you want to impress – just make a wreath and pass that around.

Thanks for the step-by-step instructions!

jeff said...
December 31, 2008 at 2:47 pm

So nice to hear…

Jacqueline Atlas said...
January 1, 2009 at 6:59 pm

That wreath is gorgeous. I just wish I’d seen it before Christmas. At least now I have twelve months to perfect it for next year.

Kate said...
January 2, 2009 at 10:54 am

A question about forming the ring — do you turn the ball into a snake and join the ends or create the hole in the center of the ball and stretch it outwards from the center?

jeff said...
January 2, 2009 at 1:54 pm

Either way works, but we prefer to poke thumbs through the formed ball and then stretch outwards from there. I think that results in a much prettier loaf. The hole has to be about 3 times as wide as the wall of the ring or it tends to close up when it rises and bakes.

Ginger Branyon said...
January 2, 2009 at 2:30 pm

Thanks for the book and for turning us non-bakers into bakers (or so my friends think).
Any suggestions for getting a pizza off the peel onto the stone without making it into a wadded up mess? It still taste great,but every time it looks like a train wreck. Still no more bought pizza for us.
Thanks and Happy New Year

jeff said...
January 2, 2009 at 3:23 pm

Ginger: The trick with pizza is to have it spend as little time as possible on the pizza peel, where the flour or cornmeal on the peel gradually absorbs moisture and prevents a good slide into the oven. Get all the toppings ready in advance so it doesn’t spend a lot of time waiting to be topped.

Then, use more cornmeal or flour. If you must, use parchment or a silpat, though for pizza, I really prefer the crust when it’s right against the stone.

Then there’s the technique– it’s a sharp flick forward into the oven. Think about directing the leading edge of the peel all the way to the back of the stone. At some point we’ll have to get some video out there on this… Jeff

Prepping for guests « Basically Baked said...
January 13, 2009 at 5:45 pm

I need to do something different at the last minute. Check out this link to see what I’m aiming for with the Pain d’ Epi. I may shape it like a circular stalk of wheat, [...]

Ellen said...
January 20, 2009 at 8:11 pm

Can we use silipat to rest the dough on and just put the whole thing on top of the pizza stone or on the rack? Would I still use water in the oven too?

jeff said...
January 20, 2009 at 8:29 pm

Ellen: Yes to both— welcome to the site!

Nutka said...
February 5, 2009 at 8:45 am

Nice!

Ron Eagleville said...
February 16, 2009 at 1:51 pm

Hi, Let me begin by saying I love your book! I am at 4800 feet and am having the time of my life with everything I have tried. As for the high-altitude baking I have followed your book and have had great results.I have a book called the Professional Pastry Chef and this book give guidelines like ( reducing the amount of baking power or baking soda, increasing the amount of liquid, sometimes with additional eggs,egg whites,or yolks, increasing the flour,and using a higher baking temperature.
I love the wet batter you call for and the more air holes in the bread. I think this along with the higher temperature is really working for me.
I am looking forward to your book number 2. Ron

jeff said...
February 16, 2009 at 7:29 pm

Thanks Ron. Sounds like you’re not needing it, but we did a discussion of high-altitude baking at http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=144

Sunshinemoms said...
December 4, 2009 at 7:28 pm

I am going to make this as a gift! Lovely bread:)