Peaches and Creamy Summer Bread Pudding

By zoe, June 13, 2011
Filed Under Special techniques | 40 comments

bread pudding

Yeah, it is summer and one doesn’t automatically think of bread pudding, the ultimate cozy comfort food. But, why not? Jeff and I are busy creating and testing new recipes for our ~~second~~ third book and I’ve got so much bread in my house right now I hardly know what to do with it all. My friends and neighbors get a lot of freshly baked bread, but there is still more. I make bread salads and tonight I used some of my brioche for this bread pudding (on page 234 in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day). To give it a summery lightness I sliced up some sweet, juicy peaches and fanned them over the pudding before I baked it. It is a wonderful, and lovely dessert. This fall I’ll do the same with sliced pears.

I bet Jeff will even try this on his grill if he gets the temperature down low enough! Continue reading →

Brioche Berry Pudding – something gorgeous for Mother’s Day!

By zoe, May 3, 2011
Filed Under Recipes, Special techniques | 50 comments

berry pudding

This is a post I did a couple of years ago on Mother’s Day. It is bright, cheery and gorgeous, just the thing to make for mom,especially after such a long winter. We MN mom’s need a bit of sunshine!

Some things are worth a little more effort, right! Like a dessert for your mom on Mother’s Day. This berry pudding is really very simple to make, but I admit it will take just a bit longer than 5 minutes to put together. Berry puddings are a slightly retro English sweet and I think they deserve a come back. Their drop dead gorgeous color comes from the dark berry juice soaked brioche, hiding a treasure of sweet, slightly drunken berries within.

You just can’t resist something this wonderful and if you have a bucket of brioche on hand it will go together really very easily. Happy Spring to you all! Continue reading →

Cinnamon Rolls

By zoe, March 28, 2011
Filed Under Recipes, Special techniques | 111 comments

I think my children love me just a little bit more now that I have baked these. The buns are made with brioche dough and layered with cinnamon sugar and just a touch of zest, whats not to love? You can add more to the mix, like nuts, raisins, a dash of cardamom, or just leave them simple. The cream cheese icing is the crowning glory and makes these breakfast treats completely addictive. I ended up making two batches this weekend, because of the demand and how easy they are to throw together. Continue reading →

Baking Flatbreads on a Frozen Minnesota Lake… or, shaping flatbreads is easier with whole grain dough

By jeff, March 7, 2011
Filed Under Special techniques, Videos | 44 comments

Well, I had the best of intentions– really did mean to do a skillet-baked bread on a frozen lake right here in Minneapolis. It works perfectly, er, in the summer. On dry land.

As you can see, I ran into technical difficulties with my Coleman stove. Something about the temperature. Welcome to my winter.

So, back into the kitchen we went, where I decided to bake the flatbreads. In an oven. We’d toted along whole grain dough from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and as you can see in the video, one real advantage of whole grain dough is that it yields to flattening very, very easily. If you’re going to try your hand at a pita or pizza without using a rolling pin, this is the dough to try it with (or even our 100% whole wheat dough). Whole grain doughs are lower in gluten than white-flour doughs, and in addition, the tiny jagged flakes of bran serve to cut the gluten strands as they form. As much as gluten is necessary, it can really slow you down when you’re trying to form a flatbread or pizza.

The more pizza you bake, the faster spring will come. Or something like that?

“King Cake” for Mardi Gras!

By zoe, February 28, 2011
Filed Under holiday breads, Special techniques | 63 comments

Don’t adjust the color balance on your monitor, this “cake” really is purple, green and gold. King Cake, named for the three kings who came to bring gifts to Jesus, is traditionally served during Mardi Gras in New Orleans and throughout the South. Not only is it decorated with the colors of the festival, but it also has a hidden trinket in the dough. I’ve used an almond, but in New Orleans bakers often use a ceramic or plastic doll to represent the baby Jesus. The person who gets the slice with the trinket is responsible for making the King Cake the following year.

There are many versions of this sweet bread, depending on the traditions of different families. Our version is made with Brioche dough which has nutmeg, lemon zest and citron added into it. The dough can be Braided and/or formed into a Couronne (crown shape) as I have done here. Some bakers even use a cream cheese and praline filling, but we went with a more traditional filling. Continue reading →

Valentine’s Day Bread!

By zoe, January 31, 2011
Filed Under Special techniques | 63 comments

Valentine’s day is near and we have a fun way to celebrate. No, that is not dough tinted with red food coloring, but our Red Beet dough from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day! It’s bright color is perfect to be baked on the holiday all about red hearts. Those who are beet lovers will consider this the best gift ever. If your valentine is not a big fan of this jewel toned root vegetable, you can certainly make the heart-shaped loaf with any of our doughs, especially the chocolate dough.

Thank you all for entering so many wonderful ideas in our pizza contest, we were blown away by your creativity. The winning combination will apear in our upcoming book Artisan Pizza and Flatbreads in Five Minutes a Day. We have also picked 5 random winners who will receive a signed copy of HBin5. Those winners are listed below. Continue reading →

The Best Granola I’ve Ever Had!

By zoe, January 21, 2011
Filed Under Recipes, Special techniques | 151 comments

granola

Thank you for all the wonderful pizza recipes, it is going to be very difficult to pick the winning combination to appear in Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day. Jeff, myself and the editors at St. Martin’s Press will pick one and announce it next week. We will also announce the winners of the 5 signed copies of HBin5.

While we make our selection here is a post that originally appeared in 2008 about our granola from ABin5. Perfect Winter comfort food! Continue reading →

Three Ways To Get Steam Into Your Oven For a Great Crust: NEW VIDEO

By jeff, December 27, 2010
Filed Under FAQs, Special techniques | 121 comments

Return to FAQs page

In Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, we talked about one way to get steam into the oven to create a great, crispy, caramelized crust on lean (un-enriched) loaves: pouring water into a pre-heated METAL (not glass) broiler tray or other pan just before you close the oven door. To be extra-safe about your glass oven window, protect it from the water with a towel before you approach with the water–some older non-tempered glass windows can crack if you get water on them when they’re hot. This metal-tray method works well in most ovens.

But some ovens are a bit temperamental about this. Really large ovens, or really well-vented ones, and in many cases, professional-quality ovens installed in homes, seem to let the steam escape and you end up with a dull, pale-colored crust that never gets crisp. We’ve got a video of some excellent alternatives… Continue reading →

Christmas Stollen

By zoe, December 13, 2010
Filed Under equipment, Giveaways, HBin5, Recipes, Special techniques | 653 comments

There is 20 inches of snow on the ground here in Minneapolis and the temperature has dipped WAY below zero. This is why we Minnesotans are such bakers, it warms up the house and makes everyone happy. Christmas Stollen is a great tradition this time of year. A sweet loaf that is studded with fruit, spiced with cardamom and a little treat of almond paste runs through it. Once it comes out of the oven we dust it with a thick layer of confectioners’ sugar to look like the snow outside. If there is any left the next day it makes amazing French toast.

To celebrate the holidays and this frigid weather we are doing a giveaway with Red Star Yeast! They are giving a package of these fabulous baking items to 6 lucky winners.

Danish dough Mixer, our favorite way to mix the dough!

Two Pound Loaf Pan for BIG family style loaves!

An extraordinary Pizza Wheel!

Yeast and a Bread in 5 Minutes recipe booklet to get your started!

**This contest is finished!**

Continue reading →

Jeff is holding a pizza-throwing clinic (and book-signing) at Borders, Saturday 12/18, Maple Grove MN

By jeff, December 12, 2010
Filed Under events, Special techniques | 11 comments

I’m going to be at the Borders in Maple Grove, Minnesota, tomorrow (Saturday December 18), at 2:00pm for a book-signing. I’ll be tossing pizza dough up in the air– come on out if you want an advance look at the throwing instructions that will be in our third book: Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day, scheduled for release in October 2011–we submitted the manuscript yesterday–Halleluyah!!

Jeff