Many months ago I came across this article about making artisan bread in 5 minutes. I finally got around to trying the recipe a couple of weeks ago. It was such a hit. The hardest part is waiting until the bread cools before eating a slice!

The thing I love about this recipe (in addition to how great it tastes) is that I can make up a batch of dough and keep it in the fridge until I’m ready to make a boule another day with only 5 minutes of hands-on prep time. It’s also a plus that there’s no kneading.

3 cups lukewarm water
1.5 tbsp granulated yeast
1.5 tbsp coarse kosher or sea salt
6.5 cups unbleached all purpose white flour
(+ cornmeal for cutting board)

I add the water first, then the yeast and salt and then the flour. I’ve been using regular table salt since that’s what I have on hand. I also have just been putting 6 cups of flour instead of 6.5 because it gets very hard to stir in at that point.

This is what it looks like when the ingredients are mixed together to make a “wet” dough. Not very pretty, but don’t worry! I cover the bowl and set it on the counter.

After about 2 hours the dough has risen so much and then started to “fall” in the center.

As you can see, my bowl isn’t big enough. I’ve ordered a 12 litre/quart stainless steel stock pot to use in the future so I can make double the recipe with lots of room to spare. I’m hoping it will fit in my fridge!

At this point I put some cornmeal on my cutting board to get it ready for the dough. Then I dust the top of the dough in the bowl with some flour so the dough doesn’t stick to my hands so much. I scoop out a bunch of dough about the size of a grapefruit.

I stretch the sides of the ball around to the bottom a few times and put it on the cornmeal on the cutting board. It sits for about 45 minutes (or more if I lose track of time). The rest of the dough stays in the bowl and then goes in the fridge, covered loosely. It keeps up to 2 weeks.

After the dough has had time to “rest”, I dust the top with four and make a criss-cross pattern (like tic-tac-toe) on the top with a knife. This helps the bread expand while it’s baking and makes it look so fancy!

I preheat the oven to 450 degrees F with my empty baking pan in the oven on the middle rack. I use a cookie sheet since I don’t have a “cooking stone” as suggested in the article. I also put an empty meatloaf pan or stainless steel bowl in the oven on the bottom rack. When the bread is cooking, I’ll add hot water to this pan in the next step.

When the oven is hot enough, I quickly shake my cutting board and the dough (usually) slides off nicely onto the sheet that’s already hot in the oven. I add some boiling water to the other pan or bowl in the oven. It makes a better crust. I skipped this step a couple of times, and I could tell the difference in the crust.

A quick note: my smoke detector always goes off when I put the dough in the oven. Now I temporarily remove the battery while baking this bread.

Bake for 30 minutes, then enjoy!

By the way, the recipe says it makes 4 boules of bread but I’ve found it just makes 3 boules. Also, when you’ve used up the dough from the fridge you don’t have to wash out the container before making another batch! Yay! This will help to develop the sour dough taste in the bread.

Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François are the creators of this recipe. At my local library I’ve just reserved a copy of this book that they have coauthored with more recipes using the same methods.

Technorati Tags: artisan bread, artisanal bread, homemade bread, recipe, artisan bread in five minutes, how to make bread