Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Lately I've been hearing and reading about how good the bread recipes are from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.

I'm not sure if I'll ever get into the habit of baking my own bread so I borrowed the book from my local library rather than spend money on yet another cookbook that just sits on the shelves.

I've never had any interest in baking my own bread because I didn't think I'd have the patience. Five minutes seems reasonable to me and reading this book has inspired me to finally try it.

In quickly reading through the recipes I noticed that they look straightforward and manageable so I am excited to try one soon. Page 5 is what really encouraged me because it lists what we DON'T have to do - steps from traditional bread baking that they omitted.

1. Mix a new batch of dough every time we want to make bread

2. Proof yeast

3. Knead dough

4. Cover formed loaves

5. Rest and rise the loaves in a draft-free location

6. Fuss over doubling or tripling the dough volume

7. Punch down and re-rise

8. Poke rising loaves to be sure they've "proofed" by leaving indentations

Huh? So glad that those steps are "don't". I don't even know what most of those steps mean - they sound complicated which is exactly what has prevented me from attempting bread baking. I'll report back as soon as I've tried a recipe or two. If you've tried any of these recipes, please share your experience or recommendations.

The secret to the "five minutes" is to make a big batch of dough and refrigerate it so you can bake a fresh batch daily. It is a great idea for the winter when I don't mind turning on my oven. The recipes really do look much easier than the normal bread making process and the reviews of the book are very positive.

By the way, when I was searching Amazon I noticed that the authors have another book called Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients - I like the "healthy" part of the title and it got great reviews. If I have good luck with the recipes from the first book, I'll most likely end up buying the "healthy" book.

Pumpkin-zucchini bread or muffins

Pumpkin loaves
Originally uploaded by love_yellow

I always crave baked goods made with pumpkin at this time of the year. Finally, I think I've nearly perfected a recipe for pumpkin bread that has whole wheat flour, less sugar and less oil.

Baking is tricky because you can't just make straight substitutions without sometimes serious consequences, so it really is a trial and error process. The biggest consequence I usually face is that my baked goods end up being too dry and tasting like cardboard (at least that's what my husband says).

Finally, through several tries and errors I have come up with a healthy recipe that is moist and delicious and doesn't give you the terrible sugar spike. The only part of the recipe that's not perfect is that I've resorted to using Splenda which I don't generally like to do - so I"m still working on how to replace that with stevia without compromising the texture and moistness and taste, of course.

I also added a few extra chopped walnuts because the crunch gives it a nice texture and of course adds other beneficial nutrients. I also like that the nuts add protein and good fat to an otherwise almost all carb bread.

So here's the recipe for 3 loaves (maybe it's 4). Or 2 loaves and about 12 muffins. Sorry I can't remember exactly the quantity - I didn't use standard size loaf pans this last time. You might as well make a big batch because the incremental amount of work to make 4 loaves is not that much. It freezes really well so if you make it soon, you'll have some in your freezer that you can whip out for Thanksgiving.

I used mostly organic ingredients - good ingredients always improves the flavor. I found organic pumpkin puree and organic zucchini at Trader Joe's.

Pumpkin-zucchini bread or muffins

* 1.5 cups Splenda
* 3/4 cup honey
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 1 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
* 6 large eggs
* 2 15-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
* 2 cups shredded zucchini
* 6 cups whole wheat flour
* 2 teaspoon ground cloves
* 3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 3 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour four 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Beat sugar, honey, applesauce and oil in large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs and pumpkin. Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and baking powder into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions. Mix in walnuts, if desired.
Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. For medium size muffins it takes about 20 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes. Using sharp knife, cut around edge of loaves. Turn loaves out onto racks and cool completely.
If you try it, let me know how it goes.

I made some for my brunch party today.

Starting with a good breakfast

To start may day right, I need to have a good breakfast... a good foundation to help me feel good and be productive throughout the day.

I may not always have time to make a great meal, but I at least try to get some protein and whole grain carbs, plus a 1/2 cup of strong Italian coffee with a 1/2 cup of soy milk. Adequate protein gets me through the entire morning with lots of energy and able to think sharply.

Listen to your body...
to learn what the ideal breakfast is for you. It's strange that my husband doesn't need protein at all in the morning. His ideal breakfast is a bowl of steelcut oatmeal (McCann's is his favorite) with blueberries and coffee with milk. That gets him through to lunch, but when I eat that I'm totally starving my mid-morning and unable to think clearly until I eat.

In this photo the cheese on the rye/whole grains bread is Cowgirl Creamery's signature MT TAM cheese. The artisan cheesemakers are women and I visit their creamery in Pt Reyes Station, California, about once a year to taste and treat myself to some of the best local cheese in my area.