Our Daily Bread

There is nothing I love more than a good loaf of fresh baked bread…and the smell of it baking. So you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled across a book called “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.”  http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/  It is a fantastic book that really makes bread making a snap. The neat thing about this method is there is no kneading and you make the dough once and store it in fridge, then just cut off pieces as you need it. This recipe was inspired by those in that book…but as you know, I’m not good at following directions so I had to put my own spin on it. Try it, it’s absolutely brilliant. This kind of baking I can get excited about!!!!

6c          flour
1tbs       sea salt
1tbsp     honey (local of course!)
1 1/2c    warm water
1 1/2c    warm buttermilk
2tbsp     yeast
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Mix the flour and salt together in a large container (I use a recycled container from organic salad mix) then add the remaining ingredients into a small bowl, give a stir and let sit for a minute or two. Simply pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix well... I use my hands. Do not knead just mix until all the flour is evenly moist.

Now just loosely cover with a lid and let sit in your oven with the light on (do not turn on the oven!)  until doubled in bulk...anywhere from 1-2 hours. At this point you can cut off about a large grapefruit sized piece and put the remainder in the fridge.

Place a bowl of water in an oven safe dish in the bottom of your stove. This will turn the oven into a steamer which will give you a crisp light crackly crust. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Shape the piece you cut off into any form you’d like and place onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Let rest for about 40 minutes. Dust the dough with flour or rub down with butter, slash whatever design you’d like on to the top.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until crust is browned and firm to the touch. You'll know it's done if you remove it from the pan, flip it over and give the bottom a tap. If it sounds hollow, it's ready. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack for at least half an hour. Slice and enjoy!

Now whenever you want a loaf of bread just cut off a piece of the refrigerated dough, repeat the remaining steps (be sure to let shaped dough sit at room temperature for 20- 40 minutes before baking) 

Variation- You can replace up to ¼ of the flour with other types of flours such as rye, oat or any other you may be lucky enough to have in your 100 miles.

 Sometimes I‘ll press pumpkin seeds, pieces of onions, peppers or garlic cloves on the top of the bread before baking. It looks lovely and then you’re not stuck making 8 loaves of the same bread!

Roll the dough out as pizza crust and top with your favorite pizza toppings! This dough makes the BEST thin crust pizza, just be sure to bake at 450 degrees until crisp.

I use this recipe for cinnamon buns, Indian Naan bread, Greek pita bread, buns, cheese bread and as a base for sweet bread style desserts. The possibilities are endless.