Out of all my cookbooks, this one contains the recipe i’ve used the most.  This magical dough can be used to make countless styles of bread — my favourite being baguettes.  Seriously, what beats a warm baguette with butter?!  Nothing!

“Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” makes it easy to have fresh bread every day of the week if you’d like (and why wouldn’t you).  You basically just mix up a few things, put it in the fridge, and when you’re ready to eat, break off a bit of the dough and bake it.  Even my hapless husband has managed to do it, so I know you can.

The Master Recipe

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 tbsp. granulated yeast 

1 1/2 tbsp. kosher salt

6 1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with the scoop-and-sweep method

Cornmeal for pizza peel (note:  I don’t actually have a pizza peel, so I use a dutch oven or plain old baking sheet)

1.  Warm the water slightly:  slightly warmer than body temperature

2.  Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5-quart bowl or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded (not airtight) plastic food container.  Don’t worry about getting it all to dissolve.

3.  Mix in the flour – kneading is unnecessary.  Add all of the flour at once.  Mix with a wooden spoon (or food processor or KitchenAid) until the mixture is uniform.  

4.  Cover with a non-airtight lid and allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse or flatten on top (roughly two hours, but could be up to 5).  You can then put it in the fridge and take from it whenever you’re in the mood.  

My favourite way to enjoy this is with a wonderful fresh butter and a bit of sea salt sprinkled on top, but I also adore a nice jam with a bit of a kick — either rosemary and black pepper jam or apple-habanero jelly.  to make it a legitimate meal, i love a sandwich with lots of roasted vegetables and some goat cheese — it sure beats the wonder bread sandwiches of my youth.

I don’t claim to be a professional baker, as you’ll wonder by the misshapen loaves below.  Nor do I claim to be a food photographer.  I’m just a gal who loves to eat.

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i’m kristel, and i love food.  i love cooking it, eating it, talking about it, reading about it, thinking about it, etc.  my husband’s always bothering me about how i have way too many cookbooks and need to stop buying them.  perhaps if i start writing here about all the things i make from them, he’ll finally leave me alone.  ;)