http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Bread-Five-Minutes-Revolutionizes/dp/03123...
Book Review: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
Photo: St. Martin's Press
In recent Wise Bread discussions and articles regarding the rising cost of bread and what to do about it, it's been clear that many of you want some serious strategies for getting the good stuff on the cheap. If you enjoy using make ahead mixes for the bread machine, but are still craving something more . . . shall we say exotic, you'll find major relief in this painstakingly researched St. Martin's Press title by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.
Developed as a way to bring the gorgeous artisan breads from "the old neighborhood" back into the daily routine, this book introduces strategies and techniques for having old world texture and flavor in just five minutes a day of prep time. In addition to being able to last for up to two weeks in the fridge, these doughs and the shaping techniques provided will give you a taste and sense of the old country for sure. Bonus? The authors have spent years experimenting with which shortcuts work and which don't. So research is absolutely not an issue with this title.
Confession? This book has me more pumped up to do the homemade bread thing than I've ever been. Pannetone, pumpernickel or old world rye . . . take your pick. Personal verdict? Two thumbs up.
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I was just working out the details of getting my Amazon link to work. Thanks for posting one in the meantime.
I've heard great things about this book. I'm sorely tempted to buy it, but I'm going to try to hold out just a little while longer... I just got a new cookbook for the holidays, so I'd feel guilty about getting another one so soon. I'll just be jealous of you having a copy!
It's so funny you say that, because I knew I was going to be releasing this review when you did your post yesterday and I made the recipe addiction comment. That's where the "you caught me" reference came from. I love recipe books, and this one was especially fitting for "Wise Bread", don't you think?
The most recent Mother Earth News had an article on making this sort of bread (and no need to buy another cookbook to get it!): http://www.motherearthnews.com/Whole-Foods-and-Cooking/2007-12-01/Easy-N...
I had already heard good things about this book at Suzette Haden Elgin's blog and some of the comments there are useful, e.g. troubleshooting, using whole wheat. Here's the most recent post, but there's one or two more going back: http://ozarque.livejournal.com/487560.html
In particular, there's a version of one of the recipes at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/dining/211brex.html?_r=1&ref=dining&or...
And the author's blog is http://www.zoebakes.com/
Wow! Thank you so much for this wonderful review. It is so great to hear people's experience with the recipes.
Please checkout our websites while you work your way through the book. We have posted an errata sheet that lists all of the mistakes we missed while editing!
Thanks again, Zoe Francois
Thanks for stopping in, Zoe. Good to hear from you. Believe me, as soon as I have my baking stone, I'm launching an exploration of this technique. Yuuuuuuuuummmmmy!
My brother and sister-in-law gave me this book for Christmas...I'd never heard of it before, and I was already baking our family's bread (and had my established, favorite recipes), so I wasn't sure I'd get much used out of it.
Turns out, I LOVE THIS BOOK!
I'm still making our weekly sandwich bread from my old recipe, but I'm finding myself working many opportunities to make the 5-minute bread into our dinner menus. I even used some of the original, basic recipe as a pizza crust--fabulous! My husband and I couldn't stop talking about how good was.
So I agree: two thumbs up!
Thanks for using my pictures (fooey), but those breads took a couple of days to make (a couple of weeks for the sourdough starter).
I've read the book, and I think it's one possible way to get people into the hobby of bread baking; but, it's not the best, or even a good way.
It creates the unrealistic expectation that great bread needs almost no time. That's very wrong.
Great bread is a slow food. It takes a lot of time and patience and care. You won't make great bread in 5 minutes a day.
