FRESH HOMEMADE BREAD

Guess what I did on Saturday?  And then again on Sunday?  And Monday?  And even Tuesday?  I baked bread!  Yup, four days in a row!  My husband is in bread heaven!  I  used the master recipe in the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and I love it.  The recipe is so simple, yeast, salt, water, and flour.  And it makes a beautiful round of bread, don't you think?

You can either mix it by hand or use a mixer with a dough hook.  I used my Kitchen Aid.  The dough is quite wet, you don't keep adding flour and you don't knead it, just mix it up and let it set for a couple of hours, and then refrigerate it.  For up to twelve days!  When you need to bake you take out a grapefruit sized hunk, shape it quickly and bake it on a hot stone in a hot oven with a cup of water thrown into a pan to create steam.  That's it!  So you mix it up in about five minutes, and store it until you want to bake, and there you have it, fresh bread!  Probably less than five minutes a day.

And it is very good.  I love the little loaves, not a huge amount of bread to go stale in a couple of days.  This is a loaf from the master recipe that uses white flour (King Arthur is a good one) and you can vary the size or shape if you want.  This afternoon I mixed up another batch, this time using part stone ground whole wheat that I purchased from a local gal who grinds her own flour and part white flour.  I can't wait to bake it, but I won't need it until tomorrow.  Tonight we are having bean soup that I made yesterday, and I'm thinking I'll take the odd sized pieces of bread we have left and sprinkle them with shredded cheese and quickly grill them to eat with the soup.

So Patti, the answer is, yes, I like the book!  I can't wait to try the various breads included  in the recipes.  I'm thinking if there's anything I really want, now would be the time to ask hubby for it, right?