Artisan Bread

Adapted from ”Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François


This is surely the easiest and fastest way to have freshly baked bread on the table.

I am not a very patient  person and I couldn’t wait to try this bread, so I have done a couple of small breads, before refrigerating the dough...they were great. I am used to making bread using also whole wheat flour so I replaced some of the flour in the original recipe with whole wheat flour and increased the amount of water. It’s easy and tastes great! Give it a try.


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Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tbsp. yeast
5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour + some extra for dusting
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
Cornmeal, for dusting baking sheet


Directions:

Place warm water in a large, 5 or 6 quart, re-sealble mixing bowl. Add the yeast and stir to dissolve.

In another bowl mix together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, and salt. Add flour mixture to the mixing bowl; mix with a wooden spoon, until everything is uniformly moist with no dry areas. Should take no longer than a few minutes.

Cover with a plastic wrap and let it rise for two hours.

Put the dough in the refrigerator overnight. (As I mentioned, I did a couple of small breads before refrigerating the dough and they turned out good.)

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Next day, (or when you decide to bake some bread, sprinkle the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour, ( it is quite sticky). Pull up and cut off the desired size of dough, (grapefruit size or about 1 lb.).

Dust the board and your hands with flour and form dough into the desired shape or rolls.

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Grease cookie sheet and sprinkle with corn meal. Rest the bread on the cookie sheet.

Using a sharp knife, cut about 1/4 inch deep slashes into the top of dough.

Let rise for 45 minutes, or until it almost doubled in size.

Bake in preheated oven, at 375 F, for 45 to 60 minutes or until browned and when bread tapped on the bottom, sounds hollow.

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Remove breads to cooling rack. Cover with a kitchen towel and let to cool completely before slicing.

Store the rest of the dough in your covered (not airtight), container in the refrigerator for up to 14 days.

Enjoy!

Leia’s Culinary Treasures


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