Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

I think everyone knows that I don’t do any paid reviews, I just share what I like. Oh my gosh, I love this bread making method!  I used to be so intimidated by making bread.  Even after we got a Kitchenaid mixer, I didn’t make much bread.  Letting it rise, punching it or whatever, I just figured I wouldn’t get to it on time and it would take up most of the day.  Kelly was our bread maker.  When I tried making pizza crust it was always tasteless and just not good.

A friend recommended her pizza dough recipe and it looks yummy but I haven’t tried it because another friend suggested this book.  This is my style of cooking — innovative short cuts, make-ahead, super easy, and super yummy.  I like the dough flavor on Day 1 and  I especially like the flavor around Day 3 or 4.  By Day 6 or 7 the dough is too strong for my taste, but it doesn’t matter because we use up a triple batch in less the a week!  We have two hungry boys and now we have inexpensive bread to help fill them up.

I made their recipe even easier by tripling it, using a five pound bag of King Arthur Flour (all-purpose, unbleached white) and not bothering to measure from the bag. I add in two additional cups of flour using the scoop and sweep method. I have played with adding as little as an extra 3/4 cup and as much as 3 and 1/2 cups of flour.  I like the extra 2 cups the best. However, there are more air holes with only the extra 3/4 cup.

I use a Pampered Chef measuring and mixing bowl for the 9 and a half cups of warm water. I fill it to the top edge of the words at the top of the outside of the measuring bowl, so I am not counting cups of water either.  For the coarse salt and yeast, I fill our quarter measuring cup to heaping which is 4 and 1/2 tablespoons.  Easy peasy.

I do pour the yeast into the warm water and dissolve a little. I also mix the coarse salt into the flour before adding the liquid.  Then you just mix until moistened (no kneading required) and let it rise for 2 hours.  Then divide into covered, but not sealed, containers and put it into the fridge.  Use as needed!

Look at all we have made with this basic dough recipe.

Making pizzas ahead and freezing them uncooked works well too.  You do not need to let it defrost before baking, but I have partially defrosted it.  Use a piece of aluminum foil if the cheese is browning faster than the pizza crust.  The directions for all of this is in the book.

I recommend buying the book because there are other refrigerator dough “base” recipes and recipes for what to do with them, including recipes using healthier, whole grains.

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