Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day- I did it and you can too!

It's the twenty-first century. We are all interconnected by the once futuristic and unimaginable World Wide Web. We have infinite amounts of information available to us at the click of a mouse, 3D HD tvs and high tech EVERYTHING you can imagine. And probably some things you can't. And I like that.

But no fancy technological gadget can ever give me as much pleasure as baking bread. You heard me. I baked artisan bread today for the first time and I'm in love.

Two weeks ago I bought a book which got great reviews on Amazon called: "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day - The discovery that revolutionizes home baking."

I have to admit I was very skeptical. Baking beautiful, crusty, artisanal bread at home always seemed like an impossible feat to me. Something reserved to experienced French bakers and country women.

I was afraid to try. It seemed like such a great idea I really didn't want to fail.

So I tried. And I'll tell you. It was an easy, smooth, incredibly fast process that yielded an AMAZING loaf of absolutely scrumptious bread. I am sold.

Now, if you are thinking you are going to make and bake bread in 5 minutes, that's not exactly the case. What you actually do is mix enough dough for 4 (or 8, or 16...) loaves and leave the dough in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Then you grab part of the dough, let it rise and bake it for 30 minutes which only requires 5 minutes a day of actual effort on your part.

I can't believe that I can make dough using my Kitchen Aid stand mixer in 5 minutes (no kneading required at all!) and have fresh bread everyday if I want to!

The only ingredients you need are unbleached all-purpose flour, water, salt and yeast. Easy peasy.

You also need a baking(pizza) stone, an oven thermometer, a big plastic container to store the dough and a broiler pan. Easy peasy.

My bread turned out golden brown, crusty on the outside, gummy on the inside and slightly sour. I ate it hot with butter and Maldon salt and it was heaven!

Here is what it looked like after baking:

I might have found out about that book on a blog, bought it online on Amazon, talked about it on Facebook and blogged about it, but no virtual experience beats the smells of freshly baked bread. You should try it to!

You can buy the book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Bread-Five-Minutes-Revolutionizes/dp/0312362919/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303857647&sr=8-1

The same authors also have a Healthy Bread book that I am definitely buying soon:

http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Bread-Five-Minutes-Day/dp/0312545525/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1303857710&sr=1-1

You can also visit their website for tips and recipes:

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

Let me know if you try it!

Pictures by yours truly.