Artisan Bread
Boule - Artisan Free-Form Loaf
Beautiful! This recipe came from the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. The idea is that you throw together the dough in less than 5 minutes then refrigerate it up to two weeks and use it as you need it.
It turned out exceptionally well … but it ruined my pizza stone! The book suggested using a high grade 1/2 inch stone, and that’s what I thought I had, until I heard a loud “snap” in my oven as my bread was baking. Sure enough, my stone split right in half.
The dough is very, very, wet … quite unlike any other bread dough I’ve worked with. It reminded me of those warm, steamy, loaves of bread that restaurants bring out. I want to make this again, but I need a new pizza stone. Apparently the evenly browned and crusty crust comes from a very hot oven, the even distribution of heat from the stone, and steam.
We ate this with tortilla soup. Yum!
Thank goodness Mother’s Day is just around the corner (hint, hint). Williams-Sonoma carries one that has a lifetime guarantee from cracking. I could see myself baking bread in the future on a regular basis, using this method.
Mmmmm! The smell of homemade bread.