Artisan Bread in Five Minutes
Feb 2nd, 2009 | By Peter Minakis | Category: Baking, Bread, Giveaway, Product Review, Yeast
“The weight of 10 sacks of flour have just come off my shoulder. I feel a great sense of triumph to be able to easily make bread.” (myself)
“Peter, how did you make this bread? We buy our bread from the Italian bakery and this reminds us of the crusty bread they produce.” (Italian neighbor)
“Now this is bread!” ( my father)
“This is the best homemade bread I’ve ever had. My bread is good but I can never get my bread to get that crusty outside and fluffy inside”. ( my mother)
“Where did you buy this bread?” (my brother)
One of the most important aspects of sales, marketing or convincing someone of an idea or belief you hold is through testimonials.
I can now proudly proclaim to be able to make bread, without worry, without much effort and with some patience, make it esthetically appealing and delicious.
My friend Judy of No Fear Entertaining convinced me to order Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day in a matter of moments. I read her blog entry, trusted her proclamation and ordered the book through Amazon.
Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg are childhood friends who remain pals and colleagues after all these years (rare these days) and through trial & error, they’ve come up with a method to baking artisan bread with little effort and easy to follow instructions.
Let’s get one thing out of the way…you will not make bread in five minutes but what you will make is wonderful, artisan-style bread that does NOT require kneading, you mat place a large batch of dough in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or freeze dough portions for future baking.
The book centers around their “master recipe” and with this in hand, one can go off on many bread-making tangents such as baguettes, pizza dough, fougasse, pita bread and array of peasant loaves.
With this book, you’ll be armed with 100 bread making recipes, all backed by the master recipe for “no- knead” bread.
Zoe and Jeff also have a website and I urge you to have a peek about what they have to say and if you’re ready to buy the book, please note they there are some error’s & omissions in the book but they’ve been upfront about that I’ve already made notes in my book to reflect those changes.
Now that you’re ready to buy the book, I should also mention that you’ll need some basic equipment to guarantee an “artisan-style” bread each and every time:
- broiler pan
- pizza peel
- pizza stone
- plastic tub (or pail)
You need all of the above tools for re-creating artisan bread in your home. The broiler pan gets placed in the oven with hot water to create steam in the oven while baking.
A pizza peel is where you lay your dough to rest before baking and you’ll easily slide the dough into the oven just like your neighborhood baker.
The pizza stone goes into your oven to be pre-heated, re-creating the brick oven atmosphere of your local bakery and finally, the plastic tub (or pail) is where your wet dough is allowed to rise and be stored in your fridge for future baking.
There’s no real trick to makig artisan bread. The ingredients are tepid water, yeast, salt and flour…nothing else!
You’re probably wondering, where’s the recipe but I’m really hyped on this book, I think everyone should own a copy and everyone should tell their friends about buying this book…it’s that good!
I think Zoe and Jeff deserve all the success and rewards from the book sales, they went through alot of experimentation and time to offer up this book.
For those still on the fence about buying this book and in lieu of the artisan bread recipe, I’m giving away one book per 1oo (hundred) comments. Just leave a comment at the bottom of this post by no later than Friday February 7th, 2009 EST.
A draw will be held through a computer-generated random draw.
Good luck and happy baking!
P.S. Already have the book, no worries. You can still enter and if you win, give it to someone as a gift!
If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.blogspot.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.
© 2007-2009 Peter Minakis
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That is some nice looking bread! I still have not tried making one of these no knead breads.
Great bread Peter! I’ve wanted this book for some time now, so I hope I win!
Oh Peter, these breads are yelling at me: eat me, eat me, spread me with some butter and eat me…
I wish I could win this book and wish you could send it all the way to China!!!!
Thanks for sharing some bread love with us
saludos,
heidi
I love Homemade bread!
Thank you!
janetfaye (at) gmail (dot) com
Gee Peter. I have not really been bitten by the bread making bug, but this post has got me itching to try it. Sounds like a great book for a beginner.
LL
Wow Peter, you convinced me!!! It’s been a long time since I want to bake my own bread at home and I trust you here
.
I will wait to see if I’m the lucky one and if not… I’m buying the book… sure!
I bet that if you get commissions for the selling of the book, you’ll win enough money to have your vacation paid to Spain ;D
Excellent bread Peter, absolutely fantastic.
Your bread looks amazing! and I would love to get my hands on this book! it’s on my wishlist! I’m in the midst of a total bread making craze!
I’ve been thinking about buying this book and would love to own it!
I am drooling looking at all of this bread. I’m hoping you will give me a recipe or two in order to convince me to buy the book!
Yeah Pete! You have joined the club. It is the best bread ever isn’t it! I try to keep some dough in my fridge at all times. Love the book and need to try other doughs out of it but have stopped at the master- well because it is the MASTER! Have a great day!
That bread looks amazing! I so want this book!
I want it, I want it! Hehe. I never win anything but let’s hope this time I get lucky :-p
The bread looks awesome and I would LOVE one of the books!!!!!!!!!!!
Looks fantastic and the book sounds very interesting, would love to have a copy
I just purchased this book & looking forward to my 1st attempt this weekend. Not having the "bread kneading" gene has always pained me.. especially since the best thing in the world is the smell & taste of fresh baked bread. My previous attempts have been.. shall we say.. PITIFUL!!!!!!
I enjoy your blog & look forward to checking it daily!
Have a great day!
Val
Dear Peter,
You’ve been a constant inspiration and encouragement daily in my kitchen.The fact that I have to feed a very Greek Husband daily helps me with the decision making part.I’ve been making bread for 25 years the way my mother taught me,but the simple fact remains nothing tastes as good as fresh baked bread.Thanks for the inspiration. I will defenitely try this out.Your loyal reader.
I have always wanted to make my own bread, but the kneading always left me wanting!
I can’t wait to try this recipe!
That pasta looks wonderful; the simple things are often the best, aren’t they? I’d love to win the book – we’re on a very tight budget and making our bread would be a big savings and we’d end up with better bread. If I win, it’s a win-win situation
Your bread looks so warm and delicious! This is the kind of bread I use for comfort food. Great job!
Lovely pictures Peter; now if you could make a pizza with not much fuss as for this bread would be nice.
Maria
Well, if Greeks say this bread is good, it must be good! I still haven’t found something here that’s like the stuff in Greece.
I have heard nothing but good things about this book! You’ve really perked my curiousity even more by the looks of your loaves!
I’ve been baking bread for over 50 years…but I’d still love to win this book. All of the breads that I make are “kneaded”…I’d appreciate trying these. I’m feeling lucky today! (Just hearing about the book is a good thing!)
Gorgeous bread, Peter! Sounds like a fantastic book! I never win anything, so I’m going to pop that sucker onto my Amazon list for my next order….I think there are like 40 cookbooks on there already! lmao XOXO
Okay, I’ll bite!
I loved the testemonials and I would love to be able to make bread at home. I think my husband would love it too. I keep saying that I’ll start but I still haven’t … procrastination is an art form.
My home baker bakes great bread too. He uses the method propagated by the NY times as discussed in Mother Earth News. No kneading either, but a long slow slow rise. The only special equipment is cast-iron dutch oven. It’s fabulous.
I really enjoy Zoe’s blog, and would be very willing to try her method.
I am so glad you are encouraging your readers to try their hand at homemade bread, Peter.
Sylvie
Fantastic! I can never make bread like this!
Your bread is gorgeous! I’d love to own this book! *fingers crossed*
The bread looks like it came from an upscale bakery that does old-school, stone-hearth bread baking. Awesome! Thanks for the great blog post and yes, I hope I win. *unabashed plea* Glad to be following you on Twitter!
Good thing I picked today to catch up on some blog reading! I have heard of this book, and I want to buy it, but I am forbidden from buying any more cookbooks until after we pay our taxes for the year. Please pick me or I’ll be forced to wait for it at the library!
Not playing since I already have the book (not that I am not in a playful mood), but just to mention that Stéphane and I had a go at making pizze with the master dough recipe and it was Tony the Tiger kind of great.
I am already a happy book owner. Love the easy recipes and knowing I can whip up a loaf of bread in minutes.
I’ve got a batch of dough in my refrigerator now that I have been using for pizzas this week.
The bread looks like it just walked out of some fancy dancy New York Bakery! Good job Pete..you would never have know that you didn’t buy it…And I bet it tasted 100 times better….
The bread looks like it just walked out of some fancy dancy New York Bakery! Good job Pete..you would never have know that you didn’t buy it…And I bet it tasted 100 times better….
The bread looks like it just walked out of some fancy dancy New York Bakery! Good job Pete..you would never have know that you didn’t buy it…And I bet it tasted 100 times better….
The bread looks like it just walked out of some fancy dancy New York Bakery! Good job Pete..you would never have know that you didn’t buy it…And I bet it tasted 100 times better….
The bread looks like it just walked out of some fancy dancy New York Bakery! Good job Pete..you would never have know that you didn’t buy it…And I bet it tasted 100 times better….
Your bread looks divine! Nothing like a good loaf of crusty bread with a warm, soft center dripping with slow melting hard butter! Yum! Love your recipe posts Peter!
Hey Peter – I need this book desperately because I’m terrified of bread making and need something to make it easier. Also, I really want to eat the bread in this post, and so I should probably get to baking
Randi
Fabulous looking breads, Peter. I would love to try that technique.
I’ve thought about purchasing this book, but I read some bad reviews on Amazon. Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day sounds very appealing though.
I just recently started making breads and I am hooked. I have had my eye on this book and hope I can get a copy soon.
Your bread looks great.
Baking bread is addictive!! I don’t even want to buy it anymore.
It’s been many years since I’ve baked bread. I’ve heard so much about this book. I’d love to have a copy, so I can try bread baking again.
After reading all the comments and seeing your photos about the bread, I am really intrigued. I have to try this book and the bread!
You convinced me to buy the book, then I realized you are giving one away. If I don’t win, I’ll still buy the book! I’ve never made bread, Im so excited!!!
Your loaves turned out beautiful. Isn’t this great bread? I have the book and love it, but would give gladly give a copy to a friend if I win!
I would love to win a copy of this book. I have heard all good things about it. I just can’t afford to buy a copy myself!
After spending lots of time working on making bread the hard way, I would welcome the opportunity to try a simpler approach. Plus, your results are beautiful!!