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Such Useful Bread

I’ve mentioned this book on here before.  I love it!  It’s Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.  There’s at least one You Tube video out there, and a great article in Mother Earth News this month.  Anyone can make bread using this technique.  The book has been out over a year and it’s still a hot topic on bread baking/wheat grinding lists.  I’ve had my book for about 10 months and we’re rarely without a pail of bread dough in the fridge.  The Master Recipe is my favorite of the recipes I’ve tried.  I use storebought patent flour (instead of home ground whole wheat or regular all purpose or bread flour) and it always works perfectly.

One of the things we love to do is make big calzone type sandwiches.  Chad actually came up with this idea before I did.  He was home one day, we had the bread dough in the fridge and he didn’t want to wait for it to rise but wanted hot bread so he rolled out a piece of dough, put some ham and cheese in it, folded it over and baked it.  Now, we have this often!

Chad’s schedule (work/school/social life) doesn’t allow him to be home for lunch/dinner at the times we’re regularly eating so if I have something like this in the fridge, he’ll eat it for every meal.  I stuff them with deli meat, leftover ham, roast beef, turkey . . whatever I have handy.  I’ll use cheese, sometimes pizza sauce, sometimes sauteed onions or mushrooms, a bit of garlic, some chopped basil . . really — whatever is in the house.

Vince is out of town today and I had planned to not fix lunch but Chad asked for a “pizza pocket” which is what he calls it.  I stuffed it with leftover ham from Thanksgiving and Monterrey Jack cheese .. that’s it.

Not exactly low fat or low cal but it sure is yummy!  With a bowl of soup on a cold day .. there’s nothing better!

We slice them, dip them in pizza sauce or as we had today — olive oil, roasted crunchy garlic and fresh ground pepper.

If you don’t have the book, at least go to the Mother Earth article and try this technique.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. I printed the article from Mother Earth. I might be willing to try bread baking this way! Hugs and thanks!

  3. Can’t wait to try this! I too printed the whole article. Judy, I’d love to spend five minutes inside your head. Wait!!! I guess I do, every day, when I read your blog.

  4. Well, I can see this site is going to be trouble for me!! good trouble mind you, but trouble just the same!!

    I have just ordered my own copy of the ‘artisian bread’ book!!! I LOVE fresh baked bread – I love the taste, the smell, just how it makes the house feel – and you keep talking about it!!!! So, now I am going to try this out for myself. One of the things I told myself to learn was how to make a good loaf of bread, really, it’s on my ‘things to accomplish life time goals’ list!! I have made hockey pucks more than once, so I really want to learn to make a great loaf of bread. We will see how this goes… yes, I read the Mother Earh article on it, and that is what made me go “okay”!!

    I am really enjoying popping on here to see what you are up to…. Me, I am getting ready for this weekend. Still have a ways to go, I really need to find a certain snowman pattern that I have managed to hide on myself because that is one of my projecs I would like to see done and hanging my Monday morning!! (Or I could just have my personal retreat last until it’s done………..!! 😉 ) But either way, it means finding that pattern. One good thing about cleaning up and re-organizing is I found a pattern that I forgot I had!!! I bought it during my last shop/hop and I still really like it!!!

    Yup, you are trouble for me!! But honestly it’s really good trouble! Because of reading your blog, I have gotten a hold on my mess in my ‘studio’ and I have a place to come and keep up the insperation. Hey, you even have me thinking I should spend more time in my kitchen!! Something I used to alot of but lately haven’t been in there much……… hmmm, it’s a really good thing we have ‘met’!!
    Thank-You!!! And I am glad you have heat again – it’s starting to do the snow thing here, and once it’s here, it’s here to stay…… so stay warm and keep up the blogging!! I am so glad I found your site!! Brenda

  5. Judy:

    Thanks so much for this great post! I’m Jeff Hertzberg, one of the co-authors of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I’m so glad our recipes are working well for you. Come visit us anytime at http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com, where you can post questions into any “Comments” field, or click on “Bread Questions” on the left side of the homepage and choose among the options.

    Jeff Hertzberg
    http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com
    http://twitter.com/ArtisanBreadIn5

    Chicago tribune video: http://us.macmillan.com/BookCustomPage.aspx?isbn=9780312362911&m_type=2&m_contentid=119255#video

  8. I’m in too! I’m so in that I went out and bought the book today!!! And right now there are two containers on my counter, one white and one wheat. Can’t wait to see what happens. If this works, you and Jeff and Zoe will be my heros. I too, like Brenda, have tried to make bread in the past. Even tried it with a bread machine… disasterous results. 🙁 But I have faith and I know one day I’ll be able to make my own bread. I’m sick of the stuff in the stores and distressed that I don’t really know what’s in them. I’ll comment again here to let you know how they turn out. Now I’m off to read the book from cover to cover! 🙂 Thanks again Judy!

  9. Judy, I really enjoy your blog, quilts and recipes. I have tried a couple of your recipes and they are great. I want to try your artisan bread. Can you explain what patent flour is? Thanks Lee

  10. I want to come to lunch at your house!!!!!! Am interested in the results of your indoor garden as I’ve been thinking of getting one of those myself.

  11. Thanks for this info about the Artisan bread. I printed out the recipe and mixed some up today. I was so easy. I’m asking for the book for Christmas. It seems too easy to be true but I’ll let you know how it turns out. I’m making potato soup for supper and the bread will go good with it. Terry

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