I finally bought – The New Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes and I am pretty excited about it. The plan is to bake a lot of bread and it comes at a perfect time since December is Bake-a-thon month too!

Of course, it has one drawback. The method prescribed does not require kneading. If you are the type who likes that, then you will love this book. But one of the primary reasons I like to bake bread is because of the kneading. I love to knead the dough and the transformation from dry flour to a pliable dough always amazes me. Plus, I use it as a stress buster releasing all my irritations and tensions into the kneading process and coming out detoxed at the end of the process.
  

But, that apart, I like the book and this is the first recipe that I have tried from it. Though I wasn’t a hundred percent satisfied with the result, it was better than quite a few of my previous efforts. And I also like the fact that I have a proper source for various kinds of bread recipes. It should be a good place to build the fundamentals.

So here goes –

WHAT WE NEED

All purpose flour                          310 gms

Warm water                                   210 gms

Active dry / instant Yeast          3 1/2 gms
Salt                                                   6-8 gms
WHAT TO DO

• Combine the yeast, salt and warm water. 
• Add the flour and mix together to form a dough with your hands, wooden spoon or mixer with dough hooks.
• You do not need to knead the dough.
• Let the dough rest for 2 hours. It should double by then.
• Refrigerate the dough after 2 hours, irrespective of its doubling, for at least 3 hours.
• Remove the dough from the refrigerator.
• Dust the dough with some all purpose flour to coat it so that it will be easy to handle and not too sticky.
• Shape the dough into a long loaf on a parchment paper at 3/4 inch thickness and let it rest for 30-40 minutes.
• Preheat the oven at 220C for 20 minutes.
• Bake the loaf (along with the parchment paper) for 20-25 minutes.
• Remove and cool it completely.
• Enjoy!  

  

NOTES

1. The dough can be shaped and baked after the initial 2 hours, if necessary. But it will be quite wet and slightly tougher to handle.
2. The dough can be refrigerated up to 2 weeks.
3. While refrigerating, ensure that there is some kind of opening in the lid of the box/vessel to let the air escape.
4. Warm water means water should not be at room temperature nor should it be hot. It should be warm enough to touch i.e. Similar to ‘baby bath water’.

 

This is part of the
Bake-a-thon 2015 

This is my entry for the Cooking from Cookbook Challenge hosted by Srivalli.