Bread...glorious bread!

So back in January, Julie introduced me to the brilliance of "no-knead bread" and I've been hooked ever since. She shared the Cooks Illustrated "Almost No-Knead Bread" version that was a supposed improvement of the one Mark Bittman published a couple years ago. This method is just a quick stir, a long rest (8-18 hr), a quick knead, a short rest (1 hr) and then you bake it inside a dutch oven. I loved the simplicity and the result was fabulous. I came up with some of my own variations which include Oat and Raisin bread and Multigrain (our favorite). I thought it couldn't get easier or better...but I was wrong...so wrong!

Hello, "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day!" I decided to check out this book from the library last week before buying, since foolishly I thought nothing could beat "no-knead". Oh...my....goodness! Believe it or not, I think this is easier than the no-knead recipe. And...I can have fresh bread on whim. And...I have a better baked result (no-knead has a tendency to get too dark on the bottom). And...the first bite took me back to the fresh warm homemade bread that our lovely Italian neighbor baked when I was a kid.



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This recipe allows you to quickly stir (by hand, by food processor, or by stand mixer) a large batch of dough, let it rest just 2 hrs, then store it in the fridge for up to 14 days until ready to use. When you're ready, cut off a hunk of dough, let rest 40 mins and bake on a stone (or cookie sheet, or loaf pan, or...they give tons of options). There are tons of options and recipes in the book. I mixed the full batch (makes @ 4 loaves) by hand with no problem. They recommend the use of a pizza peel to transfer your dough to the preheated stone, but I've just been using parchment paper (from the almost no-knead method) to let the bread rise and bake on.

So far, I've just made the basic loaf. I intend to try my no-knead multigrain with this method...and the book is full of pastries, pizzas and tons of good stuff.