# Another bread blog



## PieSusan (Dec 15, 2008)

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

When I saw this, I thought of you, JoeV.


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## LadyCook61 (Dec 15, 2008)

I frequent that blog daily.  I have the book as well.


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## JoeV (Dec 19, 2008)

Thanks, Susan. I made the holiday wreath shown on the blog. I mixed the batter at 9 last night, and turned out the dough at 6 this morning. The smell brought my wife and son downstairs about 1/2 hour early, and 2/3 of this 1# loaf is GONE!

Dusted with flour on the peel ready for baking...







Out of the oven







Made Cinnamon-Raisin bread for a friend also...


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## jpmcgrew (Dec 19, 2008)

LadyCook61 said:


> I frequent that blog daily. I have the book as well.


 
 I also have the book and have made the master dough several times the problem is it takes up a lot of space in the fridge it makes the best bread DH is hooked on it.


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## JoeV (Dec 19, 2008)

jpmcgrew said:


> I also have the book and have made the master dough several times the problem is it takes up a lot of space in the fridge it makes the best bread DH is hooked on it.



We have a fridge in the garage that is quite full now for the holidays, but will afford plenty of room for the master dough once the new year gets here. I made a 1/2 recipe for this trial and used 2/3 of the dough for the wreath. i then mixed another 1/2 recipe on top of the balance of yesterday's dough, and I will use that on Saturday when I make one of these for the dining room table. DW will put a big holiday candle in the center of it, then we will break it up to serve with Italian Wedding Soup before our Panko Crusted Walleye dinner for our neighbors. It's sure to bring some comments from the neighbors when I start breaking up the centerpiece and putting it on their plates.


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## PieSusan (Dec 19, 2008)

Woo hoo! What beautiful breads!!!! 

Do you ever sleep? With work and all your hobbies (fishing and film) and Church, how in the world do you find the time to bake bread?

I am very impressed. You really must be a natural.


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## LadyCook61 (Dec 19, 2008)

JoeV said:


> Thanks, Susan. I made the holiday wreath shown on the blog. I mixed the batter at 9 last night, and turned out the dough at 6 this morning. The smell brought my wife and son downstairs about 1/2 hour early, and 2/3 of this 1# loaf is GONE!
> 
> Dusted with flour on the peel ready for baking...
> 
> ...


 
Beautiful breads, Joe.  I hope your wife realizes how  blessed she is to have a hubby who  bakes.


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## PieSusan (Dec 20, 2008)

Well, the book sure looks awesome! My mom was excited when I told her about it. I even told her about you, JoeV. She loved to hear about the man who loves to bake bread and is always searching for the perfect loaf. My mom use to tease me about baking bread because we have such good bakeries around here until I was sick one winter and the got snowed in while my folks were at their S. Fla condo. I made a big pot of chicken soup for myself, baked some bread, and kept myself going like that for a while. It made her smile and she quickly decided baking bread was a good thing. And, she even remembered that today.


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## kardelen (Dec 20, 2008)

very very good,l make it soon


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## JoeV (Dec 22, 2008)

PieSusan said:


> Woo hoo! What beautiful breads!!!!
> 
> Do you ever sleep? With work and all your hobbies (fishing and film) and Church, how in the world do you find the time to bake bread?
> 
> I am very impressed. You really must be a natural.



Sleep? What's sleep? My late Father used to say there will be plenty of time to sleep when you're dead, so don't waste it while we're here. Really, I only need about 5-6 hours of sleep to function all day, and since my business is dead in the water right now, I spend most of my time playing in the kitchen. Now if that book would just get here,I could figure out what to do next. I have a full recipe of the master dough in the fridge right now, and can hardly wait to play with it.


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## JoeV (Dec 22, 2008)

Since the book is just days away, I mixed a whole master dough recipe and have it fermenting in the fridge in its new green home. But before i mixed it up I took 1# of dough and shaped it into a boule to be baked in the round La Cloche.






 I left some dough behind and mixed it with the new dough and 1 Cup of my starter.






30min covered + 10 minutes uncovered at 450 F gave up a beautiful little loaf to be eaten with the Italian Wedding Soup tonight.






Where's that mailman.....? I want my book.....


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## toni1948 (Dec 26, 2008)

Joe, I baked my first loaf of the Master Recipe today.  My first attempt at making yeast bread of any kind.  (Finally got up the nerve and confronted my fear)...  The crust and crumb are out of this world.  I will cut back on the salt some, but it is a keeper for sure.  The second loaf should taste better than the first.  I can hardly wait.  If I had known it was going to be this good, I would have had some good cheese in the house to eat with it.  I love a good artisan bread with cheese.


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## JoeV (Dec 26, 2008)

toni1948 said:


> Joe, I baked my first loaf of the Master Recipe today.  My first attempt at making yeast bread of any kind.  (Finally got up the nerve and confronted my fear)...  The crust and crumb are out of this world.  I will cut back on the salt some, but it is a keeper for sure.  The second loaf should taste better than the first.  I can hardly wait.  If I had known it was going to be this good, I would have had some good cheese in the house to eat with it.  I love a good artisan bread with cheese.



Congratulations Toni! Yeah, that's some pretty tasty bread, and it gets pretty addictive. Don't forget a bottle of wine with the cheese for a truly memorable dining experience.

Regarding the salt, if you use table salt, cut that back to 2-1/2 teaspoons if you are making a full recipe. If you are making a half recipe at a time, use 1-1/4 teaspoons of table salt. Table salt weighs more that Kosher salt (which is hollow), so you need to reduce the volume to maintain the same weight and percentage of salt. Here's what it looks like based on the Master Dough full recipe:

1-1/2 T of *Kosher* salt = .64 oz  (2% of the weight of the flour)

1-1/2 T of *Table* salt = 1.13 oz (3.8% of the weight of the flour)

So, if you used table salt and your bread tasted salty, this is the reason. 

Hope this helps.

Joe


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## PieSusan (Dec 31, 2008)

Salt is necessary so bread will not taste flat and it helps retard the overgrowth of yeast, but I also find that I can get away with less salt in bread. James Beard, for example, liked 2 Tablespoons and I thought his recipes needed a lot of adjustment. I almost always use scant amounts and I never miss it in the bread that I bake.


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## Glorie (Dec 31, 2008)

Oh how I wish I could make yeast breads!  Every time I try it turns out hard and I can't get the dough to rise!  Any suggestions anyone??


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## PieSusan (Dec 31, 2008)

Several things--either your yeast is too old or you killed it with water that is too hot or by over heating the dough while kneading too long or too high a speed with your mixer. Then, you may be overbaking the loaf if it comes out hard as a rock.


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## PieSusan (Dec 31, 2008)

Joe, I am awaiting all my supplies to try to make the NYTimes bread. I will let you know what I think.

I was hoping to hear whether you liked the sour taste that develops over time with your latest experiment.


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## Glorie (Dec 31, 2008)

I didn't know you could over-kneed.  How would I be able to tell if I've kneeded it too much?


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## PieSusan (Dec 31, 2008)

If you are kneading with a kitchenaid type mixer, over time the motor gets hot and that could kill the yeast in your dough. It is why you don't knead too long and then, finish kneading by hand. The same can happen in a food processor--the motor gets too hot and can kill the yeast if you knead too long.


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## Glorie (Dec 31, 2008)

I kneed by hand


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## PieSusan (Dec 31, 2008)

Are you proofing your yeast? Is it alive? Yeast can get too old (check the date on the package or jar). Also, if you use too hot of water you can kill the yeast.


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## PieSusan (Dec 31, 2008)

Here is a great website for you:
Breadworld

You can read all about bread baking and perhaps see what you are doing wrong.


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## JoeV (Dec 31, 2008)

Glorie said:


> I didn't know you could over-kneed.  How would I be able to tell if I've kneeded it too much?



Check out this video. It shows how little kneading is actually required to get good bread, and shows what the dough should look like. It's really the most simple approach to yeasted bread aside from teh NYT bread.

YouTube - Bake perfect French Bread in ten minutes


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## JoeV (Dec 31, 2008)

PieSusan said:


> Joe, I am awaiting all my supplies to try to make the NYTimes bread. I will let you know what I think.
> 
> I was hoping to hear whether you liked the sour taste that develops over time with your latest experiment.



Tomorrow will be day 10 for the dough. Day 8 dough had a good tang to it, but it might just be at it's limit for what I like. I'll post sometime tomorrow.


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## PieSusan (Dec 31, 2008)

Yes, I wondered when you would feel that would happen. However, I wonder if a little piece of the older sourdough added to regular bread dough would give you a proper tang right away. Hmmmm, wanna experiment and let us know?


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## JoeV (Jan 1, 2009)

PieSusan said:


> Yes, I wondered when you would feel that would happen. However, I wonder if a little piece of the older sourdough added to regular bread dough would give you a proper tang right away. Hmmmm, wanna experiment and let us know?


Interesting that you mention the old dough. The book recommends doing that very thing, or at least NOT cleaning out the storage container. I have some smaller containers (Tupperware) that I may use to make 1/2 recipes. 

I just pulled the dough out of the fridge, and was greeted with the strongest "fragrance" to date. This is day 10, and we may be at the end of MY storage life decision. Both DW and me agreed to bake off this loaf just to see if it's edible, and then to start over with a fresh batch of dough in a clean container. The fragrance is quite sharp, and is not at all agreeable with my palette. I'm certain there are some sourdough aficionados who are just salivating while reading this, and this may be the point they are waiting for. Off to the oven....


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