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Artisan Bread In Five

Minutes A Day,
Seriously
J U MP TO RECIPE 5 reviews

J U NE 2 2, 2 0 0 8 (updated July 16, 2020)

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Last week, NPR aired a brief program

about rising food prices and how
people are changing their behavior as
a result. Listeners called in sharing their
money-saving secrets: Some people
had begun fishing and hunting, others
had begun walking or riding their bikes
to market, and others had begun
learning to make dishes from scratch.
One man resolved to learn how to bake
bread.

I thought this last idea sounded a little

odd. With bread often being one of the
least expensive items at the market,
surely, I thought, their are better ways to
save money.

I decided to investigate. Over the

weekend, I made a visit to Henry’s
Market (to purchase goat’s milk for a
rosemary-gelato round two attempt)
where I recorded some prices. A one-
pound loaf of La Brea bread (the
gourmet bread created by Nancy
Silverton sold at grocery stores
nationwide) costs on average $5.35.
(To give you a range, the least
expensive La Brea Country White
Sourdough loaf cost $3.99 a pound
and the most expensive Olive loaf cost
$6.99 for 14.5 ounces.) Now, La Brea
bread is one of the more expensive
varieties of bakery-style bread found at
grocery stores, but it’s also one of the
best, and I’ve chosen to use it as the
measure in this experiment for that
reason.

Now, on to Artisan Bread in Five

Minutes a Day. I’ve been meaning to
open this book since receiving it at
Christmas from my father-in-law, who
had read about it in this November
2007 NYTimes article: “Soon The
Bread Will Be Making Itself”.
Seriously, after I made the initial batch
of starter, the bread took no more than
five minutes of active time to prepare.
(Plan on a 40 minute rise plus a 30
minute bake). And the result? Five stars.
Ben and I ate almost an entire one-
pound loaf in one sitting.

Preparing the loaves is so simple that I

made bread on both Saturday and
Sunday nights of this weekend, and I
still have enough starter to prepare two
more loaves this week. The starter keeps
for at least two weeks in the
refrigerator. This method, created by Jeff
Hertzberg, a physician from
Minneapolis, entails no kneading and
can be prepared by the most novice of
bread makers. If you have any inkling to
learn to make bread or if you are a pro
and desire a simpler method, buy this
book: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a
Day: The Discovery That
Revolutionizes Home Baking.

So, what does one of these loaves cost

to prepare? Using the price of flour
given by the American Farm Bureau
— a 5-lb. bag of flour costs on average
$2.39 — and prices for yeast and salt
listed at Henry’s Market — a 3-lb.
pound box of kosher salt costs $3.49
and a three-pack of yeast costs $2.39
— a one-pound loaf of homemade
artisan bread costs about 60 cents to
prepare from scratch. (Flour costs about
3 cents per ounce; yeast, 35 cents per
teaspoon; and salt, 1 cent per
teaspoon.) Using Henry’s Market
prices, too, this estimate of 60 cents is
likely on the high side.

The average price of a loaf of La Brea

bread is almost nine times more
expensive. Even the cheapest loaf of
bakery-style bread, priced at $1.29 a
pound, costs over twice as much as a
loaf of homemade bread. Upon closer
analysis it seems the man who called
into the radio program actually might
be on to something.

Even if saving money is not your goal,

however, give this recipe a stab purely
to experience how truly simple bread
making at home can be. I’m dying to try
other recipes in this book such as
roasted red pepper fougasse, Italian
semolina, and sun-dried tomato
parmesan but for now, I’m extremely
happy with the results of this master
boule: It’s perfectly salty, moist and airy
and delectable all around.

We ate three-quarters of this loaf in

one sitting. It’s so yummy!

Save

The Master
Recipe: Boule
4.8 from 5 reviews

yield: 4 1-lb loaves

PRI N T REC I PE

PI N REC I PE

DESCRIPTION

Adapted From Artisan Bread in Five

Minutes A Day by Jeff Hertzberg and
Zoë François

INGREDIENTS

3 cups lukewarm water

1½ T. granulated yeasts (1½

packets)

1½ T. kosher or other coarse

salt

6½ cups (29.25 oz.) unsifted,

unbleached, all-purpose white
flour, measured with the
scoop-and-sweep method

INSTRUCTIONS

Mixing and Storing the

Dough

1. Warm the water slightly: It

should feel just a little warmer
than body temperature, about
100ºF.

2. Add yeast and salt to the

water in a five-quart bowl, or
preferably, in a resealable,
lidded (not airtight) plastic food
container or food-grade bucket.
Don’t worry about getting it all to
dissolve. (I added the yeast, then
the flour and then the salt on top
of the flour to avoid killing any of
the yeast, but apparently this is
unnecessary.)

3. Mix in the flour: Add all of the

flour at once, measuring it with
dry-ingredient measuring cups,
by gently scooping the flour, then
sweeping the top level with a
knife or spatula; don’t press
down into the flour as you scoop
or you’ll throw off the
measurement by compressing.
Mix with a wooden spoon. If
necessary, reach into your mixing
vessel with very wet hands and
press the mixture together. Don’t
knead! It isn’t necessary. You’re
finished when everything is
uniformly moist, without dry
patches. Dough should be wet
and loose enough to conform to
the shape of the container.

4. Allow to rise: Cover with a lid

(not airtight) that fits well to the
container you’re using. Allow the
mixture to rise at room
temperature until it begins to
collapse (or at least flattens on
the top), approximately two
hours. You can use a portion of
the dough any time after this
period, but fully refrigerated
dough is less sticky and is easier
to work with. So, the first time you
try this method, it’s best to
refrigerate the dough overnight
before shaping a loaf.

ON BAKI N G DAY:

5. Sprinkle the surface of your

refrigerated dough with flour. Pull
up and cut off a 1-pound
(grapefruit-size), using a serrated
knife. Hold the mass of dough in
your hands and add a little more
flour as needed so it won’t stick
to your hands. Gently stretch the
surface of the dough around to
the bottom on all four sides,
rotating the ball a quarter-turn as
you go. The correctly shaped
final product will be smooth and
cohesive. The entire process
should take no more than 30 to
60 seconds.

6. Place the shaped ball on a

cornmeal-covered pizza peel. (If
you aren’t planning on baking
the bread on a pizza stone, just
let the dough rest on a cornmeal-
covered cutting board. Allow the
loaf (uncovered) to rest on the
peel for about 40 minutes.

7. Twenty minutes before baking,

preheat the oven to 450ºF, with a
baking stone placed on the
lowest rack. (If you don’t have a
stone, don’t worry.) Place an
empty broiler tray for holding
water on any other shelf that
won’t interfere with the rising
bread. (This helps to make the
crust crispy, but your bread will
still be delicious if you omit this
step.)

8. Dust the top of the loaf

liberally with flour, which will
allow the slashing knife to pass
without sticking. Make several ¼-
inch-deep slashes across the
bread. (Again, if you omit this
step, your bread will taste the
same.)

9. With a quick forward jerking

motion of the wrist, slide the loaf
off the pizza peel and onto the
preheated stone. (Alternatively,
butter a Pyrex dish or baking pan
and place the bread in the pan.)
Quickly but carefully pour about
one cup of hot tap water into the
broiler tray and close the oven
door to trap the steam. Bake for
about 30 minutes, or until the
crust is nicely browned and firm
to the touch. Allow to cool
completely, preferably on a wire
rack.

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RECIPE?
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If you bake frequently, purchase yeast

in bulk bags and store in your
refrigerator or freezer in an airtight 1,995

container. You’ll save a ton of money:

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