[krisgardens.blogspot.com]

I am SO excited about discovering the bread discussed at the above link. I have made it 4 times so far and it is superb!! And foolproof, and no knead!! And the dough keeps for days in the fridge.
There is a link to Zoes site there, plus she has another called zoebakes.com.
I cant wait for the book to arrive,and even though recently released, it is in its 4th reprint!

I did have to tinker a bit with the recipe the first couple of times, and I do put a dish of boiling water into the home oven for 1st 15 minutes of baking , I also bake on baking paper not with cornmeal, to stop burning smells!!

Do try this if you love homebaked bread. This truly is artisan style and I know my breadmaker cant produce anything like it. The book has recipes to vary the master recipe apparently. Its like waiting for Xmas all over again.

Thank you Lyn, what an interesting website. One could spend hours/days just following the various links.

Thankyou PalmyLyn,

I was just about to spit the dummy out on my homemade bread effort; I have abandoned the breadmaker and had moved onto soda bread, but I just don't seem to get it right somehow!!!
I will endeavour to give this a whirl this weekend.

Thankyou again,
-Kathie-

Hi, I have a Panasonic breadmaker and am happy with results from it. Unfortunately I often used Elfin grain premix but this is no longer available. I have the Alison Holst breadmaking recipe book and have make White, wholemeal, pizza, and foccacia breads from it.
I downloaded the Artisan bread recipe from the given website. Looks good. We live rurally and cannot buy decent bread for love or money. Sad.
What I want to verify is granulated yeast same as surebake that I use in bread machine? Can someone advise me please.
Cheers
Pat

Thanks for your PM Lyn, I've revisited the site and...guess what....I now have the recipe!
Many thanks from my very grateful husband (a breadaholic) and myself.

No, Surebake isn't the same as granulated yeast. Surebake has dough improvers added so is only about half yeast. If you use Surebake you will need to use twice as much as it says or you can use the active yeast. It comes in the same sort of jars but with a different coloured top (I think surebake is yellow and active, red).
I tried out this recipe today but reduced the yeast and the salt to 1 tbsp. I was very happy with the small loaf I made to have with dinner. I won't be retiring the breadmaker but will make the artisan loaves to have as an accompaniment to meals, soup etc.
A point to note: American cups are not the same size as ours. They contain 8 fluid ounces which is equivalent to 237ml not 250ml.

I made this recipe yesterday and baked the first loaf from the dough. My notes on it: I had to add another half cup of water because by the time I had 6 cups of flour in the dough, it was too stiff. I didn't add the last half cup of flour. I haven't got a pizza stone but I do have an old flat grill plate from a shacklock stove I used to have. This is heavy, smooth and heats up the same way a stone would. I put the shaped dough on baking paper for its 40 minute rest before baking then just slid the whole lot onto the grill plate . It worked well, though the bottom was just a tad overdone. Another few minutes and it would have been burnt. I wonder does the bread really have to go onto a hot base. I'll try putting it onto a cold base next time. I've always baked my loaves at around 160C so putting it in the oven at 230 was a bit alien to me. However, except for the base as noted above, the bread came out well although I did put a sheet of foil over the top halfway through. The result was a delicious, chewy crust with a soft crumb. Oh, I used 100% wholemeal flour and the red top yeast.
To those of you who say you'll try it on the weekend, etc, it only takes 5 minutes to mix then it's just a matter of leaving it. I left mine on the bench for around 3 hours and cut off the first bit. Shaped it and left it for a further 40 minutes then baked for 30. So it's not time consuming. Total 'hands-on' time would have been no more than 10 minutes from the time of mixing at 3pm to the time I took it out of the oven at 7.30. Well worth the result. I'll be doing this on a regular basis.

[www.youtube.com]

The link above is a demonstration on how easy it is to cut off a piece of dough and get it oven ready.
As I mentioned, I cant wait to get the book and try the enriched doughs with the same methods. sigh.......my hips are quivering already. lolol

[zoebakes.com]

The errata page which may help if you have a problem with the loaves, above.

Will go back and copy another page which has many questions, and the answers Zoe gives. I have found them useful. Here it is!
[zoebakes.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2008 05:04AM by PalmyLyn.

Does anyone have a link to their broiche dough recipe as well?

I was at work today and decided to check if this book was available from any other library in NZ (I had already checked the Tauranga libraries). I thought it would be worth $5 to interloan it. No luck, unfortunately - no one has it. I put in a request for Tauranga to buy it - fingers crossed.

I made this bread over the weekend and am totally sold! It really has a fantastic flavour.

The first loaf I made was 24 hours after the mix had been in the fridge and it baked up really well, flavour was fantastic. Was interested to see that the texture was quite fine, without many of the characteristics of say a ciabatta loaf.

But then I baked another loaf a day later, and it was a whole different bread. The mix had developed very well, and it baked up just like a ciabatta loaf, chewy crusty on outside, full of holes on the inside.

I now believe the statement I read on the website, about how this mix almost becomes like a sourdough bread after it has develped in the fridge for more than a week.

Was fascinated to see on the utube video that you can keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Am making more this weekend and playing around with it by adding some wholemeal flour and some seeds just to see what happens.....

Thats great Ginny....please let us know what combo's you come up with and the results.
I really have turned into a carb freak thanks to this recipe...lolol

I have just made the dough in PalmyLyn's link and I seem to have made some colossal boob. The recipe calls for 3 cups water, 6 1/2 c flour (Edmonds - for the first time) 1 1/2 tbsp coarse salt. Fine so far. I carefully measured with my proper measuring cup and measuring spoons. I had to add another 2 cups of water to arrive at a moist consistency. Then I tasted it and it was so salty so I added another cup of flour and another cup of water. It still tastes too salty but I will leave it there and see what happens. Maybe the cooking will make it less obvious.

I have made Ciabatta in the past with just a 1/2 tsp yeast so don't think I will have a problem with it rising unless the salt kills it.

I have a woven bread basket of the exact size I want to make and will use this to try and emulate the picture of a nice rounded loaf with those swirly spirals. It will probably stick and collapse, but if I don't try it I will never know.

Verdict later.

Yeah Kerry, forgot to say I also needed to add more water - but thenit's probably because I just decided to tip a whole packet of flour in the bowl (1.5kg) and must have used at least 3-400ml water more, but kept to the salt and yeast quantities in the recipe...wasn't too salty though.......was trying to simplify the whole process with as little measuring as possible - so will make sure I measure the water I use to get the right consistency for 1.5 kg flour next time.......

Okay, the verdict.

I'M IN LOVE... Despite all the extra water and extra flour to combat the salt I have made a lovely tasting and no it isn't really too salty although next time I might reduce it to 1 tbsp instead of 1.5 tbsp. It is soft and chewy in the middle and crisp on the outside with a thin crust. It isn't ciabatta texture yet but that may change next time.

My pizza stone is too big for the oven (okay for pizza) so I had to use an old, heavy drip tray, which I covered with Polenta and initially cooked at 230* but after 15 mins reduced temp to 190* and revved up to 200* last 5 mins when I could see it wasn't going to overcook colourwise. I cooked mine fairly low down and did add the cup of water to a roasting tin for the steaming to take place.

Couldn't find my wicker mould so used a large Japanese soup bowl with a rounded bottom. Lined this with plastic and proved the dough 40 mins by sitting bowl in warm water (not in the instructions) with the scrappy side uppermost and the nicely rounded shape underneath. It then upended gently and easily onto the baking tray with a perfect round presentation which I scored with my scissors..snip snip.

I'm a happy girl tra la la la la laaaaaaaa.. Cap'n Maggy hates me when I'm too happy. He begins to worry and casts wary glances from underneath his unfurling eyelashes.

Hi everyone,

Thank you Lyn, for inviting me to your discussion about the bread. I'm so pleased how many of you are trying the recipe and having such great success! It is so exciting to think that people all over the world are in their kitchen's baking bread!

Please let me know if you have any questions! As you have found out you will have to play with the amount of flour that is right, since we used different measuring cups. I hope the pictures on the website are helpful to see the consistency of the dough. You can reduce the salt to suit your palate with no harm to the bread. The yeast also can be reduced, but you may end up having to let the dough rise much longer.

Can anyone tell me what the protein content is in the flour you are using? I wonder if it is comparable to our unbleached all-purpose or bread flour???

Here is the recipe for the brioche that one of you asked for:

[www.bemidjipioneer.com]

Thanks again! Zoe Francois

www.zoebakes.com

Hey Zoe - thanks so much for the brioche recipe!

Yesterday (as I don't have the recipe book yet), had a play around to get a brown bread recipe - mixing 1/2 quantity white flour, 1/2 quantity wholemeal flour - then put in 100g pumpkin seeds, 100g sunflour seeds, 100g linseed and it's really great - and that was baking some on the first day - I'm trying to wait seven days before I bake some of that mixture again, to see the changes.....

HELP! My dough has taken on a life of its own! I let it sit at room temperature (27C) for 3 hours yesterday rescueing it several times when it bubbled up and wanted to crawl all over the bench. It has now been in the fridge for 24 hours but still very bubbly and active. Is that normal or has it gone 'off?' Haven't baked any yet.

Hi Ginny,

Your seed bread sounds wonderful, I look forward to hearing how it bakes. Do try the brioche, it is one of my favorites in the book!

Thanks, Zoe

Hi Diana,

You may just need a bigger bucket? The dough grows a lot in the initial rise, but then it will settle down after about 24 hours. In fact you won't see much rise out of it while it is resting to go in the oven. It will have great oven spring though!

I think it all sounds normal, unless you are using a type of flour that would cause it to grow more than normal?

Keep me posted on how it bakes up.

Thanks, Zoe

PalmyLyn,
Thank you for bringing this website to our Foodlovers Forum.
I have just made my first batch and have had to chain my husband to the kitchen table leg to stop him stealing it.....LOL
It was so easy. The concept is ideal for just the 2 of us and I now HAVE to have the book !!!

Cheers
Beverley

p.s. Thanks also to Zoe for a great recipe !!!

I am going to give the bread a whirl this weekend, all going well and I tend to be cursed with bread - so watch this space!!!

kathie,
If you mess this up, you need to........oh, well, never mind...hahaha

Thanks for the tip about the scissors, Kerry. I haven't had much luck slashing my bread with a knife but the scissors work well.
When I took my dough out of the fridge after ignoring it for a couple of days I found it had gone a bit crusty on the top but I just mixed the crust back in. After I had shaped my loaf we decided to go out so I put the tray and loaf in the freezer. I took it out the next day and baked it once it had thawed - perfectly delicious bread.

Thanks Zoe for the help. The dough did eventually settle down and I did my first bake yesterday. The bread had a beautiful flavour and texture - very moreish! However, it was very salty, which was probably my mistake. I wasn't sure what 'coarse salt' was so I used 'rock salt'. I will go back to ordinary salt next time and reduce it to a scant tablespoon. I had also added an extra 1/2 cup of water at the begining which I shouldn't have done as the dough was a little too moist.

But the bread is certainly a WINNER! I am keen to try it rolled out as a flatbread and cooked on the bbq hotplate - I'm sure it will work if I brush it with a little oil. Thanks again and I hope your book arrives in NZ soon.

I cooked bread no. 2 yesterday and had some for b/fast. Even better than last time. It is a nice moist and chewy bread which I love. I am going to experiment with loaf no.3 and put it into a small form tin to see what happens. Will it cook higher or sink back into a cow pat shape? We will wait and see!! I think I need coarser cornmeal though as the very fine which is all I have is too powdery.

I too was considering making flat breads Diane. I think they will work very well. In Egypt they use camel dung to fuel their little bread fires. I was thinking maybe Helen could try some of that cow pooh and horse pooh she has been diligently collecting!!!!

I've been reading this thread today with great interest, and will definitely try out the recipe as soon as I can buy some yeast. I checked out the website of my favourite book and music providers, www.fishpond.co.nz, and discovered that they have the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day in stock at the moment, reduced from $64.99 to $38.13.

I have reserved this book at our Chch library so can't wait to get it.

Clare