Recipes with Sandi Mardigian

I’m Not Cheap

I’m not cheap, but I sure do hate to spend money for something that I can do myself. I’ll be the first to admit that I can’t sew to save my life, so I’ll willingly pay somebody else who knows the secret to threading a needle and making a hem that doesn’t come unraveled. I will even pony up for a sweater, although I knit, because my attention span is unreliable and I rarely have the time and patience to finish a project.

This brings me to bread-making. I certainly know how to make bread, but most bread-making takes a certain amount of planning. And, quite frankly, although I can make a variety of passable breads and rolls, what I really wanted to make was a good loaf of artisan bread. You know, crusty and chewy with a bit of a sourdough bite. Oh, yeah, and I wanted it to be fast and easy and inexpensive. So, one morning on the golf course when my friend Nancy told me about a new approach to baking artisan bread, it caught my attention. She had heard about it on NPR and it was called “5 minute Artisan Bread”. Armed with that information and an unshakable faith in Google, I had all the information that I needed to get started by that afternoon. By the following afternoon I had made my first loaf of this bread and have not stopped since.

This bread flies in the face of almost every rule of bread-making. It is a form of a process called a “preferment”. A preferment is a technique that embraces a variety of bread doughs that are made several hours or more in advance of mixing or using the final dough. It couldn’t be more fundamental. With four basic ingredients, flour, salt, yeast and water, you will “make magic”. You will need a few pieces of special equipment: a baking stone, a baking peel, a one gallon plastic sealable container, parchment paper and a cooling rack. If you don’t own a baking stone or peel, borrow them from a friend and see if you will really use them. They aren’t particularly expensive, but who needs another useless impulse buy cluttering up our cupboards? Please note: this bread is best baked on a stone: it is shaped, placed on parchment paper and slipped off of the baking peel onto the preheated baking stone. Conventional bread pans will not work. You may use nonstick pans, but they must still be greased or sprayed with nonstick spray. However, you will sacrifice the crispy crust. Besides which, I think the rustic appearance of the hand-shaped loaf is a thing of beauty.

If you like the concept and the results, I urge you to buy ‘Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day’ by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. They are responsible for streamlining this technique and for my epiphany. The book will take you from breads and pizzas to multigrain doughs and even pastries.

One final note. Say good-bye to $5.00 loaves of bread that may or may not have been baked that day and have a list of ingredients that would stump a chemist. Not only do you know what’s in this bread and when it was baked, but at today’s prices, a loaf of this bread will cost about $ .33 for ingredients.

Leaves you a little extra to pay somebody to sew that hem.

Five Minute Artisan Bread

Ingredients

1.5 tablespoons granulated yeast
1.5 tablespoons kosher salt
3 cups warm water, (approximately 100F)
scant 6 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, (approximately 27 ounces)
additional flour for dusting and shaping
cornmeal, semolina or parchment paper

Method

1. Pour warm water into a large (at least one gallon) transparent, re-sealable, plastic container. Stir in yeast and salt.

2. Stir in flour with a large spoon and mix until all the flour is incorporated with no dry patches and of uniform consistency. Dough will be wet and loose enough to conform to shape of container. Do not knead. Cover lightly with cling film but do not make airtight.

3. Allow dough to rise at room temperature for at least 2 hours and up to 5 hours, until the dough begins to flatten on top or collapse. (AT THIS POINT DOUGH CAN BE REFRIGERATED FOR UP TO 2 WEEKS IN AN AIRTIGHT CONTAINER)

4. Refrigerated dough is easier to work with so refrigerate dough overnight or for at least 3 hours.

5. When ready to bake, place a metal baking pan on the bottom shelf of the oven and a baking stone in lower third of oven. Preheat at 450F for at least 40 minutes. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a baking peel or sprinkle peel with cornmeal or semolina.

6. Lightly flour work surface and hands with flour and pull off a grapefruit size piece of dough, cutting with a kitchen scissors. Gently work into a rounded loaf for 30 to 60 seconds.

7. Place shaped dough on the prepared peel. (Prepare peel by dusting lightly with cornmeal or semolina. The best and easiest method is to place a sheet of parchment paper on the peel, place the dough on the paper and slide the paper with the dough onto the baking stone.) Let rest, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Refrigerate unused dough in lidded container. Lightly dust top of loaf with flour and deeply score top.

8. Slide dough onto preheated baking stone and pour 1 cup of hot tap water in baking pan and quickly close the door. I also like to spray with water from a spray water bottle every five minutes or so, but do not keep the door open for long.

9. Bake until crust is well-browned and firm to the touch, about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the loaf and your oven. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack.
Note: As tempting as it may be, do not slice the baked bread until it has thoroughly cooled.