Artisan bread in 5 minutes

I've heard about this easy method for making awesome bread lately, and finally checked it out on make happy. I love experimenting with bread recipes, but to get a really amazing artisan loaf like this, it tends to be rather time consuming. Not anymore!! 

Easiest.Bread.Ever. 

You mix up a big batch of dough- only four ingredients for the white bread:

water

flour

yeast

salt

This is why I started with the white. The wheat requires more ingredients, some I didn't have on hand. But I'm excited to try it next. 

The recipe makes enough dough for 3 or 4 loaves of bread! After mixing, you let it rise a couple hours, then stick it in the fridge and just pull off chunks whenever you want a fresh loaf! It keeps for 2 weeks! Brilliant. 

Here is my first loaf. I shaped the dough a bit, dusted with flour and made slashes in the top. You bake it with a pan of water in the bottom of your oven and the steam makes the crust all gorgeous. 

It was so yummy.

I dipped it in my new aged-for-25-years balsamic vinegar while still warm... amazing.

I decided to copy Marisa and try a garlic cheese loaf. I love the versatility of this dough... there aren't a lot of rules. I like that. I flattened out my dough, the covered it in a mix of melted butter and Johnny's Garlic Seasoning (Costco), then grated aged white cheddar. This is actually my second garlic cheese loaf... I used too much cheese for the first one and it was super oily when it came out of the oven. So don't use too much cheese. :)

Then I rolled it up and tucked it into a parchment lined loaf pan.

Here it is! All melty, cheesy, garlicky goodness.

This was my favorite. 

There is a whole book (or two...) you can buy about this method. There is a huge wait for it at the library, so I suppose I should just buy it. I think this dough would make awesome pizza crust too. Anyone else tried this?

Edited 2/25/11: Click here for the recipe, then scroll down to the section that says "free recipes", and click either the 'White Boule Artisan Free-Form Loaf' or the 'Wheat Artisan Free-Form Loaf". A few people mentioned having trouble finding the measurements and full recipe. Let me know if that helps!

Quick and Easy Homemade Bread- really!

This bread is as quick and easy as a batch of cookies! No rising, no yeast, no kneading... and it's delicious! Not to mention healthy and whole grain. It literally took me 30 minutes total to make. Start to finish. Plus the ingredients are so simple most of us have them all on hand. Gotta love that!

Oatmeal Whole Wheat Quick Bread


1 cup rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Grind oatmeal in a food processor or blender.  In a large bowl, combine oatmeal, flour, baking powder and salt.  In a separate bowl, dissolve honey in oil, then stir in the milk. Combine both mixtures and stir until a soft dough is formed.  Form the dough into a ball (I had to add a bit more flour) and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet.

3. Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes (my loaf needed about 5 minutes more), or until bottom of loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

I found this great recipe on New Nostalgia; what a cool blog!! She has a lot of homemade cleaning products, great recipes, and lots of ways to save money. Worth checking out!

Buttermilk Bread

I had the BEST mother's day weekend. Got a pedi with my mom, grandma, aunts and cousins; had a great lunch, kid-free; got spoiled by my sweet husband; AND had warm sunshine ALL weekend!! Somewhat rare here in Oregon in May!
I also baked this awesome bread, which we used for some super-yummy grilled cheese sandwiches. With grainy mustard and lots of butter. Mmmmm.

It's actually really easy to make, just takes some time because no-knead breads need two rises-- first a long one, then a shorter. This recipe requires about 13-21 hours of rise time. So plan ahead and start it the day before you need it. Also, be sure to use rapid-rising, instant or bread-machine yeast. Regular active dry won't work.

Buttermilk Bread

4 1/2 cups unbleached white bread flour, or all-purpose white flour, plus more as necessary, divided
2 Tbs sugar
1 3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp rapid-rising, instant, or bread machine yeast
1/3 cup powdered buttermilk
2 Tbs melted unsalted butter
3/4 tsp course sea salt, for sprinkling

1. Mix 2 cups water with 1 cup ice cubes in bowl. Combine 4 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast in separate bowl. Vigorously stir 1 3/4 cups plus 2 Tbs. ice water into flour mixture. (Dough should be slightly stiff; stir in just enough additional flour to stiffen slightly, if necessary.) Brush dough top with vegetable oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and let rise at room temperature 12 to 18 hours (first rise).
Oh, I love how it rises.

2. Vigorously stir powdered buttermilk and melted butter into dough, scraping down bowl sides. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup flour, plus more as necessary to yield stiff but still stirrable dough. Lift and fold dough toward center with spatula. Brush dough with vegetable oil, and cover with plastic wrap oiled on side facing dough.
3. Let dough rise 1 1/4 to 2 1/2 hours at room temperature (second rise). For extended rise, refrigerate up to 24 hours, then set out at room temp for second rise.

4. Place oven rack in lower third of oven, and preheat oven to 450. Brush 4-qt dutch oven with oil, set on oven rack, and heat until sizzling hot. Transfer dough to dutch oven. Brush top of dough with water, then sprinkle with sea salt. Slash large X in top of dough with knife or kitchen shears; cover pot, and shake to center dough.

I used my pretty pink sea salt from Hawaii.

5. Lower oven temp to 425. Bake bread 50-55 minutes. If loaf is browned, leave lid on; if not, remove lid. Bake 10-15 minutes more, or until skewer inserted in thickest part of loaf comes out with just a few particles. Bake 5-10 minutes more. Cool 15 minutes in pan, then remove and cool on wire rack.

Homemade Honey-Oat Bread

I decided to try my hand at homemade bread (from scratch, no bread machine... yes, hours of rising!) recently, after stumbling upon some recipes in an issue of Vegetarian Times. These were no-knead breads, which I thought just meant I didn't have to get my hands all dough-y, but turns out they are wonderfully rustic, chewy, dense.... And actually very easy!! My 4yr old loves to help me measure and stir the ingredients. He calls it "love bread", because we make it with love. :)

This honey oat bread makes an awesome grilled cheese sandwich (which is best, IMO, with a little mayo to make the cheese extra creamy, and some grainy mustard for flavor), or just warm from the oven with a bit of butter.

Honey-Oat Bread

1 loaf, 12 slices

1 cup quick-cooking oats (not instant), divided

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (plus more as necessary), divided

1 3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp rapid-rising, instant, or bread machine yeast

6 T honey

1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more for brushing

1. Spread 3/4 cup oats on plate; microwave on high 2 mins, stirring every 30 seconds, or until lightly toasted and fragrant. Cool.

2. Mix 1 1/2 cups water with 1 cup ice cubes in a bowl. Combine 3 1/4 cups flour, salt, yeast, and toasted oats in separate bowl. Measure 1 1/2 cups ice water, and combine with honey and oil in third bowl. Vigorously stir honey mixture into flour mixture. Dough should be slightly stiff; stir in just enough additional flour to stiffen dough slightly, if necessary. Brush top of dough with oil, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and let rise at room temp for 8 to 12 hours (first rise).

3. Vigorously stir dough, scraping down bowl sides. Stir in remaining 1/4 c flour, plus more if dough is at all soft, to create stiff but still stirrable dough. Oil 9x5" loaf pan, transfer dough to pan and smooth surface with well-oiled fingertips. Press remaining 1/4 cup oats on top of loaf. Cover with plastic wrap oiled on side facing dough.

4. Let dough rise 1 1/4 to 2 1/2 hours at room temp (second rise). You can also refrigerate dough for up to 48 hours then set out at room temp for second rise.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove plastic wrap and bake 30-35 mins, or until top is well-browned. Cover with foil and bake 25-3o mins more, or until skewer inserted in thickest part comes out with just a few particles. Bake 5 minutes more to ensure doneness. Cool.