Homemade Artisan Bread

Alternately titled Why didn't I do this years ago!?!

My new favorite book: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking. This book teaches you how to make delicious bread with that crunchy, crackely crust that costs $4 a loaf at the grocery and is served in tons of restaurants!

We are in the midst of recovering from another bout with illness, so forgive my scatterbrained-ness!

My second homemade loaf...the first got eaten before I could take a photo!

This book teaches you how to mix your dough ahead of time and keep it in the refridgerator for up to 2 weeks. When you want fresh bread, simply cut a piece off the dough, let it rest on the counter, make a few slashes and bake in a super hot oven. You get something like this...

Loaf #3 - this one turned out much prettier because I'm getting the hang of how deeply to slash the bread before it is baked.

Look at that crust...its amazing! This loaf I made while I had a fever - it is truly that easy.

Little hands can't resist!

My husband looks in the fridge and spies the dough and asks for artisan bread...and every time I turn on the oven my daughter says, making more bread!

Our most recent loaf:

These loaves are small enough that our family can finish one off at a meal. While that can be a good thing (because it tastes best when fresh), you may need to tweak it for larger families, by making 2 loaves, or simply larger loaves.

Delicious holes inside! And you get a bit of sourdough flavor to boot! The longer the dough sits in the fridge, the stronger the flavor becomes.

I'll be back with the recipes and more information next week when things have settled down a little. Have you read this book or baked this kind of bread?

I'm pretty sure I have a ton of food waste this week, so I'll be back tomorrow with a photo, unfortunately.