Authors: Zoe Francois,Jeff Hertzberg MD
Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients (9 page)
5. Form a narrow oval-shaped loaf and let it rest:
Stretch the ball gently to elongate it, and taper the ends by rolling them between your palms and pinching them (for a really professional result, use
the letter-fold method
).
6. Allow the loaf to rest,
loosely covered with plastic wrap, on the prepared pizza peel for 90 minutes (40 minutes if you’re using fresh, unrefrigerated dough). Alternatively, you can rest the loaf on a silicone mat or on a greased cookie sheet without using a pizza peel. Depending on the age of the dough, you might not see much rise during this period; instead, it will spread sideways. More rising will occur during baking (oven spring).
THE BROILER TRAY:
Never use a glass pan to catch water for steam, or it will shatter!
7. Thirty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450°F
, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty metal broiler tray for holding water on any other rack that won’t interfere with the rising bread.
8. Paint and slash:
Just before baking, use a pastry brush to paint the top with water. Sprinkle with the seed mixture if desired. Slash the loaf with ¼-inch-deep parallel cuts across the top. Use a serrated bread knife held perpendicularly to the bread.
9. Baking with steam:
After a 30-minute preheat, you’re ready to bake, even though your oven thermometer might not yet be up to full temperature. With a quick forward-jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the preheated baking stone. If you used parchment paper instead of cornmeal, it will slide onto the stone with the loaf, and if you used a silicone mat or cookie sheet, just place it on the stone. Quickly but carefully pour about 1 cup of hot water from the tap into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam (or use an alternative method to bake with steam;). Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is richly browned and firm to the touch (smaller or larger loaves will require adjustments in resting and baking time). If you used parchment paper, a silicone mat, or a cookie sheet under the loaf, carefully remove it and bake the loaf directly on the stone or on an oven rack two-thirds of the way through baking. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it may audibly crackle, or “sing,” when initially exposed to room-temperature air. Allow the bread to cool completely, preferably on a wire cooling rack, for best flavor, texture, and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled.
10. Store the remaining dough in the refrigerator in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next 14 days.
You’ll notice throughout the book that certain ingredients mean a shorter shelf life. You’ll find that even 24 hours of storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. The dough begins to ferment and take on sourdough characteristics.
RELAX
!
You do not need to monitor doubling or tripling of volume as in traditional recipes. Our dough will not double in size once shaped and rested, but when it goes into the oven you will see “oven spring.”
VARIATION: Herb Bread
This simple recipe shows off the versatility of our approach. Herb-scented breads are great favorites for appetizers and snacks. Follow the directions for mixing the Master Recipe dough and add 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves (2 teaspoons fresh) and ½ teaspoon dried rosemary leaves (1 teaspoon fresh) to the water mixture. You can also use herbs with the other bread recipes in this chapter. This also works with sliced olives, chopped garlic, onions, seeds, nuts, or any other of your favorite ingredients
Moon and Stars Bread (with Sesame Seeds)
“I make this bread for my family when we’re on vacation and have the time and open spaces to notice the night sky. We never seem to track the phases of the moon when we’re home in the city. But out in the country, a full moon is a special cause for excitement. Granted, this loaf is really a crescent moon, not a full moon, but it’s a pretty dramatic shape, with lots of crisp crust formed at the edge from the cuts, and sesame seeds for stars (see
photo
).”
—Jeff
Makes one 1-pound loaf
1 pound (grapefruit-size portion)
Master Recipe dough
Sesame seeds for sprinkling on top crust
Cornmeal, parchment paper, or silicone mat for the pizza peel
1. On baking day,
dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Stretch the ball gently to elongate it, and taper the ends by rolling them between your palms and pinching them (or use the letter-fold method for a really
professional result
). Bend it into a semicircle—this will become your moon shape.
2.
Allow the loaf to rest and rise on a pizza peel prepared with cornmeal or lined with parchment paper for 90 minutes (40 minutes if you’re using fresh, unrefrigerated dough), loosely covered with plastic wrap. Alternatively, you can rest the loaf on a silicone mat or a greased cookie sheet without using a pizza peel.
3. Thirty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 450°F,
with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty metal broiler tray for holding water on any other rack that won’t interfere with the rising bread.
4.
Just before baking, use a pastry brush to paint the top with water, and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Then use kitchen shears to snip 1- to 2-inch deep cuts into the bread on the outside of the curve (see
photo
). There is no need to slash this loaf.
5.
Slide the loaf directly onto the hot stone (or place the silicone mat or cookie sheet on the stone if you used one). Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door (for steam alternatives). Bake for about 30 minutes, until richly browned and firm. If you used parchment paper, a silicone mat, or a cookie sheet under the loaf, carefully remove it and bake the loaf directly on the stone or on an oven rack two-thirds of the way through baking. Smaller or larger loaves will require adjustments in resting and baking time.
6.
Allow the bread to cool on a rack before slicing and eating.
Hearty Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf
For our money, the best artisan loaves are shaped free-form and baked directly on a stone—the result is super-crusty. But especially for children, sometimes a sandwich loaf is exactly what’s needed. So here’s a basic sandwich loaf from the whole grain master recipe.
Makes one 2-pound loaf
2 pounds (cantaloupe-size portion)
Master Recipe dough
