Books: the new artisan bread in 5 minutes a day

and it just gathers dust quite frankly.  I came to the conclusion that good quality proper bread takes a little more time and care than '5 minutes'.  The bread was always a dissapointment.  Also keeping the dough in the fridge (yeasted dough) leads to a slight alcoholic taste.

I think that people who have not made bread before do find the book impressive.......... until they know better haha

To suggest a bread book it will help to know what breads hold your interest. Do you bake with yeast or sourdough? And to get a better idea of what you are lokking for, which bread books do you own and what are your favorites.

I am sure we can help you.

Danny

I use this as my base book currently.  I'm looking to convince my wife to let me buy Hamelman's after a trial, but this book does one thing well: No frills, fast, decent bread.  My friends and family love it.  I've had several people tell me I need to sell it.

This is my "daily bread."  The Crust White Sandwich loaf on page 78 is made in a large glass mixing bowl with a loose lid, left out for a 2 hour period (or until the dough springs back slightly).  I need to make small adjustments to the hydration to get a consistent dough, but that's to be expected where i'm at (we vary between 50-100% humidity).  Shaping is by gluten cloaking, which, as far as I can tell, is high(ish) hydration dough shaping by another name.  When I take it out, I use a bowl scraper, get it on the county and lightly dust my hands and the surface, then pick it up and shape it, pulling down.  I proof with my gas oven's bread proofing feature, which is a good warm part of my house.

It's put in a pan and left to rise for 40-50 minutes.  I've found that for me, more will risk overproofing.  Slashing this dough correctly is important.  One long slash, down the middle, as far as the bread will allow.  Baked as instructed.

The huge advantage is that it takes roughly 5 minutes of actual effort to make this bread.  The rest is timers.  That's why it's my bread for others :)

In a nutshell, get it for the master recipe and, if you're new, the generalized tips.  It's very light on theory but heavy on practical advice.  If you already know the basics of bread then this book will be less useful.  I mean things like ways to ferment, shape, steam, oven temp, temp control, weight, etc.  It even has a bit on using nonenriched leftover dough from the previous batch to help with the flavor of the new one.  

If you already know a dough like this, this book will not help you.