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 (8 page)
If you do this with egg-enriched dough, to be on the safe side, do the rise in the refrigerator. A long countertop rise could be risky due to spoilage of the eggs.
“MY LOAF-PAN BREAD STUCK TO THE PAN—WHAT DO I DO?”
When making breads in a loaf pan using high-moisture dough, we recommend nonstick pans, but even then, we always coat with a thin layer of oil, butter, margarine, or shortening. Wet dough tends to behave like glue during the resting/rising period for loaf-pan breads. Occasionally, a loaf will stick to a pan, but there’s an easy way to get it out. After baking, simply wait about 10 minutes, and the loaf will steam free of the pan and you should be able to nudge it out easily. The crust that was in contact with the pan will be a bit moist and soft but it should dry out nicely, or you can put it back into the oven (out of the pan) for 3 to 5 minutes. Whatever you do, don’t try to wrestle a hot bread out of a stuck pan, or you’ll end up tearing it.
“WHAT DO I DO ABOUT CHANGES IN THE DOUGH TOWARD THE END OF THE STORAGE LIFE?”
Some testers found that toward the end of the storage life of a batch of dough, part of the batch turned sticky and liquidy, and smelled overly fermented. If that happens, don’t throw away the dough, just work in enough flour to absorb the excess moisture, and wait at least 2 hours at room temperature before using. If you are not using it right away, refrigerate it again; you can keep it until the end of the dough’s recommended life. And if your long-stored dough isn’t holding its shape, it will still make great flatbread or loaf-pan bread.
Discard any dough that develops mold on its surface, identified as dark or light patches on the surface of any food, with or without a fuzzy appearance.
Dark liquid collecting above the dough does
not
indicate mold,
simply pour it off and the dough underneath will be fine for use.
“WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO STORE BAKED BREAD?”
The best way to keep cut bread in good condition is to store it cut-side down on a nonporous flat surface like a plate or a clean countertop. Don’t use foil, plastic wrap, or bags, which create a humid environment. This wrecks the crust by allowing it to absorb water. An exception is pita bread, which is supposed to have a soft crust and can be stored in a plastic bag after it cools completely.
Breads made with dough that has been well aged stay fresh the longest, because by-products of fermentation are natural preservatives. Keep that in mind if you would prefer to bake every other day. Use day-old bread for making bread crumbs in the food processor or recycle it into new loaves as
“altus”
(see
sidebar
).
LAZY SOURDOUGH SHORTCUT:
When your dough bucket is finally empty, or nearly so, don’t wash it! Immediately re-mix another batch in the same container. In addition to saving the cleanup step, the aged dough stuck to the sides of the container will give your new batch a headstart on sourdough flavor. Just scrape it down and it will hydrate and incorporate into the new dough. Don’t do this with egg-enriched dough; the container should be washed after use.
You can take that even further, by adding a more sizable amount of old dough from your last batch. You can use up to 2 cups of old dough in the batch; just mix it in with the water for your new batch and let it stand until it becomes soupy before you start mixing the new recipe. An immersion blender can be particularly helpful for blending the old dough with water. Add this liquid to your dry ingredients as in the recipe. Professionals call the old dough that you add to a new batch
pâte fermentée
(paht fair-mon-táy), which means nothing more than
“
fermented dough.”
See safety note on
immersion blenders
.
THE MASTER RECIPE
A Whole Grain Artisan Free-Form Loaf
We’re showcasing a free-form loaf that’s rich in whole wheat, shaped as an elongated oval, and topped with a delicious and nutritious seed mixture (if you’d like to start with a 100% whole wheat recipe, apply these directions to
“100% Whole Wheat Bread, Plain and Simple”
). It bakes easily and makes terrific sandwiches. Our wet dough develops sourdough character over 2 weeks of storage in the refrigerator. By mixing dough in bulk without kneading and using it as it’s needed, you’ll truly be able to make this bread in 5 minutes a day (excluding resting and oven time).
Vital wheat gluten
helps the whole grain dough rise and keeps the mix resilient and storable. The best way to get vital wheat gluten into the dough is by mixing it with the dry ingredients first. So you will start with the dry ingredients and then add in the liquids. This
easy recipe and the variations
that follow will give you the basic skills you need to complete the recipes in the rest of the book.
Makes enough dough for at least four 1-pound loaves. The recipe is easily doubled or halved.
INGREDIENT | VOLUME (U.S.) | WEIGHT (U.S.) | WEIGHT (METRIC) |
Whole wheat flour | 5 ½ cups | 1 pound, 9 ounces | 720 grams |
All-purpose flour, unbleached | 2 cups | 10 ounces | 270 grams |
Granulated yeast | 1½ tablespoons (2 packets) | 0.55 ounces | 15 grams |
Kosher salt | 1 tablespoon | 0.55 ounces | 15 grams |
Vital wheat gluten | ¼ cup | 13/8 ounces | 35 grams |
Lukewarm water | 4 cups | 2 pounds | 900 grams |
Cornmeal or parchment paper for the pizza peel | |||
1 to 2 tablespoons of whole seed mixture for sprinkling on top crust: sesame, flaxseed, caraway, raw sunflower, poppy, and/or anise (optional) |
WEIGHING YOUR INGREDIENTS
We’ve included equivalents for weight for this recipe. Many of our testers found it easier to weigh ingredients using digital scales, which are becoming less expensive all the time. Simply press the “tare” (zeroing) button before adding an ingredient, then “tare” again to add the next ingredient. To convert other recipes, see our
weight conversion table
.
Mixing and Storing the Dough
1. Measure the dry ingredients:
Use dry-ingredient measuring cups (avoid 2-cup measures, which compress the flour) to gently scoop up flour from a bin, then sweep the top level with a knife or spatula (you can also weigh your ingredients using the equivalents provided). Whisk together the flours, yeast, salt, and vital wheat gluten in a 5-quart bowl, or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded plastic food container or food-grade bucket (not airtight).
2. Mix with water—kneading is unnecessary:
Warm the water until it feels slightly warmer than body temperature (about 100°F). Add all at once to the dry ingredients and mix without kneading, using a spoon, a 14-cup food processor (with dough attachment), or a heavy-duty stand mixer (with paddle). You might need to use wet hands to get the last bit of flour to incorporate if you’re not using a machine. Using warm water will allow the dough to rise fully in about 2 hours.
Don’t knead!
It isn’t necessary. You’re finished when everything is uniformly moist, without dry patches. This step is done in a matter of minutes, and will yield a dough that is wet and remains loose enough to conform to the shape of its container.
3. Allow to rise:
Cover the dough with a lid (not airtight) that fits well to the container. If you are using a bowl, cover it loosely with plastic wrap. Lidded (or even vented)
plastic buckets designed for dough storage
are readily available ; leave it open a crack for the first 48 hours to prevent buildup of gases; after that you can usually seal it. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flattens on the top), approximately 2 hours, depending on the room’s temperature and the initial water temperature. Longer rising times, even overnight, will not harm the result. After rising, refrigerate in the lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 14 days. Fully refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and is easier to work with than dough at room temperature. So, the first time you try our method, it’s best to refrigerate the dough overnight (or at least 3 hours), before shaping a loaf. Once refrigerated, the dough will seem to have shrunk back upon itself. It will never rise again in the bucket, which is normal for our dough. Whatever you do,
do not punch down this dough!
With our method, you’re trying to retain as much gas in the dough as possible, and punching it down knocks gas out and will make your loaves denser.
WHAT WE STILL
DON’T
HAVE TO DO: STEPS FROM TRADITIONAL ARTISAN BAKING THAT WE OMITTED
- Mix a new batch of dough every time we want to make bread
- Proof yeast
- Knead dough
- Rest/rise the loaves in a draft-free location—it doesn’t matter!
- Fuss over doubling or tripling of dough volume
- Punch down and re-rise:
Never
punch down stored dough! - Poke rising loaves, thereby leaving indentations to be sure they’ve proofed.
Now you know why it only takes five minutes a day, not including resting and baking time.
On Baking Day
4. Shape a loaf in 20 to 40 seconds.
First, prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal (or lining it with parchment paper, or use a silicone mat) to prevent your loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven. Dust the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece of dough, using a serrated knife or kitchen shears. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating a quarter-turn as you go to form a ball. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it’s not intended to be incorporated into the dough. The bottom of the ball may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out and adhere during resting and baking. The correctly shaped final product will be smooth and cohesive. The entire process should take no more than 20 to 40 seconds. If you work the dough longer than this, it might make your loaf dense.
