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Questions? Start with the Search Bar: I’ve been posting recipes and answering questions on this site since 2007, so if you have a question, there’s probably a post that addresses it somewhere on this website. So, the first thing to do is to use the Search Bar on the Home Page. In narrower laptop or desktop displays, it sometimes appears right underneath the orange BreadIn5 logo, and on phones it’s right above where it says “How to make bread in five minutes a day?” Just type in the bread style, ingredient, or technique that you’re interested in, and the search-engine will show you posts on the topic, with recipes and answers to many questions.
Another place to look: the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) page (there’s also have a Gluten-Free FAQs page). If you don’t find your answer in the FAQs, you can post baking questions and comments, but please be brief, so I can get to all the questions.
If neither of those get you to the answer you need, click on any “Comments/Reply” field at the top of any post (it doesn’t have to be here on “Ask a Question”) and scroll down to the bottom; then enter your question or comment. Don’t look for the response in your personal email… Come back here to the site on the page where you posted, to look for the answer.
Questions are answered here on the website within 24 hours, often with a reference to a page number in our books where possible. Please remember that the blog is moderated, so your post may not appear until I’ve read and approved it; this can take 24 hours.
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Are freshly milled wheat berries measured differently than store bought whole wheat flour? This would be in reference to making your recipe for 100% Whole Wheat Bread, Plain and Simple.
Thank you! We’ve had great success with you original book (lovely baking smudges throughout!) and just purchased your Healthy Bread book.
It all depends on how your fresh-ground level of “grind” (fine to coarse) compares with commercial WW flour. There can be tremendous variability. Plus, there’s a second variable: how much moisture remains in the “berry” before grinding, as compared to commercial, which is very uniform (it’s always pretty dry). So you’re going to have to experiment; I’d start with commercial WW, see how the dough is supposed to look, and then move on to your fresh-ground. See my post on this at:
https://artisanbreadinfive.com/2009/11/11/using-fresh-ground-whole-wheat-flour-and-some-highlights-from-our-book-tour/
Hi Jeff, I just bought your book and am excited to try out the method! I was wondering how I would bake the Soft Dinner Rolls without a baking stone. I’m sorry if this question was asked before. I could not find it. I see in a section of the book you say to use a baking sheet (jelly roll pan) and preheat that. Would I then place the baking sheet that the rolls are resting on, right on the baking sheet that is in the oven? I don’t have a jelly roll pan however. I only have standard baking sheets, a 6-quart cast iron pot (but I think this won’t be wide enough to spread out the buns) and I also have the Le Creuset Bread Oven. Thank you very much.
This is a soft roll, so you can skip the baking stone. And you don’t need to preheat a baking sheet, and in fact, you can just place the raw rolls on the (heavy gauge) baking sheet, and just put that in the oven. The result should be good unless your oven heat is very uneven, and in that case, you may have to turn the pan around midway. One other suggestion: for the first recipe you make, probably a good idea to start with the simplest recipe, the boule from chapter 5. So you get a sense of how to handle this wet dough.
Helllo Jeff. I have several of your books and really enjoy baking with them. I have a question about your Pumpkin Pie Bioche recipe in The New Healthy Bread in Five Minutes A Day on p. 354. It the book that I have, it lists two water amounts without mentioning the divided water in the recipe directions. It lists Lukewarm water as 2 cups or 455 g and five lines lower it lists Lukewarm water 11/4 cups or 285 g?
I’ve noticed that the recipe on your website only lists “1 1/4 cups lukewarm water.”
Can you please clarify which is correct?
Thanks,
Keith
So sorry, that was a typo in the book that was noticed some years back and I put it up on the Corrections page, at https://artisanbreadinfive.com/2016/10/01/corrections-to-the-first-printings-of-the-new-healthy-bread-in-five-minutes-a-day-2016/. The website is correct.
Hello, can you tell me which book has your Bradley Ben Beer Bread recipe in it? I have 2 of your books and don’t see it in those. I have watched the video on Youtube, but I like having an actual book (LOL)
Thank You for your time
Sure…
That’s in The New Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day (2016, on Amazon at http://amzn.to/1NdVkgj). It’s also in the original edition of that book (2009), but that’s out of print and very hard to find.
I have a question, I made the Artisian Master Recipe for Whole Grain Artisan Free-Form Loaf, the bread tastes terrific but after a 90 minute rest the bread had almost run off of the peel. I used King Arthur Whole Wheat flour and King Arthur AP flour and increased the water to 965grams per the instructions. I aslo added Vital Wheat Gluten. The dough worked easily and I thought I had nicely shaped loaves of about a pound each. Rested for 90 minutes under a metal bowl and …. slump. I got a little oven spring but not very much. Thoughts appreciated.
Kevin James
Sounds like it’s just too much water relative to the flour, and you’ll be fine decreasing it until it’s not so loose. Are you weighing the flours in addition to the water? If so, just decrease the water to 4 cups/2 lb/910 grams. Any chance you made a measurement error though? Reversed the amounts for AP versus WW flour?
I recently bought a lidded cast-iron loaf pan to make a better shape for sandwich bread in my oven which can’t really hold the steam in on its own. However, getting the dough into the pre-heated loaf pan is a bit of comedy. When I rise dough on a cutting board (as I usually do), it tends to spread out as much as up, quickly exceeding the length and width of my loaf pan. I haven’t bought a banneton or similar, because my bread in five dough tends to be wet enough I think it would stick.
I’m a working mom with only so much time for baking… what is the best lazy-person way to raise dough for a loaf pan?
What I do is…
Just let it rise after you take it out of the fridge, right in the (greased) pan you are baking in. Cannot miss. Unless I’m missing something here. That’s the best way with my very moist dough (assuming you’re using one of my recipes).
I thought about that, but with it being a thicker cast-iron loaf pan (think dutch oven to hold in the steam, but loaf pan shaped), I was worried that not preheating the pan would do something weird. Time to experiment!
Should work out fine, but if you find that the crust isn’t browning, or it’s just taking too long to bake, you can pre-heat the pan. It probably will need greasing (cast-iron isn’t quite non-stick, esp for wet dough like this) and that’ll be a little challenging with a hot iron pan.
I would love to purchase the Holiday and Celebration Bread book. Can you let me know how to go about that?
thanks for all you do both at the bench and at the bedside. ju RN
Do you know what the fiber content is for the granola used for the granola bread is?
I don’t, but you could probably figure it out from the fiber content of oats, which are the bulk of it
Hi there, i make the quinoa bread all the time but I make it with 100% whole wheat, but I feel like I haven’t gotten the adjustments quite right. Any tips for converting the partial WW recipes to full? Specifically quinoa bread (p132) and mixed berry bread (p197). Thank you!
That recipe appeared in two of my books, which one are you working from (what year published, 2009 or 2016? might be the easiest way for me to get to the bottom of this).
Healthy Bread in 5 – 2009!
Got it; assume you’re getting over-dense or gummy results. With the quinoa or berries weighing things down, this may be a tall order. If I were re-working these recipes with 100% WW, here would be the things I’d try:
1. Shorter loaves, or even flatbread. Less weighing down the mass of dough.
2. Increase the vital wheat gluten 25 to 50%
3. Increase the water by 1/4 cup or less
4. Decrease the water! Not sure which is the better option.
5. Actually knead the dough before rising, to provide more structure.
Also, make sure your oven is fully preheated to get the max oven-spring possible with these heavy mixtures.
Any particular amount of increased VWG and water? 🙂 And any idea for the correct amount of WW flour?
I make the quinoa bread the most often… If I increase the vital wheat gluten then I have to increase the water right? Definitely dense – a little gummy but I assumed maybe it was just under baked even though the crust was baked. (I tried turning the temp down to 400F and baking for longer per a different thread too. It helped a little?)
I mostly bake halved… I’ve tried 360g WW + 2c water or 455g WW + 2c water or 360g WW + 1.75c water. I assumed I shouldn’t replace 1:1?
Yes, you need to increase the water when you add vital wheat gluten.
I was wondering g how long I can leave the refrigerated bread out before preparing it to cook. Can I take it out at 9 and cook it around 3?
It may over-proof in that time and show a poor rise in the oven. Three hours is about the max.
It’ll still be good your way, but it’ll be a flatbread, spreading sideways.
Actually I think the dough has been too wet so I increased the vwg. It’s way better but I will decrease the water next time. I mostly just make it fresh/same day and bake at 400 per your other post.
As you’re seeing, it’ll take some experimentation. As you change the water, make the changes a couple tablespoons (30 grams) at a time.
I have your first two books from years ago. I’ve since moved to using fresh milled flour. Does your new book contain recipes for use with fresh milled flour?
No, but type the words fresh ground into the search bar above and you’ll get to a post I did on that
Hello!
I have your wonderful Holiday and Celebration Bread book. My son and his wife are coming to visit us for the holidays. We are of Finnish heritage, but none of us has ever been to Finland. I thought it might be fun to make your Pulla recipe with them, but I have a question about the butter in the recipe: Is the 1 stick butter supposed to be melted and cooled, like for your brioche, challah and panetone doughs, or just softened? The recipe doesn’t seem to specify.
Thanks so much for coming up with this system for making bread. Since I started about a year ago, I have probably made at least 30 batches of bread–that’s way more than I made in the previous 30 years!
-Frank
Thanks for the kind words, Frank!
Is it ok to use a metal bowl for rising the dough in the fridge?
So long as it’s not highly reactive, like a stainless steel bowl? What kind are you thinking?
I have made this bread three times. Twice it has failed. Failed becuase it was too wet and didn’t raise. Please, can you give me help in 1/2ing this recipe so that it doesn’t continue to fail?
Does it matter what size container you put the dough in? I am very careful but do t understand it.
Thanks
Which of my recipes are you using? If it’s too wet, that speaks to a measurement problem. Better to weigh ingredients, but if not, be sure to use the scoop-and-sweep method to measure flour, which is on video at this link in this website: https://artisanbreadinfive.com/2010/04/28/how-we-measure-our-flour-using-the-scoop-and-sweep-method/
And you can always just divide all the measurements by 2 and you can halve the recipe.
I have had good luck with the 5-minute bread, make it several times a week. Measuring got me much better results than using cup measuring. Today, I doubled the recipe. It did state in the book that it can be doubled. I found the consistency much wetter after mixing it in my large plastic food container. I did add more flour, but was afraid to add too much. Any reason I shouldn’t have the same consistency?
No, if you simply double the quantities, and weighed them, as you suggest, it shouldn’t have changed. There must be some error in measurement. Just add back flour until it looks like what you’re used to.