Hey, Seattle friends, check us out on KCPQ-TV (Fox) on Monday morning (November 2, 2009). We’ll be appearing with anchor Mark Wright in a last-minute TV segment. Gets more and more interesting every day of this tour.
Then on to FoodPortunity and the UW bookstore for events Monday night, hope to see people there. Portland November 3, and then San Francisco November 4-November 7
I’m sometimes asked to provide details that don’t appear in a web version of a recipe here on our site. In many cases, the web versions contain the full recipe, including all baking instructions, temperatures, etc. But in most cases, I can’t do that. Why not?
Well, to make a long story short, my publisher would disown me if I put all our full-detail recipes up here on the website, for free. There’d really be little reason for anyone to buy the books. This site is mainly a way of reaching out to readers, and supporting them as they work on recipes that appear in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day and Gluten-Free Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and any of our non-US editions. If the answer to your question appears in one of the books, I’ll probably just refer you there.
I really enjoy connecting with readers this way, and I’m proud to be among the few cookbook authors who personally answer questions from people who’ve bought my books (thank you!). I hope to talk with all of you about our recipes soon. –Jeff
Note: BreadIn5.com is reader supported. When you buy through links on the site, BreadIn5 LLC earns commissions.
Andrew Zimmern’s phenomenal career is testament to the way Minneapolis has become a great food town–he got his start right here, at the long-departed (but wonderful) Bravo. And who was his pastry chef? Zoe Francois of course.
So we were flattered when Andrew started baking from an advance copy of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and endorsed the book on the back cover:
“…Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg have amazingly demystified the arcane and delightful world of artisan bread. Now, on the heels of time sensitivity (Hello…5 minutes??? Really? Yes!), comes a baking book for the health-conscious, and it couldn’t be more timely. Bottom line, I would crawl across a desert of broken glass to hop into their loaf pan…”
–Andrew Zimmern, Bizarre Foods America
Apples in a savory tart/pizza? Absolutely! One typical combo in a savory fruit tart is blue cheese and pear, but this is the Upper Midwest in October, and our friend Lindsey runs the world’s finest organic apple orchard: Rising Sun Farm and Orchard, near River Falls, Wisconsin. We went apple-picking with friends and ended up with what seemed like bushels of apples. This will be the first of many new apple recipes, and it was a chance to play with a better way to get a really thin crust for this kind of tart or pizza… Read More
In our first book, we covered the classic European baking tradition, and that meant lots and lots of bread from France, a country where I love to eat anything, but especially bread. Sweet Provencal Flatbread with Anise Seeds is a marvelous example of a bread that is so versatile that it can be split to make great sandwiches today, and then dunked, stale, into strong cafe au lait tomorrow morning. You can mix a whole batch with the sugar, orange zest, and anise seeds, or roll a little of those three into a plain dough to make just a pound’s worth (see end of post). Read More
Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking has a terrific French bread recipe, but it takes about three days to prepare—still, it was one of the first loaves I ever was really, really happy with years ago. Back then, I wasn’t thinking about brioche, or brioche-wrapped beef tenderloin, but you can bet that I am now. The brioche recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is one of the most popular ones in our book. Recently I remembered that Julia Child’s Beef Wellington recipe actually calls for brioche rather than the more traditional puff pastry (it’s in Volume Two of “Mastering the Art…”). Voilà! Easy Beef Wellington? Well, all I can tell you is that the pastry part becomes easy if you have our brioche dough in the freezer or fridge. And the result is scrumptious and festive. But five minutes a day? Well… Read More
The University of Minnesota is a leader in developing new varieties of apples. Among them are the Haralson, Honeycrisp, Prairie Spy and dozens more. The latest to hit the markets is the Sweetango. The new apple is sweet and juicy, like its mother (Honeycrisp), but it has a little more acid to it, from dad (Zestar). The combination is incredibly tasty with a lovely snap.
I moved here from Vermont where the quintessential baking apple was the McIntosh. Now that I live in the land of 10,000 lakes and almost as many apples I like to use a variety of them in my baking. I combine apples that will break down and those that will keep their shape. I also like to use some that are sweet and others that have a bit more acid. To add a bit of perfume and richness to the mix I add a bit of pear.
This coffee cake is a perfect way to show off the autumns best apples. Mixed with brioche and streusel topping the cake is great for brunch or an after school snack. Read More
Today is the first day of school for my two boys. It is always bittersweet. They are excited to see their friends, but the prospect of all that structure and homework has them just a touch apprehensive. I’ll miss them running around the house and yet I look forward to the quiet. I also have another year of coming up with lunches that they will be excited about. The first day of school deserves something particularly special, like something on a stick. This week is also the MN State Fair, where all things edible are on a stick. For some reason everything tastes better balanced on the end of a pointy skewer?
Last year Jeff and I did a baking demo at the FAIR and put cinnamon buns on a stick. One might think pizza is the perfect food as it is, but I think I may have found an improvement, at least for those under the age of 20. Pizza pinwheels on a stick! Read More
We have finally, finally finished our Final Pass manuscript (final seems to be the recurrent theme). That means we don’t get to look at Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day again until it’s in print. The book won’t be on shelves until October 27, and after that, we won’t be posting on good old-fashioned brioche for a while, so I decided to reprise a great post from a year and a half ago, a post on Brioche à Tête–I’ll give you the link at the end. There’s one nice tool to have– the brioche pans, which you can get from Amazon.
It’s also another shameless excuse to savor another great photograph from Mark Luinenburg, who did all the photos in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (above), as well as the new shots for Healthy Bread. All you need to do is start with the brioche dough, and then go to the post on the Brioche à Tête. It’s much, much easier than it looks (non-chefs can do it). For something less rich, try the challah dough if you like, on page 180 of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
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This year my family finally signed up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share. Every Friday, our farmer wakes before dawn and drives to the Twin Cities and other communities to deliver the week’s bounty of organic produce. We pick up a half-share; above is just a portion of one Friday’s haul (though this year’s drought has definitely decreased the crop).
Every week, we get whatever’s in the box. I’d never eaten Kohlrabi before (the bulbous thing on the right, with greens growing out of it). When you get lots of something you’ve never eaten, there’s only one thing to do, at least at my house… make it into bread or pizza… Read More