Our New Book, a New Look and a Giveaway! [WINNERS WERE ANNOUNCED 6/15/09, CONTEST CLOSED]
As many of you know Jeff and I have spent the past year working on a new book, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients
(HBin5). It is a project that started with you! Because of your questions, comments and requests for breads made with whole grains, seeds, nuts, fruits, veggies and even gluten-free ingredients, we set to work to create new recipes. We liked them so well, we decided to do another book. We’ve been playing with ways to make breads that are not only nutritious, but incredibly tasty and still fit into our busy lives. The methods will still be fast, easy and only take 5 minutes, but the results are wonderful breads made with ingredients that will keep us happy and healthy, no matter our dietary needs. Who better than a pastry chef and a doctor to write such a book?
Writing a cookbook takes a long time, not only to test and retest and then test again the recipes, but the editing and designing of the book after we write it. Although it is nearly done we still have more work to do before it comes out this fall. HBin5 will be available in the book stores on October 27th of this year. In the mean time Amazon has posted it for pre-orders for those of you who want to avoid the mad rush at the book stores! 😉
In honor of HBin5 we’ve launched this new home page on our website. My husband Graham designed and built the site for us and Jeff’s wife Laura, who is also our copy editor, wrote much of it. We are so fortunate to have such a creative and talented team to help us. We want to thank them for all of their work!And THANK YOU for inspiring us to write our second book. As a thank you we are giving away 5 signed copies of our CURRENT book: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
Here is a little glimpse into our life of writing HBin5:
On any given day I have about 5-8 buckets of dough in my refrigerators. (Yes, I have two and at the moment there is little room for anything but dough!) I generally wake up in the morning, shape and let rest several loaves of bread and then once I get my boys off to school I bake them. I have a double wall oven, nothing fancy, but having two ovens makes testing a dream. I can bake about six loaves at a time. Jeff is simultaneously doing all of this across town at his house as well. Between the two of us we could qualify as a chain of bakeries.
Once the loaves are baked and cooled, Jeff and I meet and have a tasting. We sample each others breads and do a critique on taste, texture, the look of the loaf and even the sound of the crust. If one of us isn’t absolutely in love with the bread, we discuss how to improve it and go back to the bucket! Sometimes we hit it on the first try and others take several variations. After a tasting we usually walk around the lake, to work off all the sampling and then head back to our kitchens.
As we test and talk and retest and change things and have others test for us, we write everything down. The stack of notes and versions of the recipes that you see here is only my stuff. Jeff has a similar pile in his kitchen, along with a testing schedule and excel spread sheets of all our progress. (It is a blessing to work with someone who loves excel!) This process is a lot of work, but we absolutely love it. I wake up in the morning totally excited to see what my buckets of dough have brought me for the day. As Jeff always says, “if your not having fun the bread won’t taste good!” You are so right Jeff!
Oh and let me not forget the photo shoots with Mark Luinenburg. He did all of the gorgeous photos in ABin5 and this time for HBin5 we have twice as many. He does wonderful work and is so much fun. And Nan the make-up artist who did her very best to make me look like Audrey Hepburn and told Jeff he looks like a young Paul Newman. She will forever be in our good favor!
Leave us a comment about your favorite bread and you will be eligible to win one of the 5 signed copies of our current book: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day! We will announce the winners next week.
While we were loading the new front page of the website we ran into a little snag and ended up losing the last 2 days of our comments. So, if you wrote to us in the past 2 days and haven’t heard from us that is why. Please, write to us again and we will get back to you. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Thanks, Zoë and Jeff
I just bought the first cookbook, just made my first loaf of bread, and LOVED it! I am soooo looking forward to experimenting! So, I’d have to say, so far the boule is my favorite. 🙂 But I really want to try the pecan sticky buns. And the pizza dough, and the baguette.
I’m still searching for this recipe….it is a black olive cakey bread. Dark color and surprising yummy rich taste and texture…mmmm. I had it once in a lovely restaurant in Jersey (can’t remember!) and I have been chasing it ever since….one day…one day.
Still waiting for my turn with your book from our library, but I love whole wheat bread.
My favorite would be a toss up between the original Master recipe and the European Peasant.
I think my favorite is the brioche, but I make the master recipe the most. I have converted several of my friends to your method and book, and we all compare notes on our freshly baked breads….cant wait for the new book!
I love the master boule recipe!! That purple green bread looks amazing cannot wait to hear more!
My favorite loaf is the loaf I made today … Light Wheat Bread … my 1st loaf!
I’ve never been able to satisfactorily make bread before and this first loaf was a homerun! I’m so excited and looking forward to playing around, making a variety of healthy recipes.
One way or the other, I’m getting your book. Thanks so much, Jeff and Zoe (and others)! – Julie
Tough to pick a favorite — probably the Semolina or the Peasant loaf. I also LOVE the Sticky Buns made from the Brioche dough.
I’m a historical re-enactor and today, during an event, I baked the Peasant loaf in my cast iron oven on the fire. It drew lots of ooohs and aaahs!
I only discovered your website today as I’ve been preparing for my new adventure in breadmaking. I have to say, I’m most anxious to try your Gluten-Free Rosemary Parmesan Bread Sticks recipe. Sounds killer! Can’t wait till October… thank heavens for pre-orders!
I just love the Master Recipe to make both the Aubergine Tartine and the Roasted Red Pepper Fougasse. Oh, and pizza too! Thank you for making bread making so easy. Am looking forward to your new book.
had about 20 relatives over for dinner tonight. made the master recipe, everyone thought it was so awesome that i was able to make bread, without a bread machine!
My current favorite bread is a wonderful black Russian pumpernickel – with chocolate and coffee, carraway seeds and many more wonderful aromatic ingredients, though the recipe itself is a piece of cake (as it were!). Although I’m unlikely to stop liking it, it’s hard to predict whether I will have found a new keeper by next week!
My fav is the light whole wheat bread. Congratulations on your new book! Looking forward to it.
I’m looking forward to your new book. It will be great to make bread myself that finally meets my health requirements!
I just can’t get past the boule master recipe, it’s so versitile! I am still working on the challah recipe, I’m determined to get it the way I want it–with melted margarine! I’m really looking forward to the new book, and the healthier flour recipes! I hope I can get the signed copy!!! 🙂
I would have to say my favorite recipe is the basic Boule as you really can make so many different things with it.
I would love to win and I really look forward to the new book. Congratulations on all of your hard work!!
My favorite bread is the Vermont Cheddar. It is exceptionally good with an extra sharp cheddar. The Spinach-Feta is my second choice.
Hubby and I are addicted to the Olive Bread! It’s fun to be able to walk by the ‘Artisanal’ breads in the store 🙂
I just found out about your book about a month ago, and already have made many of the wonderful recipes. I recently had to stop working because of health problems, and I initially started to bake bread at home to save money. Well, your recipes are so easy and delicious that even if I wasn’t saving money, I would still make them! I Love the Corn bread with Cranberries…something about yeasted corn bread…oh, so good…and to think I used to pay $5.00 a loaf at our local bakery!
My favorite recipe is the brioche recipe, it is so easy, and you can make so many fun pastries with it, it can even be used as base for tarts.
Hi Jeff and Zoe,
First I would just like to give you a little back ground info…..I have never baked bread….ever. A few weeks ago I came across an article in MOTHER EARTH NEWS in reference to your book and thought this would be perfect to incorpaorate in to our new farm plan. You see, my husband has been a farmer for the last 6 years with little success. Due to my extensive traveling for work, I was never home more than a week every 2 months and left the business in his capable hands. Well, now with downsizing everywhere, I have been home for 6 months and in that time working on new ways to make our farm profitable. I started with the idea of Farmers Markets. But, until the gardens are producing. What to do?
Then I found this article, bought your book, and quite quickly have become a pretty darn good baker! So, while other ventures are in the working out phase…I am steadily producing beautiful loaves of ABI5 loaves and having fun, fun, fun! My husband has been the very willing test subject and after 2 weeks, is already talking about buying me another fridge to store my dough in. LOL!
My fav bread so far is the Cheddar Bread. Very naughty bread! I ate the whole loaf over the course of one day. I’d just go slice a peice here and there…..and OMG…it was gone! LOL!
Thank You so much for a wonderful book, and a new passion.
Yeah, I probably eat a loaf of bread a day. I’m not recommending this! Jeff
Congrats on the new book! My favourite bread is definitely rye sourdough bread.
My favorite regular is the sourdough-ish standard bread from well aged dough. However, from the variants my favorite is the flatbread for Za’taar bread — I’ve always loved it, and hadn’t found a good base bread for it before.
There are still crumbs (and caraway seeds) on the cutting board from the 2 loaves of rye that my household (of two!) finished in less than 36 hours.
Despite the mad rush on the most recent loaves, the dough we make most frequently has been the olive oil, which is such a fantastic pizza base. We also use it for baguette when we need one… and my husband has more than once expressed his undying love for the fougasse, which we have many variations of, most frequently using a jarred (Trader Joe’s) red pepper and eggplant spread topped with marinated artichoke hearts. It’s so satisfying to pull out of the oven, both to the eyes and the palate!
Since we eat whole-grain, I’ve been waiting for this book! I had stupendous success turning your brioche dough into hot cross buns this past Easter… yum! It’s going to be tough waiting until October.
I “won” your wonderful book in a little drawing a friend on a forum had and it has become my most used cookbook ever. I love cookbooks and have oodles of them looking pretty on my bookshelf but this one is actually USE!! 🙂 I was always a little scared of yeast bread and had attempted only a few with so so results. Now I feel like I could attempt just about anything with the recipes in your book. I have tried a few, but the one I keep coming back to over and over is the Deli Rye recipe. In fact I have some in the fridge now crying out to be made. I will be happy to buy your new book…I feel strongly about making a financial contribution to a cooking revolution that has changed my culinary life for the better! Plus I am sure there are more fun recipes in store. Thanks for the glimpse in what goes in to writing a book like this.
Love the ease of all your recipes! I’ve sold several of my friends on your book too. Can’t wait to see the new one. Our favorite is the ciabatta.
I love the sun dried tomato cheese bread! every time I make it my family acts like I made something really difficult and special but it is really quite easy! thanks!
We’ve recently been trying grilled bread, on the BBQ – our favorite so far is grilled Nann bread!
My favorite bread dough is the basic boule because it is so simple. The recipe is easy to remember and easy to teach. My friends mom came to visit from Liberia and when I told her about this bread she nearly jumped out of her seat when I said it doesn’t have to be kneaded! From one batch, we made boules, dinner rolls, pita bread, and naan (the favorite). When she goes back to Liberia, she is going to share the technique with the rest of the women in the village. I’ll be sure she leaves with a copy of your book in hand. Thanks! P.S. Can’t wait for the new book to come out so I can start to bake more healthy bread for my personal trainer boyfriend.
Our favorite bread is the European Peasant Bread, which I have used for everything, including pizza–even rolling raisins and walnuts into it! I have to tell you, though, that a good friend ran out and bought ABin5, based on the Deli Rye loaf I brought to church. (The rye also makes great thin bread, baked with a little oil and onions on top.)
I have been baking bread for 35 years and never have had better results, with so much fun and so little mess! You should see my book–marginal notes and stuffed with print-outs from your website. I would love a signed copy of ABin5.
P.S. We have a 120 lb. hound-mix dog who loves to lounge, but the minute she hears the bread knife start to crunch though a fresh loaf, she is right there “rooing” in anticipation of a piece of crust.
Love the book can’t wait for the new one! I love making pizza dough!
My favorite is flour tortillas. Very fun idea for bread, will have to try it. 🙂
Congrats! Can’t wait for the new book. My favorite is the light wheat bread – which makes the most deLICHus english muffins!
Have my copy of HBin5 on order. Would love
a copy for my family. My favorite bread is the rye.
I have several friends that need a glutton free diet.
Looking forward to the new book!
I love honey wheat bread, but really any homemade bread is my favorite. A “bad” homemade bread still beats store-bought stuff any day!
I’ve been baking the simplest Boule, as well as the Naan (version for one in 6″ cast iron frying pan). Yummy!
My favorite so far is the European Peasant Bread, but I can’t wait to pick a new favorite from the new book. I love hearty wheat breads, and I’m so excited to see what y’all came up with!
Oh, this is exciting news! “Pre-release” congratulations to you both!
My favourite is the Master Recipe Boule made into the Wreath Bread, because of the story behind my first attempt at it …
Last Christmas my sister and I had planned to take my elderly mom out for lunch on Christmas day … but it was not to be. Overnight snow made the roads treacherous (first white Christmas in 4 decades here!) and, very sadly, my sister’s mother-in-law passed away that morning after a long illness. A very kind neighbour, knowing my situation, invited me over to have Christmas lunch with her family … so that morning, with some artisan bread dough conveniently in the fridge, I made my first wreath bread and it turned out SO beautiful! It was a huge hit at the luncheon when it was unveiled! Brightened up my day on many levels and I felt grateful to be able to “break the wreath bread” and enjoy it with friends, remembering the “circle of life” at a difficult time.
I can’t wait to try out the recipes in your new book, and to share your “Healthy breads in 5 minutes a day” with more friends and family!
THANKS!
I just ordered your book from Amazon – I can’t wait to try it! I am slowly trying to ease myself into more homemade items after reading about food recall after food recall in the news and bread is one thing that has always intimidated me. I hope this book is the answer! As previous posters have already said, I am curious to see the new one and what kind of bread the colorful one is!
I have to say that currently my favorite bread is one my uncle makes – craisin pecan sourdough. Yum!!
So excited to hear your book will be here soon! I’ve told my son about it, and will probably get your new book for him for Christmas. He’s a terrific cook!!
My favorite bread? The basic recipe, because I can make it up without even looking at the book. Great for when we need a pizza crust, or get a carb craving!
Can’t wait for the new book to be out, everything looks so good.
This is a gift from heaven! I bought the first book and have gotten so many people hooked on it. But I realized I need to cut some of the gluten out of my diet….you are now creating the answer to my problem! Thank you!
I love just about any freshly baked crusty bread!! Sourdough, baugette, whatever. There’s just something about the taste of fresh crust.
My favorite is the sourdoughish bread based on a mix of flours using the basic recipe.
I am eagerly awaiting the new book. Your first book has changed our lives.
I probably like the master recipe for its versatility and the brioche.
Congrats on the new book.
My favorite bread is any warm loaf that I wrap in brown paper and straw twine and give to a friend or neighbor.
I’m new to ABi5 baking, and am still working on perfecting the Master recipe. I have a very old oven that doesn’t heat evenly or consistantly. Is it sad that I’m considering buying a new oven just so I can bake better bread?!
I love looking at the pictures of the bread. Congratulations on the new book!
I have a suggestion for people who are looking for the help you have posted in the past. The Safari web browser has a search feature, press command-f and you can see what matches on each individual page. I’m sure other browsers have this too. I realized this after I read the zillion comments on most of your posts going back to the beginning.
My favorite bread is deli rye and light whole wheat, as I noted before
The best thing for this website would be to make the comments searchable, because they’re so helpful.
Love all of it. I make small rolls with a cross cut on top from the basic recipe because I can’t get enough of that crusty top. I also stuff the bread with cheddar, just like you do for the paprmesan and sundried tomato bread. Best, best bread book ever, I can get rid of all the others I own.