Red, White and Blue Brioche Tartlettes for the 4th of July!

4th-tartlettes07

With the 4th of July coming up I’ve been on a quest to create perfect picnic treats. Small and tasty fits that bill. Earlier this week I made Bakewell tarts on ZoeBakes and realized that it would be such an easy dessert to recreate using brioche dough, something I always have on hand.  The tarts are made with a brioche crust, a spoon of jam, a layer of frangipane (almond cream) and topped with fresh fruit. I used cherries and blueberries to create red, white and blue tarts. Read More

Grilled Buns on Father’s Day

Father’s Day is the day where everything good in life happens on the grill. While you are making burgers, kebabs or brats, you can also slide your Dutch oven in next to them and bake up some fresh buns. I made these with the olive oil dough from Artisan Bread in 5, but you can use any of the doughs from our books. The only adjustments you may need to make is the temperature in which you cook them. The key to successful grill baking is knowing your grill and how it heats up. The best way I have found is to use the built in thermometer, but if your grill doesn’t have one, you will just have to keep a close eye on the buns, as you flip those burgers, and they will come out just great! Read More

New Video: Grilled pizza!

I promised a video to go with last month’s recipe for this fantastic mushroom and potato pizza from Provence (Rustic Wild Mushroom and Potato Pizza), a recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  I did it outside, on the grill with a stone, so here it is.  A few things:

  1. Grill temp: Though some of the stones say to crank the gas grill as high as it can go, we’ve found that pizza done this way scorches on the bottom before the toppings are hot.  I used about 500 degrees F by by grill’s thermometer (250 C).  Today I used the Emile Henry Flame Top Pizza Stone, which worked beautifully (give it a 20 to 30 minute pre-heat)
  2. Baking without a stone: That works too; follow the directions here if you want to go for a crisper, smokier effect.  We’ll have much more on that in our upcoming pizza book (pre-order on Amazon).

Rustic Wild Mushroom and Potato Pizza Provencal

Well, we do have a pizza book coming out in October, so we can’t start putting those recipes up on the site.  But here’s one of my favorite from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, our first book (2007).  It’s never been on the web before, and it’s a gem of Mediterranean simplicity.  In the next several days, I’m going to put up a video of the gas-grill version of this bread, so check back– for now, here’s the oven version (though you can probably figure out  how to do this from our old grill-pizza posts—https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=846

https://artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=248

As you can see, if you choose portobello mushrooms, they’re dark, dark brown in the first place and as they caramelize in the skillet and on the pizza, they become almost black.  Don’t be alarmed– they aren’t burned.  They’re just developing intense flavor as the dehydrate a bit. Read More

Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day is available for pre-order. Plus, outdoor bread and grilled flatbread ideas…

… and it’s available for pre-order on Amazon.  We are so excited, and it comes on the heels of the Wall Street Journal’s weekend announcement that our first book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, had made the Journal’s best-seller list for the second week in a row. Best-seller lists are not common for books that have been out for four years.  Thanks to all of you for helping our work come to fruition this way.

Our pizza book’s official publication date is October 25, 2011, so if you pre-order now, Amazon guarantees that your actual price will reflect the deepest discount they’re offering at the time the book ships (it’s 35% off list price now).

And in case you thought we stop making bread in the summer, think again. Here are some great grilled flatbread and outdoor Dutch oven baking ideas with our doughs– just click on these links:

Grilled pizza

In a Dutch Oven

Pumpernickel done on the grill

Rustic fruit tart on the gas grill

Brioche on a grill

Bread on a Coleman stove while camping

Kohlrabi Greens Pizza right on the grates

Fruit pizza on the grill baked with the stone

Grilled flatbread

Whole wheat pita on gas grill, on a stone

Limpa, in a cloche, on the grill

Brioche Berry Pudding – something gorgeous for Mother’s Day!

berry pudding

This is a post I did a couple of years ago on Mother’s Day. It is bright, cheery and gorgeous, just the thing to make for mom,especially after such a long winter. We MN mom’s need a bit of sunshine!

Some things are worth a little more effort, right! Like a dessert for your mom on Mother’s Day.  This berry pudding is really very simple to make, but I admit it will take just a bit longer than 5 minutes to put together. Berry puddings are a slightly retro English sweet and I think they deserve a come back. Their drop dead gorgeous color comes from the dark berry juice soaked brioche, hiding a treasure of sweet, slightly drunken berries within.

You just can’t resist something this wonderful and if you have a bucket of brioche on hand it will go together really very easily. Happy Spring to you all! Read More

Our Pizza Book is Available for Pre-Order on Amazon

(Photo courtesy of Mark Luinenburg)

Though the official publication date for Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day is October 25, 2011, you can place an order for our third book on Amazon now (they’re discounting the book 34% as of today).  If you’re only interested in the electronic version, that can’t be pre-ordered; you’ll have to wait until October.  If you do pre-order the bound book, nothing comes off your credit card till the book is shipped in October.  If Amazon decides to discount it further between now and when the book’s first available, they guarantee that your final price will reflect the deeper discount.

I for one would like to see this thing in my hands.  Two years of eating pizza have gone into this book (nice work if you can get it!), and we are terribly excited.  Timing will be perfect for cooler weather (though we do pizza on the grill all summer, more about this in the upcoming months here on the site).

Another pumpernickel as cool weather baking yields to Spring

pumpernickel-braid-for-web2

As the cool-weather baking season starts to wind down (in Minnesota, I should add the word “mercifully”), I thought I’d reprise one of my favorite hearty cool-weather breads– pumpernickel.

The “black and white” pumpernickel/rye braid is a New York specialty that brings back fond memories for me. Mark Luinenburg’s photo above is downright savory; you can almost hear the caraway seeds crunching in your mouth.  Pumpernickel is a kind of rye, and we included a whole grain version in Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which also has a rustic Bavarian-Style pumpernickel based on the same dough.  Let’s throw together the recipe for this healthy and hearty dough… Read More

Cinnamon Rolls

Brioche Cinnamon Rolls | Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

The buns are made with brioche dough and layered with cinnamon sugar and just a touch of zest, what’s not to love? You can add more to the mix, like nuts, raisins, a dash of cardamom, or just leave them simple. The cream cheese icing is the crowning glory and makes these breakfast treats completely addictive. Read More