(Artisan) Healthy Bread in Five Minutes A Day Master Recipe

By mamadukemi

Ingredients

• 5 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (can decrease)
• 1 tablespoon Kosher salt (can adjust to taste or health concerns)
• 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) vital wheat gluten (or vital wheat gluten flour)
• 4 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees F)

Details

Adapted from keyingredient.com

Preparation

Step 1

1 to 2 tablespoons of whole seed mixture for sprinkling on top crust: sesame, flaxseed, caraway, raw sunflower, poppy, and or anise

First, measure the dry ingredients into a 5-quart bucket or bowl, and whisk them together (you can also use a fork, or if it’s lidded, just shake them well). Mixing the dry ingredients first prevents the vital wheat gluten from forming clumps once liquids are added:

2-whisk-together-dry-ingredients

Now add the water to form a very wet dough. Don’t add additional flour to dry this out:

3-mix-in-wet-ingredients

Cover loosely (leave lid open a crack) and allow to rise for two hours at room temperature (if you decreased the yeast, you’ll need more time). NEVER PUNCH DOWN or intentionally deflate. The dough will rise and then begin to collapse. Refrigerate and use over the next 14 days, tearing off one-pound loaves as you need them.

On baking day, cut off a grapefruit-sized piece of dough (about a pound), using a serrated knife or a kitchen shears:

4-cut-off-a-pound-of-dough

Now, quickly shape a loaf as you’ve seen in our videos on this website, or on our new Amazon site (but note that the Amazon video leaves out the crucial 90 minute resting time that I’ll talk about in a minute). Should take less than a minute— still pictures don’t do it justice, but basically, you pull the top around to the bottom, rotating quarter-turns as you go. DON’T KNEAD or otherwise knock all the gas out of the loaf:

5-shape-a-loaf1

Cover the loaf loosely with plastic wrap and let it rest on a pizza peel covered with cornmeal or parchment for 90 minutes (40 minutes if you’re using fresh, unrefrigerated dough. This is longer than our 1st book because whole grains take a longer rest than white doughs. Depending on the age of the dough, you may not see much rise; our loaves depend more on “oven spring.”

Thirty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C), with a baking stone placed on a middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on any other rack that won’t interfere with rising bread.

Just before baking, use a pastry brush to paint the top with water (we’ve dropped the cornstarch wash) and sprinkle with seed mixture. Slash the loaf with 1/4-inch deep parallel cuts across the top (or a singe lengthwise cut as in the first picture). Use a serrated bread knife held perpendicularly to the loaf:

7-slash-loaf-after-sprinkling2

Slide onto the hot stone…

8-slide-off-the-peel

…and carefully pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray (in the book, we give alternatives for creating that steam environment, which is essential for creating a great crust):

9-add-water-for-steam-to-preheated-broiler-tray

After a 30-minute bake, cool on a cooling rack, and serve however you’d like. You have the basis for a complete, nutritious meal, bursting with healthy vegetable oils (from wheat germ), fiber (from wheat bran), and vitamins. We look forward to hearing more from you as people have questions about the book.