Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Five Minute Bread?

Well, no, not really, but there is a much, much quicker and easier way of making it these days. I've been using it a lot lately so I thought I'd post about it. It's really good, and almost worth the effort for the smell. This article explains it all. (Note: It's a lot easier to read if you click the "print" link.) It really is almost as easy as making a cake from a mix.

The book author's have their own website at artisanbreadinfive.com . It's kind of disorginised but there's some good information.

Some useful links:

Back to basics. This has step by step instructions with lots of photos.

How to make buns.

How to make Pain d\'Epi. This looks really fancy, but it's easy to do. Less work than making buns, actually.


A couple of things I've discovered:

You really do need a 5 quart bowl. This stuff rises a lot.

You don't need a baking stone and pizza peal. A parchment paper lined cookie sheet or a greased, non-stick cookie sheet works fine, and you don't have to pre-heat the oven so far in advanced. (You might want to put the loaf right on the oven rack for the last two thirds of backing to get it browned on the bottom, but I never bother.)

Never, ever, use a glass container in the oven to pour the water in when you go to bake the bread. It'll shatter. Also, you can use ice cubes instead of hot tap water. I find that's easier to deal with.

The recipe calls for unbleached flour for a reason. If you use bleached flour, it won't absorb as much water, so you'll have to use a quarter cup less water. I think. The instructions I got that from were for a mixed whole wheat/unbleached flour recipe.

Apparently, Canadian unbleached flour has more protein in it so it absorbs more water than American unbleached flour, so you might need to add more water. I never have, though, and I haven't had a problem.

Check the bread frequently in the last ten minutes or so since ovens vary and you don't want the bread to burn.

The sticky bun recipe uses way too much butter in the bottom of the pan. It poured everywhere when I turned the buns out of the pan. The sticky buns are best eaten right away, because they toughen up a bit.

Good tip about the ice cubes.

This no-knead artisan bread (there are a few versions) is the only bread I make now. So easy, and adaptable to rye, oatmeal, multi-grain bread. There also seems to be a fair bit of room on the measurements.

Now I want to try that naan bread!