Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day/Book it 2011

I was really excited when Life as Mom announced that Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day was the book choice for April for Book It 2011. I had explored this book way back in 2008. Here was my post in 2008 about my first foray into the 5 minute technique. I had gotten away from this method/technique as I have a bread machine. For my first adventure, I stuck to the master recipe and made the Boule. This is so easy. Pictured below is my loaf. I made 3 loaves and a very small batch of carmel rolls. All of which was devoured by the 2 man wrecking crew. This is a book I would like to have. I borrowed it from the library and there was quite waiting list.

I did cheat on the tool part a little. The container I let my dough rise in is a plastic 5 qt ice cream bucket. I also was on someone elses blog and they did their rise in a plastic shoe box. I don't have a pizza peel. So all my last rise I did on my slipat mat dusted with cornmeal. Then I slid the dough onto my heated pizza stone. However on my last loaf, my pamper chef pizza stone died a horrible death. It broke into about 5 pieces. I loved that stone and it was well seasoned. I had it for about 5 years and I use it every week for one thing or another. Someone told me though you don't need a stone just parchment on a cookie sheet. Don't let the equipment stand in your way from giving this bread a go.

Here are some additional resources:

Frugal Living NW had a great post with pictures on the 5 minute Technique.

Steamy Kitchen has a great no knead recipe as well. She also made the No knead Sticky Pecan Carmel Rolls with the 5 minute master bread recipe.

King Arthur also has their own 5 minute technique for artisan bread.

At Survival Mom bread making was the skill of the month in January. I would love to branch beyond the 5 minute bread and my bread maker. I think bread making is a great skill to have and there are a great number ways to be successful at it.