About a month ago Rick Nelson from the Star Tribune came over to talk bread and sample some of the recipes in the book. We baked up a storm, ate lunch and he left full (and we hoped convinced). His article came out this week and he had some wonderful things to say. “…If holiday gift-givers are aiming to buy one new cookbook title for the bakers in their lives, they should look no further than the remarkable Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day… Hertzberg and Francois should have called their burst of genius “Breadmaking for Dummies” — that’s how user-friendly it is… their master recipe is wildly flexible, generously adapting to a wide range of breads, pizzas, flatbreads and pastries.” Rick Nelson’s article.
Rick invited the videographer from the Star Tribune, Jenni Pinkley to join us and she made a video of Jeff and me mixing, shaping and baking the Master recipe. See video. She did a wonderful job capturing just how easy our method is and she kindly edited out all of the goofy antics that went on between takes. It really was great fun!
Congratulations on the great success of your book! I just made a basic loaf from the Star Tribune article. It came out looking beautiful, but I have one question. My broiler pan boiled dry long before the baking time was up. Is that normal/OK/desirable? (I actually opened the door and shot in a little more water). I assume the instructions call for a broiler pan because it is tolerant of high temperatures, but my kitchen smells more like a boiled dry kettle than a French bakery!
Can’t wait to cut into the bread! Since I’m trying to minimize refined carbs, I used 4 c. AP flour and 2 1/2 c. white whole wheat flour, as you suggest in your reply to another post.
Thanks so much, and congratulations again! (There are NO copies of your book to be had on Amazon until after Christmas. What a nice problem to have).
Hi Ann,
You may use anything that will hold the water to create steam. It is normal for it to evaporate during baking and not entirely necessary to add more water if you put in a full cup to begin with. Experiment with different pans that impart that French bakery smell! The aroma is half the fun of baking and we don’t want you to miss it!
The publisher says there should be more books available very soon and we hope that Amazon will indeed have more before the holidays.
Thanks, Zoë