200 Fast and Easy Artisan Breads: No-Knead, One Bowl

Judith Fertig is a recipe developer and the author of 300 Big & Bold Barbecue & Grilling Recipes. Her recipes are featured regularly on the Food Network and in USA Today. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri.

Introduction

ALTHOUGH ARTISAN BREAD baking is a time-honored tradition, with classic forms and methods, there has been a recent surge of revision. Baking experts such as Jim Lahey, Peter Reinhart, Jeff Hertzberg, Zoë François, Dorie Greenspan, Nancy Silverton, Maggie Glezer, Nancy Baggett and the late Julia Child; food scientists such as Shirley Corriher; and innovative bread bloggers have taken a fresh look at old recipes and come up with new, easier ways to achieve the same or similar results.

As a cookbook author, culinary instructor and avocational baker, I've built on their combined expertise and gone a step further in streamlining artisan bread baking into an achievable -- and rewarding -- activity for busy people. I've questioned, challenged and tested my way to the best methods for baking artisan-quality breads in an easier, faster manner.

I've also used a sequential, step-by-step approach known as "benchmarking." With each dough, with each recipe, you learn and master new techniques.

The result is 200 Fast & Easy Artisan Breads, which shows how you can achieve incredible results in just minutes a day.

What's so easy about easy artisan breads?

• You use basic equipment: a large mixing bowl, a Danish dough whisk or wooden spoon, measuring cups, a cutting board or cookie sheet, an instant-read thermometer, a serrated knife, a rolling pin, a broiler pan and a baking stone.
• You make enough dough for several loaves, store the dough in the refrigerator, then bake when you're ready. Many of the doughs keep in the refrigerator for over a week.
• You skip traditional bread-making steps. No need to proof (active dry) yeast over water to make sure it works; you use instant or bread machine yeast and simply stir it into the flour. No need to knead, as you use a moist dough that does the work of activating the gluten for you. No need to bake the bread the same day -- you can if you want to, but you can also wait several days, up to a week or more.
• You master easy methods for shaping the dough into round loaves (boules), baguettes, batards, rolls, filled rolls, flatbreads, pizzas, bagels, pastries and more.
• You know when your bread is done in one easy step -- by using an instant-read thermometer. No tapping, thumping, guessing, hoping.
• You learn similarly easy, streamlined ways to make complements to bread, such as artisan butter (in the food processor in 5 minutes) and caramelized onions (in the slow cooker).

The "fast" part of the 200 Fast & Easy Artisan Breads title means that your hands-on activity (not including rising, resting or baking time) with these breads is only minutes a day. You can make the dough one day, form and bake in the days afterwards.

If you can bake a batch of brownies from a box mix, you are ready to start 200 Fast & Easy Artisan Breads. So let's get started!

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part 1: Let's Get Started
Equipment You'll Need
Ingredients You'll Need
Ten Basic Steps to Artisan Bread
What Easy Artisan Dough Is Like
Basic Artisan Breads

Part 2: Now You're Baking
More Basic Artisan Breads
Whole-Grain Breads
Seeded Breads and Filled Breads
Flavored Breads
Slow-Rise Breads
Gluten-Free Breads
Festive Breads
Brioche

Part 3: Master Baking
Naturally Leavened Breads
Bagels and Bialys
Buttery Yeast Breads
The Artisan Pantry

Index