BREAD baking

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Yum that olive bread looks delish! Can you truly make bread in 5 minutes (not counting rising and baking)? I may have to purchase this book. I can just smell the fresh baked breads coming out of the oven.

Hi,
I think the 'five minutes' thing is a bit exaggerated. But once you make up a batch of the wet dough (enough for 3 loaves), you simply combine the water, yeast, salt and flour and stir it with a spoon right in a tupperware box or bowl (no kneading), leave it out to ripen/rise for 2 hours (it doubles, then starts to deflate), then just cover it and stick it as is in the fridge for up to about 12 days is fine. Each time you want to bake a loaf you pull off 1/3, (or 2/3 if you want to bake two loaves at once) shape/cloak it into a ball or baguette etc, (still no kneading) then let it rest like 40-50 minutes (preheat your oven sometime during that time), then bake for 30 minutes.
That's the basic recipe, but the book has all kinds of fun creative variations on the basic idea. The bread actually tastes and comes out better if it's been in the fridge for at least two days i found.

Today I had two different containers of dough in the fridge so I pulled off, shaped and baked two loaves side by side- a plain white chewy boule, and a golden semolina loaf topped with sesame seeds. the semolina loaf is gone already, the boule is for tomorrow. I did this pretty much while weeding and hoeing my tomato patch- just brought my kitchen timer with me to know when to do each step.