Artisan Wheat Bread Recipes

This is my own 'brown' bread recipe, adapted here to make sandwich-suitable individual buns.

This is a whole wheat bread recipes that makes enough dough for 4 loaves of bread.

Great tasting bread, and soooo easy.
(This is a variation of a recipe found on www.motherearthnews.com.)

This is easy to make and very tasty.

This recipe, the Simple Crusty Bread, keeps well in the fridge for up to two weeks, but after that the yeast seems to give out. I also find I can substitute one third of the flour in these recipes with whole wheat, spelt, rye or other flours. They do not rise as much as plain white flour, but come out nicely.

I also add a tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half of gluten when I do the substitution, which helps make it rise better. You can get gluten in health food stores, fairway, whole foods, etc. Also, I try and keep the yeast in the fride or freezer once I open the jar or large container that I use. I also find bread flour works best for rising, as it has more gluten, which provides a better 'lattice' structure in the dough for the yeast to rise more. I also add sugar to the water mixture - a quarter cup to help the yeast rise, half a cup to 1 cup if i want a sweet challah. I also add spices on occasion to the dough itself, typically a teaspoon of rosemary and a teaspoon of thyme, to the water and yeast mixture. You can experiment and let me know what works for you! I also often make this recipe plain, and then when the dough is ready for the 40 minute rising before you put it in the oven, I roll out the dough and sprinkle some cinammon or spices like zaatar on it before shaping it - if you do it right, you get a nice inner 'ring' of spices.

The recipe can also be halved or doubled, and I find it best if i let the dough rise in the fridge and use it refrigerated - its not as sticky and its easy to use. It yields 4 to 6 loafs, depending on how much you 'rip off' at a time. I also do a few things with the recipe to make it simpler. I add and mix the water, salt, any spices, sugar and the yeast in one bowl and let it sit while I add the flour and any gluten in another bowl. I then add the water mixture to the flour and mix it by hand until there are no clumps, then cover it and put it in the fridge.

You do not need to proof the yeast, and as long as the water is lukewarm and the yeast is fresh, it rises everytime!

For the bread i make, you do not need a pizza peel, just flour it well on the sheet you have it resting on so you can easily take it off and put it in the oven. However, you do need to have something to bake it on - a baking stone or unglazed tiles are best, but a pyrex pie plate or tray will do in a pinch! I bought my unglazed tiles at home depot, for less than a $1 each and they work very well.

It has been adapted from Adapted from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007)

Light Whole Wheat bread recipe from artisan bread in 5 min a day modified to include vital wheat gluten and wheat germ

from the 5 minute cookbook by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. Makes 4 small artisan loaves (each serving 3 -4 for one meal).

Makes 2 loaves.

2 loafs of 2lbs dough , 15 slices each