a boule in 5 minutes a day...

http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/cookbook/2009/…

A friend of mine (seen round these parts from time to time) passed on a recipe to me- It's from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Now first off the 5 minutes claim is a bit spurious. It does not include mixing, rising or proving (or even the time it takes for the oven to come to heat). This was my second attempt- The first time I tried it, it produced an extremely wet dough which could barely stand. So this time I dropped the amount of water required to 2.5 cups and the results were far better. I also converted the "cups of flour" to true weight so I didn't have to faff around with all the "scoop-and-sweep" nonsense.

The result was a good crusty boule with nice open crumb (see picture). If you leave the dough in the fridge overnight you get a fantastic waxy texture very reminiscent of a true ciabatta- indeed the only difference I could really see between this recipe and a classic ciabatta recipe was the missing biga (starter). And less mixing

3 comments to this

ramtops said on 15 Feb 2010 at 12:56:39:

I've found you *have* to refridgerate overnight, or it doesn't work nearly so well.

hem said on 15 Feb 2010 at 13:33:22:

This one worked after 4 hours. The texture hadn't matured like the last loaf- And for what it is worth I ran the last batch over the space of a week (kept the dough in the refrigerator) but the dough still could not "stand".

hem said on 15 Feb 2010 at 14:40:18:

Here's a better picture: http://www.omnicia.com/photos/DSCF0053.JPG and here it is on the rise: http://www.omnicia.com/photos/DSCF0048.JPG