Wednesday, June 20, 2012

5 minutes a day bread

I found this awesome concept of 5 mins a day for fresh homemade bread!
Here is the video to the basic recipe and concept:


They sell 2 books:

And then a whole wheat version:

On their website it talked about baking this amazing 5 min bread in the crock-pot:
 :o
This I had to try!
My bucket o' dough and my crock pot:
This is what the dough looks like after rising.
One pound of dough ready to go!
It ended up taking more like 1.5 hours to cook and we put it under the broiler for 3-5 mins.
It was so yummy, we started eating it way too fast! I got the hiccups and we didn't get any pictures until  this was all that remained.
It was a little too moist. Left an almost 'gummy' texture to it. But, it was still very good and made great sandwiches:
A few days later I grabbed my Bucket o' Dough out of the fridge 
And made rolls!!
I cooked these for 2 hours. This is how light their tops are:
So, under the broiler they went.
These were less moist but they still had too much moisture to be just right.
I decided to use my last section of dough and do it in the oven like in the video.
Here is the fresh dough ball
 Here it is after rising 60 mins ( it took too long to rise... I think my yeast may have gotten a bit stale.)
 and TADA!!

This one definitely had the best texture! Good moisture content, flaky crispy crust, cleaner slicing. It was still a bit dense, but I'm not sure if that's the old yeast or the recipe. I'll update this when I use fresher yeast.

Overall I'm really happy with this! So happy, I'm saving up for the books :) The crock pot method worked well enough and was a lifesaver, as it has been a ridiculously hot week here. I think it would be an awesome present for someone stuck in college dorms, too. All you need is a mini fridge and crock pot to have fresh bread in your room!
As for me it makes home cooked bread far easier and cheaper that store bought stuff! And once I buy whole wheat four it will be healthier as well :)

6-22-12 UPDATE:
Made a new batch last night with fresh from the freezer yeast.
It was perfect! 



6-24-12 UPDATE:

If you are in a hurry it also makes a decent pizza crust. You won't find yourself saying "wow this is a great crust", and getting in stretched out is no fun, but it gets the job done and is definitely edible.


7-20-12 UPDATE:
Mix Ins!
I've been trying mix-ins to add some fun flavors
I just kneed them in to each chunk I pull out of the fridge bucket before I let them rise.
This one is a Olive Oil, Herbs (fresh home grown basil, garlic chives, parsley and a touch of garlic salt), and Cheese (I have a 3 cheese shredded mix we get at costco and then threw in some Parmesan too.)
It is fantastic! I've made it twice now :)

This one is a Butter Brown Sugar And Cinnamon. Its crust was a lot harder than the normal recipe, but it had a lovely light sweet flavor. I made a brown sugar cream cheese spread for it.

5 comments:

  1. oh.my.word. Richard is one lucky lucky man. Careful now! Making fresh homemade bread is when my first 'battle of the bulge' began :O (it may have mostly had something to do with the copious amounts of butter that simply HAD to go with it ;)

    Have you had success with either 1)cutting back a bit on your liquid or 2)letting it rise a bit longer? (or a combination of the two)

    Best WW flour tip I can offer: make sure you use WW BREAD flour & see if you can find unbleached white WW. Only affordable place I've found it is wally world selling Wheat Montana's (family farming operation) Prairie Gold brand.

    Yes, you're right, we grind reg wheat berries & add to our dough here at home, but I'll send u an email describing the benefits of the WW bread flours if you don't remember them..

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  2. p.s... fun! I spotted a bottle in your fridge that says 'Aloha'. You must be shopping in Hawai'i :)

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  3. So cool! I had no idea that you could cook bread in the crockpot! I may have to start doing this....

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  4. I knew that you could make bread in a Crock Pot but have never tried it. Good to know that it truly can be done and that it is actually edible.

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  5. Responding to your updates:
    STUPENDOUS!! Your picture-perfect loaf looks amazing.

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