Several weeks ago, I received the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes cookbook (from the publisher) to review. Healthy Bread in Five Minutes is the new book (released in October 2009) by Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. and Zoe Francois. I have their first book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes, so I was excited at the chance to review their new book.
I decided the best way to review the book was to make some of the breads. As it turned out, the day after I received the book, I found out about the HBinFive bread-baking group that Michelle at BigBlackDogs had formed. So of course, I joined. The baking group officially starts baking through the breads in the book in January but we’ve been baking bonus breads (provided by the authors) for the past two months. I’ve actually made a few breads from the book using the dough from the bonus breads.
For the most part, I’ve tried to follow the formulas as they are presented in the book. However, having said that, one of the things I really like about this book is that the formulas are really flexible. You can use mostly whole-wheat flour or substitute some or all white whole-wheat or use a greater percentage of all-purpose to whole-wheat depending on your preference or your family’s tastes. Granted, the bread won’t be as healthy if you use more white flour, but the formulas will still work and taste great!
Another thing I really like about this method is how easy it is to fit making healthy breads into your daily schedule. I love to bake bread but sometimes the thought of spending the whole night (or day) in the kitchen is exhausting. With this method, you just mix up the dough, let it ferment a couple of hours, then refrigerate it and use a portion of the dough each time you want to bake bread. Since I have a full time job and maintain my bread-baking site on the side, I usually do this part on the weekends. The dough will last in the refrigerator anywhere from 5 to 10 days or so depending on the formula and most formulas make at least four breads. So, once you mix up the dough, all you have to do is take the amount of dough you need out of the refrigerator, shape it, let it rise, then bake it. How easy is that? I even froze half a batch of the whole wheat challah dough for about a week, took it out and let it thaw in the refrigerator for 24 hours, then made 3-Strand Challah with it. You can see the results below:
