Artisan Bread From My Oven!

I recently had the pleasure of marrying a wonderful man named Ryan. I received a multitude of fabulous gifts as a result. One of my favorite gifts was a pizza peel, a pizza stone, and the book "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day". The first chance I had I cracked open that book and read. The theory behind the book is that you make a large batch of "wet" dough (no kneading required!), let it rest on the counter, and then stick it in the fridge for use at a later date (up to 2 weeks later depending on the recipe you choose). Once you get the jest of the process, it is pretty simple and requires little effort. Here are my results:

Here is the dough after a 2 hour rise on the counter top. This is a super large Tupperware bowl. You really only need a 6 quart container with a loose fitting lid. 

You simple form a portion of the dough into a ball (no kneading!) and place it onto the floured peel for an hour and 40 minutes.

Here is a pic I took of Ryan and Rhubarb while waiting for the dough to rest on the peel.

Here is the dough ball.

Once rested, I floured the ball and slashed a shell pattern on the top. 

Here is the beautiful baked loaf fresh out of the oven! Amazing. 

Here is a sideways picture of the book. Definitely worth picking up. It's easy to follow and for people who are starting out in the bread baking world, this is perfect. There are tons of blog posts about this book so I am not going to post detailed directions or the recipe, but I am telling you to give this a try. You won't be disappointed. I have a batch of dough for pizzas waiting for me in the fridge and this week I intend to attempt a grilled pizza on our new infrared charbroil grill. Can't wait!