The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking

by Jeff Hertzberg, Zoë François, Stephen Scott Gross (Photographer)

A fully revised and updated edition of the bestselling, ground-breaking Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day—the revolutionary approach to bread-making 

With more than half a million copies of their books in print, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François have proven that people want to bake their own bread, so long as they can do it easily and quickly. Based on fan feedback, Jeff and Zoë have completely revamped their first, most popular, and now-classic book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Responding to their thousands of ardent fans, Jeff and Zoë returned to their test kitchens to whip up more delicious recipes.  They’ve also included a gluten-free chapter, forty all-new gorgeous color photos, and one hundred informative black-and-white how-to photos. They’ve made the “Tips and Techniques” and “Ingredients” chapters bigger and better than ever before, and included readers’ Frequently Asked Questions.

This revised edition also includes more than thirty brand-new recipes for Beer-Cheese Bread, Crock-Pot Bread, Panini, Pretzel Buns, Apple-Stuffed French Toast, and many more. There’s nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread to fill a kitchen with warmth, eager appetites, and endless praise. Now, using Jeff and Zoë’s innovative technique, you can create bread that rivals those of the finest bakers in the world in just five minutes of active preparation time.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference, Food and Drink, Foodie

399 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 13, 2007

About the author

Jeff Hertzberg is a physician with 20 years of experience in health care as a practitioner, consultant, & faculty member at the University of Minnesota Medical School. His interests in baking & preventive health sparked a quest to apply the techniques of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day to healthier ingredients. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife & two daughters.

--from the author's website

http://us.macmillan.com/author/jeffhe...

Reviews

[Punk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cookbook. Here's the deal, you take flour, warm water, salt, and yeast. Toss it in a bowl, stir a little. You're done. Let the bowl sit on the counter for two hours and you can grab a hunk of dough, shape it into a ball and bake it. Seriously, it's that easy. Put that bowl of dough in the fridge and it will last for days, and you can make pretty much anything out of it, sometimes three or four servings of anything, and you'd never know it was no-knead bread.

This book explains the theory behind this no-knead approach, goes over the ingredients and materials needed to make it, and offers several base doughs, as well as recipes for specialty breads. There are a few brown and white photographs throughout the book, with a group of color inserts in the middle.

The "discovery that revolutionizes home baking" is a big deal. The cookbook is only fair to middling. The base doughs are the most important part and there's about ten of those. I felt like some of the recipes are padding, things to eat with bread rather than breads themselves, and I wanted more color photographs. For me, photographs are the thing that makes me want to try a recipe; plus you get an idea of what the finished product should look like.

Five stars for the method. It's wonderful for people who love fresh bread but don't have the time/energy/ability/mindfulness to make traditional breads. Three stars for the cookbook.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

100 stars!

I will eat bread every day! I will make bread my facebook profile picture! I will send people valentines featuring photos of bread.

1. I made bread from scratch with the help of 2 four year olds. This indicates how easy the Five Minutes a Day method is.
2. My bread crackled when it came out of the oven. Hearts.
3. My husband later said jealously, "I'm not bread. Look at me, not at the bread." He was telling me a story and I was expressing joy and contentment over my new loaves. This indicates that I love bread.
4. The bread was delicious.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first batch of dough is now in the fridge ready for our first loaf in the morning. I know purists may scoff at the premise of this book, but if this is a way I can have real bread each day, with that great smell in the morning, and my kids eat it, then rock on. Josh loved to see how much the dough rose.

The idea is to make a big wet batch of dough that you keep in the fridge for a week, taking off a chunk each morning and cooking it. Taking the "no-knead" idea one more step.

***
Update - yum! Great crusty bread. Fast and easy. Kids and I demolished the (small) loaf. Ready for the next one tomorrow

***
First batch made three loaves and a pizza. We're half way through a light wheat dough batch. It's incredible to have fresh bread on tap whenever we want it.

Photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drruth/

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! It works! I now have a bucket of dough in my fridge from which at any time, day or night, I can tear off a chunk, slap it on a baking sheet, and raise and bake a loaf of bread! And not just any bread: Lovely, crunchy-crusted, soft-middled bakery quality bread! Hertzberg and his co-author (who is the actual chef. He is, weirdly enough, an MD who just really loves carbs.) have totally simplified the recipes and changed up the method so that you can mix, store, and bake bread just like a pro. I am so excited! The only reason why this didn't get five stars is because the book is almost too chatty. I think it's an attempt to make it seem easy and friendly for non-bakers. I love his introduction about how much he loves bread, but the basic recipe and method instructions are really wordy, and I had to read it over and over the first time to make sure that I wasn't missing some key step along with all the admonishments not to worry and to go ahead and blah blah blah. The steps are numbered, but each step is also at least one large paragraph long, which they don't need to be. Once you get the hang of it, though, it's really easy and even fun. I'm looking forward to trying the pretzels with my kids!

[HeatherAnne Norbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starting at the title, I was VERY skeptical. I mean, really? Yummy, beautiful homemade bread in 5 minutes a day? Who do they think they're kidding? I have always wanted to bake... to BE someone who BAKES. I even own a top of the line bread machine to help this time-crunched mama (ostensibly) make bread more easily. Even as "easy" as that is, it still just didn't happen all that often. And frankly, bread machine crusts are just not the same as bread baked in the oven.

Skeptical or not, I really wanted to believe that I could fit baking into my daily life. The introduction did nothing to make it sound any less "too good to be true". Then they shared their secrets: 1) "Mix enough dough for several loaves and store it in the refrigerator" and 2) "Pre-mixed, pre-risen, high moisture dough keeps well in the refrigerator." (my emphasis). This dough is WET and as a result, requires no kneading, no proofing the yeast, no resting/rising/resting, no punching down (in fact, NEVER punch it down), no stress or fuss whatsoever. With my trusty kitchen scale and my Kitchenaid mixer, I can put a large batch of dough together in under 15 minutes. The only thing I have to do each day for fresh bread is pull off a ball of dough, shape and bake. There is some resting and baking time involved, of course, but the actual active work required takes mere minutes. I have even cooked a few loaves in the slow cooker (!!!) with zero resting time. You do need to put a slow cooker loaf under a broiler for a minute to crisp up the top but this is a super SUPER easy way to make already super easy bread.

I usually get books from the library first before forking out the cash for them. I will definitely be adding this one to my cookbook collection permanently. They also have written "Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" and "Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in 5 Minutes a Day". This review is for the 2nd edition of their original book and I plan to buy this one as it includes whole grain and flatbread recipes in it, as well as recipes for pretzels, pain d'epi, pumpernickel, rye, beignets, naan and so much more. There is a sizable gluten-free section as well! If you want to fit baking into your life, do yourself a favor and get this book. I'm not sure your waistline will thank me but your taste buds definitely will.

[Rachelm85283 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE to bake bread. I confess, I am a breadaholic. I received this book as a Christmas gift from my mom and have to admit, I was skeptical whether it would deliver on the promises it makes. I am used to making a sourdough which demands time (2 days), attention, and fiddling with started. etc.

Oh my gosh! Does this book deliver! I mixed up my first batch last night, let it sit in the fridge, baked my first two boules today....the BEST bread I have ever baked! And I bake a lot of bread! The outside is crusty, inside is wonderful, beautiful, amazing! I can't wait to try out some of the other breads and am sure that I will eventually have a variety of different doughs in the fridge.

To all those out there who complain that the title is misleading...seriously!?! Have you ever baked artisan bread before? The normal method is definitely worth complaining about compared to this method. And yes, I WILL make the aubergine tartine, it sounds wonderful. I'll also try out many more of the recipes included in this book.

This book has converted me! I think that I'll go throw out my sourdough starter right now! Give it a try, you won't be disappointed!

[Micah Wallace · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, the positive: this is the book that started me baking bread. A complete baking novice, I read the article in Mother Earth News, bought the book, and found that it really was an easy, fool-proof recipe. The idea of keeping a large amount of dough in the fridge to use as needed is the most useful idea in the book. And it's not bad bread.

But it could easily be better. Cut back on the yeast, cut back on the salt, and give the initial rise more time. The flavor improves, the crumb opens up and you save a TON on yeast. Once I started making other no-knead recipes, especially the fantastic Almost no-knead from Cook's Country, I stopped using this book and haven't gone back since.

While it's certainly not my favorite bread, it was the reason I started baking in the first place. It deserves credit for turning countless non-bakers into breadmakers. If you're interested, get it from the library or find the recipe on the Mother Earth News website and try it before you go out and buy it.

[Joan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, they’ve reinvented the wheel, discovered you don’t need tires, spokes or bearings!!!! How radical.

Argh!

If you can stand the frenetic tone of these two you will find their so-called brilliant innovations are:
1. If your yeast is fresh you can skip the proofing step, this will save approximately 5 seconds of prep time.
2. If you use a wet dough you can skip kneading, the only risk is that your bread may not rise. In which case, call it flat bread. Bakers realized this about 12,000 B.C.E.
3. You can store a mix of flour, water and yeast for a long time, using bits as needed to make fresh bread. Pliny the Elder wrote about this nearly 2000 years ago.
4. You can buy pizza stones, terra cotta cloches and all manner of equipment for making bread that will taste just as good as bread made with a bowl, a little mixing and a cookie sheet.
Of course, if you follow their instructions you get to squeal about how REVOLUTIONARY it all is, as they do.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The theory here is that you make a big batch of dough one day then stick it in your fridge for up to 2 weeks (it becomes more like sourdough the longer it is in there) then it is ready when you want it, hence the 5 minutes a day. It's an amazingly simple recipe with no kneading required (my favorite feature), however it is "artisan bread" so I have to remind myself not to expect a big loaf of soft crusted wheat bread. My results were good though. A little round loaf with crusty outside and chewy inside. Some recipes were too fancy and unappealing - Aubergine Tartine anyone? - but others were perfect - soft pretzels - and some I have yet to try - spinach feta bread. Anyway, it's kind of weird that the longest review I have ever written is for a cookbook but, thanks Glenna, for letting me borrow it and I will return it before school is out for sure!

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dough recipe that you can make in large batches and refrigerate!

The process is a little different from making traditional doughs, but it's streamlined.

It's perfect for somebody who wants a loaf of bread in 30 minutes instead of 2.5 hours. I find that I'm not willing to put in that much time/effort all at once unless it's a weekend.

The book centers itself around one master recipe, and the other recipes are versatile modifications. I've baked 8 loaves of the master recipe and haven't gotten sick of it yet. Sometime soon I'll try the others.

[Blair · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wonder if the book tastes better than the bread, because three of three loaves from the master recipe tasted like newspaper.

Preheat your oven, lower your expectations, and prepare to taste disappointment.

[Darby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is getting 5 stars although I wished it had 4 1/2 because I feel the title is misleading (not really 5 minutes a day). Otherwise this book is FANTASTIC. It is one I would like to own. I have only made the master recipe so far but it worked really well. I even did them in loaf pans instead of free form and also used it for a pan of cinnamon rolls.

I have a bread machine that I love and use often but what stops me from using it a lot is - time even though it does save time. With this book it tells you how to make up a big batch of "wet" dough and store it in your fridge for 5 to 14 days (depending on recipe) and then pull from it and make bread daily or every other day - whatever works for you.

It says 5 minutes a day because you pull the dough off the big batch you made already and shape - in 5 minutes. But the rising time is still quite long so don't think just because you pulled it out that in 40 minutes to an hour you will have fresh bread. It took my bread often 2 hours to raise to the size I wanted it.

I live in high altitude and this bread still turned out perfect. I did have to decrease the flour some and increase the water a bit. But still they book really helps you trouble shoot and it helped me not feel so intimidated by baking bread without my bread machine. I feel the recipes of this book are going to be mainstays in our home. I don't doubt there will always be a tub of dough going in our fridge.

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great concept and would work great for the home baker. However, you can't fool yourself into thinking you'll make marvelous artisan type bread using this technique. It's worth taking the time to learn about bread and if you alreay know how to make great bread - go elsewhere.

[LeeAnna Weaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

During the Pandemic, I upped my baking game, and rediscovered my love for baking bread. I have a few favorite recipes that I've used for years, but during a recent stay at a bed and breakfast, I was served some of the best home baked bread I have ever had. The chef told me she uses the master recipe from Bread in Five Minutes a Day. She bakes fresh bread for her guests every day using variations on this amazing recipe and technique. As soon as I had a chance, I checked out the updated book at my library. If you have never baked bread, you will not find an easier method. If you are a seasoned home baker, this book will improve your skills. The book is so fundamental for me, I'm buying a copy to keep close at hand

[Amanda up North · Rating 5 out of 5]

We're in what the weather service calls a "prolonged period of bitterly cold temperatures and dangerous windchills." The windchill was -50°F this morning.
A good time to stay inside and add warmth to our home by baking!
I've had a copy of this book for many years and used to make the boule recipe in it. I'm not sure why I ever stopped. I started a batch today, it's so simple and satisfying to make.
I read the whole book through and look forward to trying more recipes and variations.
It's a great cookbook, I like the layout and writing style.
Between Bea Ojakangas and this book, I've been all kinds of inspired by fellow Minnesotans to bake bread lately.

3/20/21 Update:
A baking stone and bread peel are required equipment for most recipes. It takes a little practice to master the transfer of dough from the peel to the hot stone, but once you've got it down it's very rewarding. The peasant loaves are gorgeous.

The olive dough / Neapolitan pizza crust is amazing. My family can't get enough of homemade pizza nights. Fun, and really fast. We'll (hopefully) never eat frozen pizzas again. My 14 year old son says it beats all the big pizza chains.

We like using boule loaves for grilled sandwiches, grilled cheese, or ham and Swiss on rye. When grilled, it's both chewy and crunchy - delicious.
I've also used boule dough to make hamburger buns for grilled venison burgers. My 18 year old son said they were the best he's ever had.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five minutes a day is a bald-faced lie but I suppose if you count only the minutes your hands are actually on the dough, it's probably around five minutes. The directions for making the dough is confusing at first (what's a gluten cloak?) but once you get the hang of it, it's all good. Most of the breads came out fantastic - a crunchy outer crust and a nice, firm but moist inside with a nice chewiness to it.

The authors recommend a bunch of baking equipment (from Williams-Sonoma, I believe) but if you don't want to spend $50 on a pizza stone, for example, you'll be fine. I don't have a pizza stone or a pizza peel so I simply use a cornmeal-dusted sheet of foil on a cookie sheet and all of my boule-formed loaves came out great. The bread recipes seem to be fairly forgiving if you do the ingredient ratios correctly.

There's a bunch of non-bread recipes in there too which look good but I haven't tried making any yet. Two breads I was more or less indifferent to was the Portuguese broa and the light wheat bread. The only recipe that came out bad was the pumpernickel, which tasted like wheat bread flavored with coffee. It sounds alright but the taste was just odd. Maybe it's because I left out the caramel coloring. Anyway, my favorites that I made a dozen times at least totally made up for the so-so breads. The brioche is a very dense and delicious eggy bread with a touch of sweetness from the honey. It also made the apartment smell AMAZING. The European peasant bread (which had regular all-purpose flour, wheat, and rye) is wonderful with anything. The Master Recipe boule is great too. I'll try making the bagels next.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love making bread and have several bread recipes, but none were for a good crusty artisan loaf until I tried the "Master Recipe" in this book. I've made it several times now and I love the results I get. It is the only recipe I've made so far but I'm happy to give the book four stars based on that alone. I will try the pretzel recipe as well but even if I go no further, this book gave me what I wanted.

So why only four stars? Mainly because the high level of detail the authors give the recipe had me worried that if I deviated in the slightest, my bread would not turn out. For example, they stress the need for an oven thermometer, which I don't have, and warn against using bleached all-purpose flour, which I did have. After reading for awhile, I started to sweat the fact that I don't have a baking stone either. But I went ahead with what I had, baking bleached flour dough on my cast iron skillet (and later my sub roll pan) in my possibly uncalibrated oven, and like I noted above, I was perfectly happy with what I got. Following every instruction to the letter might make for an even better loaf, I don't know, I'm pretty new to this type of artisan bread. My advice to anyone who wants to try the master recipe is to do your best with what you have and don't let anything you're missing hold you back.

[Karmologyclinic · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wonder if people giving this book 4 and 5 stars really know what good artisan bread tastes like...

I consider myself a proficient baker and I can follow with success very complicated pastry and baking recipes. This method produces a loaf that has only a similarity to bread and tastes like flour. No thanks.

You want a bread with 5 minutes per day? Buy a kitchen mixer. Mix the dough for f- sake for 5 f-ing minutes. Wait to rise. There you have it, bread with 5 active minutes per day, the rest is waiting time anyway, there is no bypass for waiting time when you deal with yeast.

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been making my own bread for years, but prefer non-fussy methods and ingredients. So I couldn't resist this title when it came up for sale for Kindle. I have used Hertzberg's basic dough recipe from an earlier book, but wanted to try something new.

Not only does this book offer recipes, but it offers many tips of the trade (why certain flours affect bread in different ways, lean vs. enriched doughs, how to parbake bread, etc.) An especially helpful example: "Cup for cup, wheat bran is much higher in fiber than whole wheat flour, yet it doesn't affect the taste of bread as much. For those who don't care for the pleasantly bitter, nutty flavor of whole wheat, this [wheat germ] loaf is a mild-tasting, high-fiber alternative."

Lots of helpful tips and a good variety of recipes. The only one I've tried so far (Oatmeal bread with Maple) was delicious.

This book also includes a chapter on gluten-free breads.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Master Recipe in this book makes baking delicious fresh bread daily so easy you will not believe it. I purchased this book back when it first came out in 2007 and loved the process. During several years of sad low carb living the cookbook languished on the book shelf. Pulled it back out and voila! On my third batch and week of delicious bread daily. My family is ecstatic. In addition to the master recipe I now tried the Rye and the Portugese corn bread; all delicious. Last weekend I brought a loaf of each type to an event and was actually told I should open a bakery. The bread is that good.

[Zomick's Bakery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, that's right, the title is right - baking bread in five minutes. I discovered this cookbook from a friend of mine who is also a baker at Zomick's. Some 4 years ago when I first read it, I found a real jewel of a recipe. It was an old challah recipe that traditionally originated from Eastern Europe. Till this day I'm still offering that challah bread on the shelves at Zomick's bakery. And that is just one example; there are plenty of recipes I've tried and all are excelent.

[Sarah Ali]

Man!!!!
This book drove me crazy n most of all the BANANA BREAD RECIPE!
The delicious of all along with nutrition...i tried making it....

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have conflicted feelings about Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I'll start with what's good: I've made the "master recipe" boule dozens of times. More often than not, I have a batch of dough sitting in the fridge. It does get better with age (it's good for up to 2 weeks) and it does elicit the comment "this is good bread!" from the many friends and family I've made it for. It's simple and satisfying. The second comment it gets is "what kind of bread is this?" It's a lovely mutt of French, Italian, sourdough, and peasant bread; soft inside, crusty crackly outside, with an open crumb structure. Love it. That alone is why the book gets 3 stars from me.

Now, the negative. First of all, I would not say, as this book promises, that this is really artisan bread in 5 minutes a day. The active time is short, but the resting times, as with any bread, are long. To make this bread, even if you've made the dough in advance, means letting it rise for 40 minutes and bake for another 30 and then cool for at least 30 more - hardly an easy task for a weeknight dinner. Definitely doable and I like the basic strategy of making a big bowl of dough and pulling loaves off of it throughout the next couple weeks. But not exactly "5 minutes a day."

The title is misleading, and not just the "5 minutes a day" part, because I also wouldn't say that this cookbook has "revolutionized" my baking or bread-making. It's more accurate to say, it bumped me up to a higher level. But there are still bread-making heights to achieve even further beyond what this book can offer.

Which brings me to the rest of my complaints. First of all, no weights are provided. Even for an American home baker like me used to cups and tablespoons, I always prefer recipes with weights, especially grams. It's just more accurate, especially when you're dealing with flour. It's annoying to have to "scoop and sweep" and take guesses because the book doesn't provide weighted measurements.

And the next problem is, when I scoop and sweep, I have always, uniformly ended up with too loose of a dough to work with. After making the master recipe many times and trying other recipes in the book, I can say with confidence that either the writers have used flour that weighs and measures different than my flour, or that they're not scooping and sweeping, or that they just haven't allowed for enough flour in the recipes. The recipes usually say that the dough should "be loose enough to conform to the shape of its container" but I have found that when I add the recommended amount of flour using scoop and sweep, the dough is so loose it's more liquid than solid and more resembles a batter than a dough.

This clashes with the recommended method of quickly grabbing a 1-pound ball of dough and shaping it with your hands - I have ended up with a gloopy mess that gets all over my hands, my kitchen, and leads to a misshapen loaf, more times than I can count. I routinely have to add ½ to 1 cup of extra flour for the dough to be remotely workable, and it's annoying to have to incorporate so much trial and error and guesswork.

My other major complaint is that even though the book does contain many recipes for all different types of breads (everything from pizza dough to brioche, it's in here), and I will admit I have not tried many of these recipes, when you start diverging from that master recipe and basic boule, things tend to get... weird. I tried the potato and roasted garlic bread - surprisingly little garlic flavor even though it contains an entire head of roasted garlic, and sort of a weird texture from the mashed potatoes. I tried the pita breads - disaster. Floury, tough messes because that dough is just too wet and slack to form pitas from. I tried the pizza dough - average. And I've tried the rye bread - not a very strong rye/caraway flavor.

I think the problem is that the "discovery that revolutionizes home baking" - namely, that you can make a large batch of dough and bake it off throughout the next week or two to save time and have fresh bread every day - just isn't feasible for every type of bread. Making pitas or pizza dough out of that master recipe base, although recommended in the book, is not workable because it's just not an appropriate dough for all purposes like that. Tweaking the master recipe to add rye just gives you a dough that tastes a bit like rye, not a real authentic rye bread. I haven't even tried the brioche or challah type recipes - even though I love enriched doughs, every recipe makes several batches that have to be used relatively quickly because of the eggs and milk, and I just don't have the capacity or room left in my waistband to eat cinnamon buns or challah French toast or what have you every day.

I think the main flaw with this book is that they tried to come up with a silver bullet, a method and dough recipe that can work with everything and be applied the same way to every situation. But diverging into other bread recipes out there, with their medley of different rising times and methods (for instance, starting with a sponge, which I don't believe any of these recipes do), you can see how maybe there's an argument for finding a recipe that fits your unique thing you want to make, rather than trying to start with the same recipe and tailor and tweak it to fit any finished product.

That's my loose collection of thoughts about this book. Honestly, the real problem is probably that I'm just not a good enough baker!

[Jason Pettus · Rating 4 out of 5]

2023 reads, #77. I was about to get angry when learning that the "secret" behind making artisan bread in only five minutes a day, according to authors Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, is simply that you make artisan bread the way it's always made, but you just make a whole bunch of it all at once, then keep the remaining dough in the fridge over the course of two or three weeks and simply cut off enough for another loaf whenever you're ready to bake another one; but then I learned that the first edition of this book was published way back in 2003, and I suddenly found it easy to forgive them, because this was right around the same time that these kinds of books were being published for the very first time, so this must've seemed game-changing when it first came out.

This has been one of the bigger surprises for me as someone who taught himself breadmaking over the pandemic; that although there were scattered attempts by hippies in the 1970s to re-embrace the slow, laborious process of making bread by hand using no automated equipment, it wasn't until the '90s that the results got rebranded as "artisan bread" and a series of chef-scientists got really invested in figuring out exactly how the long-forgotten Medieval process works. That led to a series of groundbreaking books in the early 2000s on the subject, this one being one of them, which is why it's still informative and helpful; but as my own life attests, now that it's 25 years later, you can pretty much go on YouTube and find literally hundreds of free tutorials on the subject, showing you through video exactly how the "slapping and shaping" process works, what the dough should look like at the end of each step, etc., making the purchasing of a book like this one no longer necessary whatsoever.

I will say that one of the big advantages this book has over others on the subject is that it teaches just one sole way to actually make the dough for every type of the dozens of breads in its recipe book, then starts each recipe with, "Tear off a hunk of your refrigerator dough and do this with it;" that's a refreshing change over a lot of other bread books of this type, which offer up an entirely different way to make each type of bread dough itself, making for a bunch of fussily detailed instruction lists that you must either memorize or be forced to pull the recipe out for whenever you want to make some. So in this, if you know not even the first tiniest thing about modern artisan breadmaking, this book is for sure a real gift, one of the original books that helped make this subject popular in the first place; but if you do already know these steps, this book isn't going to teach you even a single new thing, despite its very promising title. Pick it up or not based on your particular situation.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have made enough bread from this book in the last couple weeks to give it five stars.

No kneading=no mixers and paddle attachments to clean from your Kitchenaid or Bosch. It really is a simple process. You make a wetter than usual dough that does one rise on the counter and you can use cold or warm water, makes no difference at all to the yeast. Then you stick the container of dough in the fridge and you can make bread every day for one to two weeks, depending on how much dough you started with. On baking day, you cut or yank off one or two pounds, let it sit for a while, then put it in the oven and it bakes.

I've made sandwich type bread, challah, pumperknickel, and boule so far. Everything has been really delicious and I've gone through about two pounds of dough a day---my kids evidently love it. So my dough batches haven't made it an entire week, but because it actually only takes a couple minutes to throw the dough together, I can remake dough whenever I run out. The two rising times do ask for some planning---i.e., early morning bread probably won't work for you unless you get up around 4:30 on a regular basis. But you can take dough out in the morning and have it baked by mid-late morning, or for dinner that evening or after school snack.

The idea really is creative and helpful and is encouraging me to make specialty breads I never would have thought of, simply because it's so quick.

[Brenda Lower · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for MANY types of bread. Looking through, I have seen regular white bread, sandwich breads, rye, pumpernickel, and even gluten free breads. There is a bread in here for anyone!

I also like how basic the instructions are. While easily done in a mixer, can also be done simply by hand in any bowl. Easy to mix, while more than 5 minutes, not tons of time, and you can bake it any time after you mix it. It will save until YOU are ready to bake. Nice.

Another I really liked is that it gives more than just brad recipes; the book also has recipes to do with the bread. I am currently making the bread pudding recipe and it smells delicious! Can't wait to try it!

Overall, excellent book. Great variety of recipes, easily understandable recipes, and lots of tips and variations in those recipes. Great book! I will be making LOTS of bread this winter!

[Tia Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly, this was a life-altering book. Life altering, you say?? Yes! Imagine Tom Hanks in that scene from Castaway, where he beats his chest and yells "I have made fire." Well, that was me, yelling "I have made bread," while my husband rolls his eyes and I eat another slice of the most wonderful bread I have ever eaten. And it seems ridiculous that I can make bread that tastes so fantastic in my own oven at home in 5 minutes. But I can!! I have been making bread for years in my Bosch, but this is a whole new level of bread making. Ridiculously easy, fantastically delicious and stinking cheap. I LOVE THIS BOOK!! Thanks to Jeffrey Steadman for getting me hooked on this one!!

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for a more general book about "bread wisdom" when it comes to baking rustic artisanal loaves etc. Instead this book leans gimmicky w/r/t/ delivering on the title's promise. You're making bread, but you're making a specific type of moist no-knead dough that you store in the refrigerator so that you can break off chunks every day and have small super-fresh loaves.

This is not a bad thing, this just isn't what I'm looking for vis-à-vis bread knowledge at this time in my personal quest. I suspect I'll circle back around on it at some point, because this is an interesting proposition.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

For years I've attempted bread, only to be bitterly disappointed at the leaden loaves I've produced. This is the first bread recipe which has actually worked for me. Not only does my bread look delicious but it tastes wonderful and it actually looks like artisan bread, down to the "bubbles" inside the loaf itself. The only problem with this book is that now I'm eating much more bread than I really should. I console myself with the fact that I'm probably saving a lot of money and I know each and every ingredient in the bread that I'm eating.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

To some extent, this is a combination of the authors’ first two artisan bread books, but also includes gluten free recipes and FAQs, which provide answers to a lot of the issues I’ve experienced when using the no-knead, refrigerator storage method. Also provides ingredient weights rather than just volume. The book includes nice color photos, however these are inserted in random sections; e.g., the group of photos placed in the middle of the gluten-free chapter are not of gluten-free items. I'm a big fan of baking no-knead breads, and this is the most cohesive book I’ve seen on on the topic.