P.S.

The artisan bread was a big hit at dinner last night! The inside was flavorful, dense and chewy, and the outside was crisp. Both James and Aidan liked it and when given a choice of bread for toast this morning, Aidan chose my bread. Good boy!

Off to bake another loaf...

Artisan bread

Behold my first loaf of artisan bread! We are great fans and consumers of hearty bread at my house and while our bread machine makes a nice loaf, it doesn't make that chewy, crusty bread that we all prefer. My friend Jennifer makes that kind of bread and was kind enough to share her secret: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

While I do not yet understand the "five minutes" part, it really is quite easy. You make up a large batch of dough, put it into the refrigerator, cut off pieces of dough as you need it, then bake in a hot oven on a baking stone. There is no kneading - perfect for me because I do not like to knead dough. The hardest part was getting it off the cookie sheet (I don't have a pizza peel) and onto the hot baking stone, which is why my first loaf came out a little lopsided.

We have not yet tasted the bread since it is cooling, but it smells divine.