i love the bread bible, and my family loves the focaccia and ciabatta i have made them.  can you recommend some breads that do’nt require frequent activity - ideally i can start in the morning, and then again at the end of the day, or start at night, and finsih in the morning.  even on weekends, we are not around a lot during the day, but i still want to make bread!  Thanks for your help.

I think I have a couple of recipes I can dig up for you ... I’m in the salon from 9-7 today and 9-9 tomorrow, however, so it will probably be Thursday before I can rummage around for them

eatlocal - Hi.  If you click on Rose’s blog (above), then use the search box on the blog page to find Ricotta Bliss Bread or No-Knead Bread (they’re both low maint. breads that are delicious and don’t require much fussing).

This is a great question.  I think Rose just posted yesterday something like “make the bread conform to your schedule.”  As you bake more bread, you’ll get a sense for which ones you can push an alter the schedule—usually by extending the process with refrigeration.

The two Patrincia mentioned are good.  The ricotta works well because it is a straight-dough method—these generally come together quickly, so you can scan the book for more of that type of recipe.  On the flip side, the NKB is nice because it has a long initial rise and then the finishing steps are fairly fast.  In my experience, breads with a very short or very long time are easiest to fit in your schedule—the latter you can break across 2 or 3 days.

eatlocal - 20 November 2007 12:57 AM

i love the bread bible, and my family loves the focaccia and ciabatta i have made them.  can you recommend some breads that do’nt require frequent activity - ideally i can start in the morning, and then again at the end of the day, or start at night, and finsih in the morning.  even on weekends, we are not around a lot during the day, but i still want to make bread!  Thanks for your help.

The no-knead bread is great. You can start it the night before and return to it the next night. Clean-up is also a breeze.

Oops, forgot to give you a useful link:

Mark Bittman’s article from the NY Times.

There is also a follow-up article by Bittman where he explains the tweaks he and his readers have done (e.g., fermenting for 18-24 hours instead of 12-18, a second rise of 1 hour instead of 2-3, more salt for flavour).

I routinely make bread by starting it the night before, assembling the sponge, topping it with the other dry ingredients, letting it rest at room temperature for a while then refrigerating it over night. Continuing it the next day I mix/knead the dough as directed, but if life is REALLY busy, I put the dough in a greased ziploc bag, refrigerate again and work with it the next day.

All the ‘plainer’ breads I’ve tried have worked well with this technique. I routinely make the Sandwich Loaf dough, use some for rolls,  and keep some dough in the fridge for a few days to make more rolls later in the week.

(Some breads have a more delicate flavor such that the dough really needs to be assembled, kneaded, risen, shaped and baked on the same day, but most of the ones I’ve tried have worked out reasonably well over a more extended time frame. The ‘sour’ notes that creep in over time may, or may not be to your taste. I for one don’t mind a ‘sour dough’ pizza dough, and love the ease of having the dough in the fridge for quick use.)