Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois (2007, Hardcover)

I was looking for ways to enhance my kitchen skills & save money. Mother Earth recommended this book and they are right in doing so. With clear, easy to follow (even for a novice bread-maker) directions for a basic mix that can be custom tailored to suit any need, mood or occasion, THIS BOOK IS SUPERB. Ingredients are simple and readily available. Many good recipes for diabetics who cannot partake of store bought breads can be found here. There is also a great selections of healthy breads that pass the American kid taste test. They will never know you are feeding them healthy food.

Well thought out instructions & descriptions make you feel like you have an experienced bread maker right there with you every step of the way. The Tips section is a good read & explains many things that other books take for granted you already know.

THIS BOOK IS ACTUALLY A GOOD READ! IT IS PAINLESS & ENJOYABLE UNLIKE MANY GOOD COOKBOOKS.

With good bread fast approaching the $4.00 mark, this is a money & time saving way to please every taste in your circle for 40 to 60 CENTS PER LOAF!

I especially like the Vermont Cheddar Bread, the Peasant Breads, Bagels, Soft Pretzels, and the many superb variations of Rye Breads that anyone can make, BUT, there is so much more left to try.

To go cheap, use a 5 quart ice cream bucket to mix, rise & store your dough. Try Wal-Mart for your specialty flours and buy yeast in a jar, not packets. With what you save, you can invest in a good quality stone. A stone is actually the only adjunct expense, everything else needed is probably already in your kitchen!

My first attempt at a good Jewish Rye, like I grew up with on the east coast, yielded a loaf that was book cover perfect and oh so wonderful. I have no previous bread making experience, so you can do it too.

Buy the book, practice a bit & get ready for compliments & savings with very little effort or time!

UPDATE 12/06/2009:

We are now waiting for their new book, "HEALTHY BREAD IN FIVE MINUTES A DAY", to show up on EBAY".

As of this writing, our 16 yo son has become an adept bread maker much to our amazement. This bread is so good, he didn't want to wait for me to mix & bake.

This book presents a method of integrating bread making with daily life with very little effort -- only "5 minutes a day". Over 100 recipes are presented -- crusty baguettes, pizzas, sandwich loafs, and buttery pastries. Chapters review ingredients; equipment, tips and techniques, the presentation of the Master Recipe; peasant loaves, and flatbreads. There is a source list for bread-baking products. There are some intriguing recipes I am interested to try: Spinach Feta Bread; Vermont Cheddar Bread; Roasted Garlic Potato Bread; Prosciutto and Olive Oil Flatbread and Armenian Lavash, a bread I love and said to be one of the oldest breads dating back "as many as ten thousand years". There is something for every bread lover in this book!

Actually I have not yet used this publication that I first read about on Trent Hamm's blog, The Simple Dollar. As a result, I am still unable to voice an honest opinion on it's value rating, not having put it to the test. However, the attraction it holds for me is the possibility of being able to produce artisan bread in my own kitchen by dedicating a mere five minutes a day to gain the benefits of a delicious homemade bread. Other than making quick breads, I have only tackled yeast bread baking once or twice in my life and quickly concluded that the time involved in gaining such a final product was just too time-consuming to take on as a routine activity. This book, and one other recipe offered some time ago, have captured my interest because of the limited time and experience the recipes require to turn out such fabulous end products.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is THE BEST bread book around. It takes five minutes to make the dough, less than 5 minutes to shape the loaf, and comes out exactly as described. I come from a family of bakery owners and never got the flavor and texture I get from this bread. The crusty, chewy and texture of the bread is just wonderful. Even the novice baker will have wonderful results the first time. I highly recommend this book for anyone that wants to make the best bread ever. I have now purchased 5 of thies books to give away and every one that I have given the book to is using the recipes!

What a fun book. Home baked bread in 5 minutes a day is great. I have tried several recipes and will work my way through the book. This is not your store-bought variety, it's the real thing. I tried the first batch with the equipment I had in the kitchen. By the second batch I was out buying a pizza peel, kosher salt, etc. all that I didn't already have. I got serious about baking bread. This is easy to do and a lot of fun besides having fresh homemade bread all the time.