I am still baking bread out of that book. That one I couldn't stop writing about 2 years ago. I have been making bread from other sources too—but I keep going back to the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes book. It has its issues. Please see the errata, print it out, and put it in your copy if you have an earlier edition. I've made many many recipes in this book, declaring each one my favorite. The last one being flatbread, mostly because I didn't have to even bother with a second rise. I just throw flattened balls of dough on a hot griddle, add a little butter and salt and eat them warm and then consider never leaving the house again. What more do I need? Of course the kids devour them, too. And they are perfect for making personal pizzas, and who doesn't like a personal pizza?
But, even that sometimes seems like too much work. So now, my go-to bread from that book is the ciabatta. I love it. I use the entire batch of dough to make 6 generous ciabatta rolls which I bake all at once. I freeze the rolls after baking and this works much better for me than baking them when I want them fresh. With letting the dough come to room temperature from the fridge, baking, cooling—it's much easier for me to just take them out of the freezer the night before and/or give them a quick toast in the toaster oven.
These are super easy to make— you have to get your hands crazy wet to handle the dough, so you don't use any extra flour. I have had no sticking issues on the stone and they are divine with butter and jam, or egg salad, my personal favorite.
unrelated to ciabatta-
My blog had a birthday last week! 5 years old. I want to make it a cake and saw this one and thought it would be perfect for my blog. Knowing how much it likes walnuts, jam and cake. So, I'm going to make it. You know, for my blog. Thanks you guys for being a huge dose of awesome in my daily life. It's been a wonderful 5 years!
