Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day: Fast and Easy Recipes for World-Class Breads

by Peter Reinhart

Overview

The renowned baking instructor distills professional techniques down to the basics, delivering artisan bread recipes that anyone with flour and a fridge can bake with ease.

Reinhart begins with the simplest French bread, then moves on to familiar classics such as ciabatta, pizza dough, and soft sandwich loaves, and concludes with fresh specialty items like pretzels, crackers, croissants, and bagels. Each recipe is broken into "Do Ahead" and "On Baking Day" sections, making every step—from preparation through pulling pans from the oven—a breeze, whether you bought your loaf pan yesterday or decades ago. These doughs are engineered to work flawlessly for busy home bakers: most require only a straightforward mixing and overnight fermentation. The result is reliably superior flavor and texture on par with loaves from world-class artisan bakeries, all with little hands-on time.

America's favorite baking instructor and innovator Peter Reinhart offers time-saving techniques accompanied by full-color, step-by-step photos throughout so that in no time you'll be producing fresh batches of Sourdough Baguettes, 50% and 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaves, Soft and Crusty Cheese Bread, English Muffins, Cinnamon Buns, Panettone, Hoagie Rolls, Chocolate Cinnamon Babka, Fruit-Filled Thumbprint Rolls, Danish, and Best-Ever Biscuits. 

Best of all, these high-caliber doughs improve with a longer stay in the fridge, so you can mix once, then portion, proof, and bake whenever you feel like enjoying a piping hot treat.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607740865
Publisher:	Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed
Publication date:	10/13/2010
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	920,424
File size:	23 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

PETER REINHART is a baking instructor and faculty member at Johnson and Wales University in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was the cofounder of Brother Juniper’s Bakery in Santa Rosa, California, and is the author of several books on bread baking, including Crust and Crumb, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice (winner of the 2002 James Beard Cookbook of the Year and IACP Cookbook of the Year), and the 2008 James Beard Award–winning Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads.

Peter is the founder and host of the popular website PizzaQuest.com, where he continues to chronicle his never-ending search for the perfect pizza through videos, essays, and recipes. He also has created two instructional video courses, on artisan bread and on pizza, for Craftsy.com.

Read an Excerpt

Soft Cheese Bread
 
MAKES 2 LARGE LOAVES OR MANY ROLLS
 
You can use any kind of beer in this recipe, as both light and dark brews add subtle flavors that will complement the cheese.
 
 
6 1/4 cups (28 oz / 794 g) unbleached bread flour
 
2 teaspoons (0.5 oz / 14 g) salt, or 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
 
5 tablespoons (2.25 oz / 64 g) granulated or brown sugar, or 3 1/2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar
 
1 cup (8 oz / 227 g) lukewarm water or beer (about 95°F or 35°C)
 
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (9 oz / 255 g) lukewarm buttermilk or any other milk (about 95°F or 35°C)
 
1 1/2 tablespoons (0.5 oz / 14 g) instant yeast
 
1/4 cup (2 oz / 56.5 g) melted unsalted butter or vegetable oil
 
1 3/4 cups (7 oz / 198 g) diced onion (about 1 medium onion) or 1 small bunch of fresh chives (1 oz / 28.5 g), minced (optional)
 
2 1/2 cups (12 oz / 340 g) grated, shredded, or cubed cheese
 
 
DO AHEAD
 
In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and sugar together (if using honey or agave nectar, dissolve it in the lukewarm water instead). Separately, combine the water and buttermilk, whisk in the yeast until dissolved, then pour the mixture and the melted butter into the dry ingredients. If using a mixer, use the paddle attachment and mix on the lowest speed for 2 minutes. If mixing by hand, use a large spoon and stir for about 2 minutes. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
 
Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium-low speed, or continue mixing by hand, for 3 minutes, adjusting with flour or liquid as needed. The dough should be soft, supple, and tacky but not sticky. Add the onions and mix on the lowest speed or continue mixing by hand for 1 minute, until the onions are evenly distributed.
 
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead for 1 or 2 minutes to make any final adjustments, then form the dough into a ball.
 
Place the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and immediately refrigerate overnight or for up to 4 days. (If you plan to bake the dough in batches over different days, you can portion the dough and place it into two or more oiled bowls at this stage.) The dough should double in size in the refrigerator. If you want to bake the bread the same day you mix the dough, don't refrigerate the final dough; just let it rest at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, until it doubles in size. Then proceed to shaping and baking as described below.
 
 
ON BAKING DAY
 
Remove the dough from the refrigerator about 2 hours before you plan to bake. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and divide it into 2 equal pieces, each weighing about 2 pounds (907 g). Dust each piece with flour, then use a rolling pin to roll them into rectangles about 8 inches wide and 12 inches high. Spread half of the cheese over the surface of one rectangle and roll the dough up like a rug, from the bottom to the top, to form a log. If any cheese falls out, tuck it back in or save it for the second loaf. Seal the seam with your fingertips. For a sandwich loaf, proof in a greased 4 1/2 by 8-inch loaf pan (or a 5 by 9-inch pan if using onions, which increase the volume of the dough). For a freestanding bâtard or rolls (see page 21), proof on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Another option is to cut the log into 1 1/2-inch slices to make spiral rolls; place spiral rolls about 1 inch apart in greased round pans or on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Mist the shaped dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap, then let the dough rise at room temperature for about 90 minutes, until increased to about 1 1/2 times its original size. In loaf pans, the dough should dome about 1 inch above the rim.
   
About 15 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C), or 300°F (149°C) for a convection oven. Because of the cheese, there may be air pockets or tunnels in the risen dough that could cause it to separate in the spirals (cubed cheese creates fewer air pockets than grated or shredded cheese). To minimize this, poke through the top crust in a few spots with a skewer or toothpick. The dough may fall a bit, but it will recover in the oven. 
 
Bake loaves for 20 minutes, then rotate the pans; rotate rolls after 10 minutes. The total baking time is about 50 minutes for loaves, and only 20 to 25 minutes for rolls. The bread is done when it's a deep golden brown and the internal temperature is above 185°F (85°C) in the center.
 
Remove from the pans and cool on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes for rolls and about 1 hour for loaves before slicing or serving.
 
 
VARIATIONS
 
You can substitute potato water (leftover from boiling potatoes) for the water or beer, which will make the dough even softer. The milk provides some tenderness and color, but if you prefer a leaner bread you can replace it with an equal amount of water or potato water.
 
Feel free to replace some of the bread flour with an equivalent amount (by weight) of whole wheat flour or rye flour. If you do so, increase the amount of water by about 1 tablespoon (0.5 oz / 14 g) for every 7 tablespoons (1 oz / 28.5 g) of whole grain flour you use.
 
If you would like to avoid the air pockets caused by the melting cheese, you can knead cubed cheese into the dough after the overnight rise, just before shaping, rather than rolling it up in the dough. This will create little cheese bursts throughout the loaf instead of a spiral.

Table of Contents

FRENCH BREADS AND SOURDOUGH HEARTH BREADS
Lean Bread
Classic French Bread
Pain à l’Ancienne Rustic Bread
Pain à l’Ancienne Focaccia
Pain au Levain
San Francisco Sourdough Bread
Neo-Neopolitan Pizza Dough
Sourdough Pizza Dough
50% Whole Grain R ustic Bread and Pizza Dough
100% Whole Grain Rustic Bread and Pizza Dough
Bagels

ENRICHED BREADS
Everyday 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
100% Whole Wheat Hearth Bread
100% Whole Wheat Sourdough Hearth Bread
Struan
Challah
Hoagie and Cheesesteak Rolls
Many-Seed Bread
Soft Sandwich Bread and Rolls
Soft Rye Sandwich Bread
Wild Rice and Onion Bread
Soft Cheese Bread
Crusty Cheese Bread
English Muffins
Soft Pretzels
Crispy Rye and Seed Crackers
Flaky, Buttery Crackers

RICH BREADS
Cinnamon Buns
Sticky Buns
Coffee Crumb Cake
Fruit-Filled Thumbprint Rolls
Panettone
Stollen
Greek Christmas or Easter Bread
Hot Cross Buns
The Best Biscuits Ever
Croissants
Chocolate Croissants
Danish Pastry

Editorial Reviews

Peter Reinhart is the Leonardo da Vinci of bread; his recipes are foolproof, his research exhaustive and yet a delight to read and follow, and his hunger for knowledge and technique is boundless and infinite. He is without a doubt the definitive source of true style and information when it comes to all things baked and delicious, and my go-to guy for all things leavened and sandwichable”
—Mario Batali, author of Molto Italiano

“I’ve been using Peter’s overnight pizza dough technique religiously for years—mix, knead, chill overnight, shape, bake. So simple, and minimal planning is required. In this book, many of the recipes use a similar approach–no poolish or pre-fermenting. From pain au levain and pretzels to panettone and pizza dough, all the greatest hits and every day favorites are covered.”
—Heidi Swanson, author of Super Natural Cooking

“Peter Reinhart’s thoughtful, steadying presence combined with his matchless teaching skills and down-to-earth approach make reading and using Artisan Breads Every Day a great pleasure. His information demystifying the preparation and use of sourdough starters is both much needed and superb.”
—Nancy Baggett, author of Kneadlessly Simple: Fabulous, Fuss-Free, No-Knead Breads

“For most cooks, artisan bread baking is close to metaphysics. And each succeeding book about it only tends to deepen the mysteries and make trying it even more unlikely. Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day is one of the first books of its kind that actually made me want to stop reading and start baking.”
—Russ Parsons, author of How to Peel a Peach

From the Publisher