The Most Amazing Bread

I’ve been baking bread steadily for almost 20 years. In Alaska, my Sourdough began with a starter passed down since the Alaska Gold Rush. It was baked in my kitchen and on campfires from the Denali to the Deshka, from Ketchican to Klutina. I’ve used old recipes, new recipes, fairly simple ones and labor intensive ones but never have I had such repeated success as I have with the basic recipe found in the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and it is incredibly simple. No kneading, no punching down, no waiting hours and hours for rising and a second rise.

I suppose it’s nearly impossible to defeat this recipe. Surely, I have tried. In my first batch, I substituted a cup and a half of oat flour – no problem. I infused sunflower seeds in the second batch and rolled an additional loaf in poppy seeds. Since the three loaves pictured, I have substituted with half rye flour and added cocoa powder for color and caraway seeds for flavor. We ate it before I could get a picture. It was wonderful. Twice we have used the dough for pizza and as soon as I lose a little weight, I’m going to start baking the amazing sweets…all variations of the same simple dough.