Amoeba Pizza and Artisan Bread!

Awhile back I had a lesson in artisan bread making. Finally, this week I put it to use!

I've been making a really big effort to be better about making meals every night. And as I've been planning and coming up with a system I thought: how easy dinners would be if we had fresh bread and salad as a fairly staple part of our meals each night.

This bread is a dream. Really, it is so much easier than I ever thought it would be.

So I do think the title: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is really true. I think I just might have to buy the book now- or Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. That one sounds very nice too.

Here is my first humble little loaf:

One thing I was very excited about with this bread dough is that is can also be used for pizza. I love to make homemade pizza but all the rising steps and such make it something that takes a bit of planning.

Well, I rolled out some of this dough one night, threw some toppings on it and baked it in the oven- and really it was some of the best homemade pizza dough we've had.

Dashing Boy said my pizza looked like an amoeba.
Which sounded so cool that I instantly got images of us having amoeba pizza nights with our children. We're such nerds.

My name is Jenny and I am a bread snob.

I don't think there could be anything cooler than learning how to make bread like this:


Isn't it exciting! What a beauty! I was lucky enough today to take a wonderful class in artisan bread baking by my good friend Cristie at The Table Runner ( a great resource for finely tested and tuned recipes if I do say so myself).

Cristie is my go to person on baked goods. I have called her many a time with questions- knowing I can not go wrong if I follow her advice.

This past year she has perfected her art of artisan bread making- something I've wanted to learn very much how to do (We Love artisan bread in this house) but that has just seemed very daunting.

Well, fear not. Cristie showed me that it can be done easily (and with a little practice, maybe even with some grace like her).

She uses the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. And really it seemed like the title might really be true.

I'm very excited about it and am going to be experimenting with it this next little while.

Because things like artisan bread make me happy.

And lets face it, I'm a bread snob.

In college I worked at the heavenly Crumb Brothers Artisan Bread where we most definitely lived off the fresh bread I brought home everyday. I even started to get snobby about bread that was more than two days old. (Now that I'm not so spoiled I savor every last bite of an artisan bread loaf if it manages to last longer than two days!)

After college we even had a separate budget category for artisan bread for a spell just so we could have it every week.

But being able to make it myself? At home?

Very cool indeed.

Especially after being in company like this: