Got 5 minutes?

No kidding! It works.... We subscribe to the Mother Earth News magazine (we plant trees, and we hug them) and they have some great articles about all kinds of handy, good to know information.
So we baked a simple bread recipe (it is reeeeallly easy! no kneeding or anything) and it worked and we, well, I was amazed. Cause I have always been kneading and pressing and rising and punching and waiting and slicing.... and on an on and 8 hours later, a loaf of bread.

So these authors broke it down to the simplest ingredients, yeast, flour and water. It makes a wet dough that you keep in the fridge and just pull out what you need for a daily loaf. Set it on a pizza peel (or a floured surface that you can slide it off into the oven) and let it set for about 20 minutes. Preheat the oven for 20 minutes (we have a breadstone and a pan for a cup of water in there with it) and after 20 minutes, add a cup of water to the pan and slide the bread onto the stone. Get this, that's it! 30 minutes later you have a beautifully crusty loaf of fresh bread!

We have not purchased bread this year at all. We bought the book and it has tons of recipes and alterations for things like cinnamon rolls...all from that basic starter dough.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It's true.

LiciaBakes too :)

I made bread... and it is sooo good. I don't make bread often because it takes a long time. It's really fun to get my hands all doughy though.

There is nothing better than bread fresh from the oven. This is an Italian Country Loaf with some farmers market tomato's and olive oil.


The only thing I am missing are my homemade stoneware baking platters. I will be selling them on my etsy store LiciaPots when the time comes, and I expect everyone to get baking!

Glazed Lemon Lavender Bread

This is the best bread! Traditionally I give out Banana breads for the holidays, but this year I decided I wanted something with a little brighter flavor. So, as requested this is the recipe for Glazed Lemon Lavender Bread.
I made these in little bread tins, but breads are best baked in stoneware if you have it. If you don't, then you can order some from me when the pottery making starts!

Gather:

• graduated liquid measuring cup
• dry measuring cups: 1C, 3/4 C, 1/2C (opt for nuts), Tbs, tsp, 1/4 tsp
• 2 medium mixing bowls
• 2 wooden spoons
• small sauce pan
  
• loaf pans (or muffin tins or whatever)
• pastry brush (not entirely necessary, you can use a spoon if you want.)
• Shredder for the lemons
• reamer for the lemons
• mortar and pestle (or something to smash the lavender)
• skewer or chopstick
  

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 C all-purpose flour (unbleached)
  
• 3/4 C sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder (aluminum free is best)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg (find the brightest orange yolks possible, or get some from my parents)
• 1C milk
• 1/4 C oil (my preference is expeller pressed olive oil, but I'm picky.)
• 2 T finely shredded lemon peel
  
• 2 T lemon juice (from the lemon that you just peeled)
• 2 T smashed culinary lavender
  
• add 1/2 C nuts if you want, I don't.

Glaze:

• Lemon juice
• Powdered sugar
• lavender (culinary grade), yes you can pick some from your garden if you are sure it is free of chemicals and safe from animals... I choose to smash mine with a mortar and pestle. LiciaPots will be making mortar and pestle sets for your purchase at a later date.

Lets do this thing:

• Preheat oven to 350*.
  
• Use butter (works best) to grease the bottom and sides of the pan you choose to use. Recipe is timed for an 8 x4 x2 loaf pan. I use smaller pans and start poking the bread at 40 minutes to see when it is done.
  
• In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, lavender, lemon peel and salt. Make a divot in the center of mixture (see Rocky for more about how to make an excellent divot).
• In another medium mixing bowl add the egg and beat well, then add the milk, oil and lemon juice.
• Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. (Using a glass bowl and spatula makes this easier since you can see if you missed a spot. )
• Spoon the batter into your choice of pan and bake for 50 minutes for a 8 x4 x2. Muffins? start testing batter at 30 minutes, small pans? start testing at 40 minutes... you get it.

A few minutes before you are ready to take the bread out of the oven (don't fret if you already did) place the saucepan on the oven over low heat. Add about 1 Tbs of lemon juice, 2-3 Tbs of powdered sugar and 1 tsp of crushed lavender to saucepan and stir until it just starts to warm but not simmering (again, don't fret about this too much). Remove from heat and set aside.

Remove bread from oven when a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Poke the breads several times with the skewer or chopstick halfway to bottom. Dip the pastry brush in the warm glaze and brush generously over breads. Or you can drizzle with a spoon.

Wait until you can just bear the temperature of the breads and eat them all up! Or, wait till the next day (ha!) and serve lightly toasted with tea. I like to make too many and share them with friends. They seem to like it.