Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day

  Healthy Bread You Can Make & Actually Want to

Amanda Evans of Oregon, 5/2/2011

After having so much fun with the original Five Minutes a Day bread book, I bought this one for my mom (who grinds her own wheat). I promptly copied out a couple of the master recipes and began using them myself. I love the bread from the first book, but I don't like to live off of white flour (yes, I making bread that often). I was excited to try using whole grains in my baking. Would it be just as easy to make whole wheat bread as it was to make the white bread I was used to making? And would it taste as good?

I have used both the 100% whole wheat recipe and the master recipe, which is about 60% whole wheat. The master recipe is more reliably fluffy, while the 100% one tends to be flatter (especially as the dough ages). For convenience, I have gone to only keeping the master dough on hand and I use it for everything from rolls in the morning and free-form loaves in the evening, to pizza and pitas. The whole wheat provides excellent flavor but it still maintains a lovely texture.

You might wonder why you couldn't just buy the original book and substitute whole wheat flour yourself. Why buy another cookbook? Whole wheat flour does not react the same way as white flour does. The authors have taken on the challenge of creating a yummy, workable whole wheat bread and this book really is a whole new product. They have taken the concept of "healthy bread" and filled this book, not only with an easy recipe for dinner bread, but also with recipes for healthy bagels, healthy cinnamon rolls, healthy donuts (really!).

If you, like me, enjoyed the first book but want to use healthier grains then this book would be a great addition to your cookbook library. If you are intrigued by the method introduced in the original but you, like my mom, already love your whole grains, then this is the book for you.

  You Can Have Your Bread and Eat It Too!

HappyHomemaker of Oregon, 4/14/2011

I LOVED their first book, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and was so excited to find that they'd written a new one for grain breads! In case you haven't heard, here's how it works: mix together a list of ingredients (five minutes and 2 utensils to wash), let rest 2 hours (while you live your life), and slip in the fridge. When you want bread, take as much dough as you want, form the loaf, let it rest, then bake. Then try not to eat the whole thing before it gets to your family table. On second thought, maybe you should bake two. But therein lies the beauty. You CAN bake two loaves, or just one. Maybe you don't want bread tomorrow, but the next day you do. No problem. The dough is safely in the fridge, and stays good for 14 days (depending on the recipe). Not that mine EVER lasts 14 days.

I love wheat breads, but you can't just switch out the ingredients and expect it to turn out the same. Enter this book. By changing the ratios and adding vital wheat gluten, now from the same batch of dough you can make whole wheat bagels, donuts (you have GOT to try these things!), free-form loaves, and beautiful wreaths! They also have yummy breads that have fruits and vegetables in them, as well as gluten-free recipes that actually taste good!