Cottage Cheese and Dill Bread

Loved this bread. Packed with flavor and great texture. I am sure you heard about Zoe and Jeff's book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Well, I was curious about it so I made a batch. Baked a plain loaf the first night, a pizza the second night and on the third night mixed in some stuff to make Cottage Cheese Dill Bread. The plain loaves were absolutely outstanding with great flavor. So, of course, the addition of dill and cottage cheese made it even better.

I can't tell you enough how much a piece of cake this bread is. It does not sacrifice flavor either. Once you have your master made which is almost as easy as making a box cake, you are good to go. Dough poised and ready for your every bread whim.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day
Basic Bread Recipe, click here for the NY Times article.

Adapted from “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007)

Time: About 45 minutes plus about 3 hours’ resting and rising

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt

6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough

3 cups warm water (110F)

Cornmeal.

1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).

2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.

3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.

4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

Yield: 4 loaves.

*****So here's what I did. I took out whatever was remaining of my master dough and added about:

a cup and a half of ap flour
1/3 cup minced dill
1/4 cup dried minced onion
1 cup cottage cheese (no I did not warm it)

I kneaded this on the counter until it was fully incorporated, adding about a half cup of water total ( a little at a time).

I let it rise in a wooden bowl for about an hour. I rolled it and put in a 1 1/2 pound loaf pan, covered it and let it rise again for about 45 minutes. Finally, I baked it at 450F.