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DeRusha Bakes: Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- As the weather turns colder, a lot of us start thinking of baking.

And two Minnesota authors -- Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois -- have sold 500,000 books promising Artisan Bread in five minutes.

"We've brought your mother's recipes with a quarter of the work," Francois said.

In a decade where carbs and bread represented all that was evil, Minneapolis friends and authors Hertzberg and Francois published their first book at just the right moment.

"We were so lucky, we hit it right when people were eating carbs again," she said.

Artisan Bread in 5 sold like crazy in 2007. The new version of the book just went on sale. The reason it takes only five minutes is the dough is premixed and sits in your fridge for up to two weeks awaiting baking.

For the detailed recipe -- click here.

And you probably have the ingredients in your home right now.

Take two pounds of flour, one package of yeast, a tablespoon of kosher salt, and three cups of water.

Depending on how long you leave it in the fridge, it can get sourdough-y. Then pull out enough to make a loaf, and let that sit for at least 40 minutes.

"You can see it doesn't rise much like traditional dough," Hertzberg said. "But that's OK."

The water creates steam, just like the fancy professional ovens.

"That's gonna make a nice caramelized crust," Hertzberg said. "You need the steam to make it beautiful."

It's really just five minutes of active prep work -- otherwise you're waiting.

The new book has more pictures, more recipes, like the one where you cook the bread in a crock pot.

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