"Bread. The process of bread baking is at once a simple endeavor, yet at the same time it can be one of enormous complexity. The merest of ingredients are required, and these few are easily procured, requiring little intricacy in their preparation. And since so few ingredients are needed or necessary to the bread baker, from one bake to the next not much seems to change. One style of mixer suffices and can mix a full range of doughs. Some couche linens, a few stacks of proofing baskets, a decent scale, a durable work table, ...
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"Bread. The process of bread baking is at once a simple endeavor, yet at the same time it can be one of enormous complexity. The merest of ingredients are required, and these few are easily procured, requiring little intricacy in their preparation. And since so few ingredients are needed or necessary to the bread baker, from one bake to the next not much seems to change. One style of mixer suffices and can mix a full range of doughs. Some couche linens, a few stacks of proofing baskets, a decent scale, a durable work table, a couple of razor blades stuck on slender lames, and a sturdy oven: The needs are few. And yet from the time the grain is planted until baked bread is on the table, the hands and skills of dozens of people have been engaged. Farmers in the field plow, plant, cultivate, and harvest. Grain is transported to the mill to be tempered, ground, sifted, analyzed, and bagged-brought from berry to flour. Flour in the bag is trucked and hefted to the domain of the baker. Here the final magic is performed, for the flour is nothing by itself-it needs the baker to bring it to fulfillment, to coax all the flavor he or she can from the inert grain. The flour, unable to sustain life on its own, is transformed by the hands of the baker into wondrous bread, nurturing and nourishing. What we hold in our hands, months after the original planting of the seed, is the final resolution of the labor of many: a loaf of bread-ephemeral, fragrant, alive."--
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I have baked bread off and on for 10 years. With craft loaves now approaching $4.50, I am back to baking regularly. I learned first from "Bread Alone" which was a good learning book. Hammelman's book introduced new techniques which immediately improved the loaves I was baking. The folding of the dough during the main fermentation gave it extra strength and improved the oven spring ; it was also easier to load the baking stone. He has a nice full discussion of hand techniques for preparing loaves for baking. I have used his Pain Rustique recipe with great success and with modifications to include whole wheat flour up to 25 %. It is nice to have a bread ready in 3 hours or so (not counting the long time for the poolish). I do not have an electric mixer but so far it hasn't been a problem. I break up a stiff poolish or biga with my fingers. It is messy but it works. I steam by spraying water on the oven sides. My loaves have looked nice like the pictures in books.
Lavender
Apr 24, 2007
Great resource!
I have read many a bread book trying to understand the art of bread baking. I own several and this one is my favorite. The author is not just a cookbook author, he is a baker with many many years of experience. He describes in detail what each ingredient contributes to the final product and passes on his wisdom so that we can achieve great results at home. The recipes are easy to follow and the results are suberb. Highly recommend.
