Monday, September 27, 2010

All Rise in Praise of Bread




I love the smell of fresh-baked bread. I don't make it very often, but every Easter Sunday I spend the better part of my day making Easter Bread using the recipe of an old friend's Russian grandmother (the bread has to rise 3 times!). Do you like to make your own bread? The bread book that has been making its way around my workplace lately is Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois (you can also check out their website, or the video below). I have not tried to make it yet but several of my co-workers are fans.





Other recommended bread titles in the library catalog include:

The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart

The Bread Bible: Beth Hensperger's 300 Favorite Recipes

The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book: A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking by Laurel Robertson, with Carol Flinders & Bronwen Godfrey


Or, try something a little out of the ordinary:

Maori Fried Bread

The Knead for Bread (a blog about baking)

Amish Friendship Bread

Ethiopian Injera (not just a bread, it's also used as a utensil!)

James Beard's Amazing Persimmon Bread

Jamaican Hard Dough Bread


Sweet Anise Bread from Uruguay

Traditional Pan Cubano

Nigel Slater's Crispbread Recipes

Korean Egg Bread

Chinese Steamed Bread

Swedish Limpa Bread

Gesine Bullock-Prado recommends: Natural Red Grape Sourdough Starter/ Mothersponge

How to make dough ornaments

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

While we're "talking bread", I can't resist recommending a novel: Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks
The life of 31-year-old trophy wife Wynter Morrison suddenly changes course when her husband announces one evening that their marriage is over. Emotionally devastated and desperate for a change of scenery, Wyn moves to Seattle where she spends aimless hours at a local bakery, sipping coffee and inhaling the sweet aromas of freshly-made bread. These visits bring back memories of her long-ago apprenticeship at a French boulangerie, and when offered a position at the bakery, Wyn quickly accepts -- hoping that the rituals of baking will help her move on. Working long hours among the bakery's cluster of eclectic women -- Linda, the irascible bread baker; earth mother Ellen and her partner Diane; and Tyler, the blue-haired barista -- Wyn awakens to the truths that she missed while living the good life in Hancock Park. Soon Wyn discovers that making bread possesses an unexpected and wondrous healing power, helping her to rediscover that nothing stays the same... bread rises, pain fades, the heart heals, and the future beckons.