Bread cetera

Baguettes à la Bouabsa When I first started learning how to bake bread a few years ago, my goal then, as it is to this day, was to be able to bake breads with superior flavor, texture and aesthetics.  Most of the bread books I’d read at the time, as well as most of the […]

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Tahini Bread, shown with Tahini and Sesame Seeds If you’ve ever had the pleasure of sampling a piece of halvah, that sweet, dense and crumbly sesame seed-based confection, then you’ll understand why I’ve been enamored of sesame flavor since childhood.  Sesame seeds and bread are a classic combination.  Whether sprinkled on top of a loaf, […]

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Multigrain Bread Alright everyone.  Get out your monogrammed stationery and Cross pen.  This is a bread that you simply must write home about. Up until this point, I’ve not been a real big fan of multigrain bread.  Perhaps it’s because I’ve never had the pleasure of sampling a really well-made multigrain loaf.  To me, multigrain […]

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Pain au Levain When it comes to pain au levain, I have to admit that I am a bit of a snob. Why else would I call it pain au levain rather than sourdough bread, as most people do? I’ve never much cared for the name “sourdough”. Once something carries that moniker, all sorts of lip-puckering, […]

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An Active Starter While bread leavened with baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is an integral part of any baker’s repertoire, that repertoire would be incomplete without the complex flavors that can only come from naturally leavened bread.  Known as sourdough bread here in the U.S., this type of bread relies on the wild yeast and bacteria naturally present on the grain to provide both leavening […]

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