An Obsessive’s Quest for Professional Quality Baked Goods from a Home Kitchen
Posted in Lean Doughs, Techniques on Nov 1st, 2010
Baguettes Á 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 […]
Posted in Lean Doughs on Jul 4th, 2010
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, […]
Posted in Lean Doughs on Feb 13th, 2010
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 […]
Posted in Lean Doughs on Aug 2nd, 2008
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, […]
Posted in Techniques on Jul 20th, 2008
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 […]