2020 James Beard Award Winner The major new cookbook by the pioneer from Bread Alone, who revolutionized American artisan bread baking, with 60 recipes inspired by bakers around the world. At twenty-two, Daniel Leader stumbled across the intoxicating perfume of bread baking in the back room of a Parisian boulangerie, and he has loved and devoted himself to making quality bread ever since. He went on to create Bread Alone, the now-iconic bakery that has become one of the most beloved artisan bread companies in the country. Today, professional bakers and bread enthusiasts from all over the world flock to Bread Alone's headquarters in the Catskills to learn Dan's signature techniques and baking philosophy. But though Leader is a towering figure in bread baking, he still considers himself a student of the craft, and his curiosity is boundless. In this groundbreaking book, he offers a comprehensive picture of bread baking today for the enthusiastic home baker. With inspiration from a community of millers, farmers, bakers, and scientists, Living Bread provides a fascinating look into the way artisan bread baking has evolved and continues to change--from wheat farming practices and advances in milling, to sourdough starters and the mechanics of mixing dough. Influenced by art and science in equal measure, Leader presents exciting twists on classics such as Curry Tomato Ciabatta, Vegan Brioche, and Chocolate Sourdough Babka, as well as traditional recipes. Sprinkled with anecdotes and evocative photos from Leader's own travels and encounters with artisans who have influenced him, Living Bread is a love letter, and a cutting-edge guide, to the practice of making "good bread."
In Good Bread Is Back, historian and leading French bread expert Steven Laurence Kaplan takes readers into aromatic Parisian bakeries as he explains how good bread began to reappear in France in the 1990s, following almost a century of decline in quality. Kaplan describes how, while bread comprised the bulk of the French diet during the eighteenth century, by the twentieth, per capita consumption had dropped off precipitously. This was largely due to social and economic modernization and the availability of a wider choice of foods. But part of the problem was that the bread did not taste good. In a culture in which bread is sacrosanct, bad bread was more than a gastronomical disappointment; it was a threat to France's sense of itself. By the mid-1990s bakers rallied, and bread officially designated as "bread of the French tradition" was in demand throughout Paris. Kaplan meticulously describes good bread's ideal crust and crumb (interior), mouth feel, aroma, and taste. He discusses the breadmaking process in extraordinary detail, from the ingredients to the kneading, shaping, and baking, and even the sound bread should make when it comes out of the oven. Kaplan does more than tell the story of the revival of good bread in France. He makes the reader see, smell, taste, feel, and even hear why it is so very wonderful that good bread is back.
The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book is the classic bestselling cookbook devoted to baking light, healthful, delicious bread entirely from whole grains. This specially updated edition includes an entirely new chapter on making excellent whole-grain loaves in a bread machine. Now even the busiest among us can bake the delectable loaves for which Laurel’s Kitchen is famous. New research proves what we’ve known all along: Eating whole grains really is better for your health! Here, the switch from “white” is made fun and easy. Like a good friend, the “Loaf for Learning” tutorial guides you step-by-step through the baking process. You’ll make perfect loaves every time, right from the start. Here you’ll find recipes for everything—from chewy Flemish Desem Bread and mouthwatering Hot Cross Buns to tender Buttermilk Rolls, foolproof Pita Pockets, tangy Cheese Muffins, and luscious Banana Bread—all with clear explanations and helpful woodcut illustrations. The brand-new chapter on bread machines teaches you to make light “electric” loaves from whole-grain flour. No matter what your schedule, you can come home to the wonderful smell of baking bread, fresh, hot, and ready to enjoy.
Winner of the 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award (Baking and Desserts) A New York Times bestseller and named a Best Baking Book of the Year by the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, Bon Appétit, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Mother Jones, the Boston Globe, USA Today, Amazon, and more. "The most groundbreaking book on baking in years. Full stop." —Saveur From One-Bowl Devil’s Food Layer Cake to a flawless Cherry Pie that’s crisp even on the very bottom, BraveTart is a celebration of classic American desserts. Whether down-home delights like Blueberry Muffins and Glossy Fudge Brownies or supermarket mainstays such as Vanilla Wafers and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream, your favorites are all here. These meticulously tested recipes bring an award-winning pastry chef’s expertise into your kitchen, along with advice on how to “mix it up” with over 200 customizable variations—in short, exactly what you’d expect from a cookbook penned by a senior editor at Serious Eats. Yet BraveTart is much more than a cookbook, as Stella Parks delves into the surprising stories of how our favorite desserts came to be, from chocolate chip cookies that predate the Tollhouse Inn to the prohibition-era origins of ice cream sodas and floats. With a foreword by The Food Lab’s J. Kenji López-Alt, vintage advertisements for these historical desserts, and breathtaking photography from Penny De Los Santos, BraveTart is sure to become an American classic.
Sourdough: The Gold Standard of Bread More and more home bakers are replacing mass-produced breads and commercial yeasts in favor of artisan breads made with wild cultures and natural fermentation. Whether you want to capture your own local yeasts, take advantage of established cultures like San Francisco Sourdough, or simply bake healthier, more natural loaves, you’ll find no better guides than renowned sourdough authorities Ed and Jean Wood. In this updated edition of Classic Sourdoughs, the Woods reveal their newly discovered secret to crafting the perfect loaf: by introducing a unique culture-proofing step and adjusting the temperature of the proofs, home bakers can control the sourness and leavening like never before. The reward? Fresh, hot sourdough emerging from the oven just the way you like it—every time. Starting with their signature Basic Sourdough loaf, the Woods present recipes featuring rustic grains and modern flavors, including Herb Spelt Bread, Prarie Flax Bread, and Malt Beer Bread, along with new no-knead versions of classics like White French Bread. They round out the collection with recipes for homemade baguettes, bagels, English muffins, and cinnamon rolls, plus a chapter on baking authentic sourdoughs in bread machines. Steeped in tradition, nuanced in flavor, and wonderfully ritualized in preparation, sourdough is bread the way it was meant to be. So join the sourdough renaissance and bring these time-honored traditions into your own kitchen.
Because the bakers and their bread were central to Parisian daily life, Kaplan's study is also a comprehensive meditation on an entire society, its government, and its capacity to endure.
Now in Paperback In Dime-Store Alchemy, poet Charles Simic reflects on the life and work of Joseph Cornell, the maverick surrealist who is one of America’s great artists. Simic’s spare prose is as enchanting and luminous as the mysterious boxes of found objects for which Cornell is justly renowned.
“Compelling, essential reading for understanding the underpinnings of psychopathy.” — M. E. Thomas, author of Confessions of a Sociopath For his first fifty-eight years, James Fallon was by all appearances a normal guy. A successful neuroscientist and professor, he’d been raised in a loving family, married his high school sweetheart, and had three kids and lots of friends. Then he learned a shocking truth that would not only disrupt his personal and professional life, but would lead him to question the very nature of his own identity. While researching serial killers, he uncovered a pattern in their brain scans that helped explain their cold and violent behavior. Astonishingly, his own scan matched that pattern. And a few months later he learned that he was descended from a long line of murderers. Fallon set out to reconcile the truth about his own brain with everything he knew as a scientist about the mind, behavior, and personality.