The Bread Builders

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above, author Dan Wing removing a well risen and baked loaf from an oven he built. Note the rounded base on the loaf, where the dough has lifted upwards and away from the hot base stone. Photos from The Bread Builders © Dina Dubois

This is a complex, detailed work without peer. If you want to bake using a natural leaven, if you ever feel in your mind that you want to give over a chunk of your life to baking remarkable loaves with care and dedication, then The Bread Builders should be your first book to start that new life.

There is so much well thought information contained in the pages, told in a straightforward and generous manner with little self-reverential chest beating (other than a rightly felt pride in what it sets out to do) that it is a book that you can place before all others. It is a life science book, about baking and working in a way that is both hardcore and in harmony with nature and sweet living. Still today, flicking through the book as I write this, it excites me and fills me full of ideas. It is an essential book for each baker who cares enough to want to improve the quality of every loaf they bake.

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above, co-author Alan Scott pours a fermented but elastic dough out on the floured surface

The words and thoughts of Alan Scott (the leading brick oven builder in the USA and an inspired teacher and rock for many artisan bakers) together with the research by Dan Wing explaining clearly and intelligently just how and why such simple methods and conditions produce complex and varied results – putting the science in place to explain traditional practices. It’s not a recipe book, a point Dan Wing notes in his introduction, but rather a method book. He explains how, from the grain upwards, every element, ingredient and technique should builds upon the other and exists in a tight, co-dependent state. There cannot be bread without heat, and the way that heat is applied will affect the final loaf as much as the type of flour used.

Wood-fired oven building is a strong part of the book (a bit less than 100 of its 250 pages are devoted to building and oven handling), but for those who really just want to bake with their existing electric or gas oven there is enough method to keep you going back to the book. Scott’s cherished bread is his Desem loaf, gaining its flavour not just through the combination of leaven and slow rising, but by its use of freshly ground wheat in the dough.

In stages similar to the process used to make a pain au levain in France, or the English/Scots (here think Scotland rather than Alan…) virgin barm method prior to the early 1900s, an intermediate tight leaven (think of a dough simply made with flour, water and leaven, though the Scots method would include salt) is made – then that is used to ferment the dough. In the book, Alan Scott keeps his stock rye leaven as a nugget buried in a jar filled with rye flour. Then, an intermediate dough is made, then finally that is incorporated in the final mix.

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above, the storage and rising procedure that Alan Scott uses for his Flemish Desem bread

Many of these steps are illustrated with clear and beautiful line drawings. There is a short section in the centre of the book showing Alan mixing and baking, and throughout there are black and white photographs showing both the stages in oven building and also to illustrate the essays on artisan bakeries in America. Alan, through his website at www.ovencrafters.net, helps bakers around the world build woodfired ovens that are sympathetic to traditional baking methods – you can read a little online about his work and oven at the Fruition Bakery in Australia, by clicking here.

At the back of the book is a short chapter, Bakers’ Resource: Sourdough Microbiology, that, through an interview with research graduate Michael Gänzle from the University of Hohenheim on his work studying growth and metabolism of Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis and Candida milleri during sourdough fermentation. Though it is important to remember that the presence of specific bacteria and yeast is not guaranteed simply by using particular ingredients, methods or even just holding certain beliefs, it is utterly vital to understand that complex system at work in a leaven. And this short section explains so much of what occurs so clearly.

These little sections and paragraphs that dot the book are magical, and you put the book down feeling such warmth towards the authors, and admiration for what they have added to the knowledge of baking, and what they believe the role of a good artisan baker to be. As Daniel wing notes, at the end of the chapter on dough development, ‘Artisan bakers are careful with their dough. They use good flour, they use good active leavens, they don’t over-knead, they give plenty of time for fermentation, and they are careful when they form and proof their loaves. Then they cast fate to the winds, and their dough into the oven.’

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The Bread Builders
Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens
by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott
Published in 1999
by Chelsea Green Publishing
Vermont, USA
Pages 253

available from
Chelsea Green Publishing
P.O. Box 428, 85 N. Main Street, Suite 120
White River Jct., VT 05001
www.chelseagreen.com

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Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

picThis book aims to show that breadmaking can be an option for even the time-poorest of home cooks. As with the majority of more detailed books, ‘Artisan Bread…’ .’ opens with Ingredients, Equipment, Tips and Techniques and the authors’ ‘Master Recipe’. With photographs relegated to colour inserts, the onus is on the text to guide you through the recipes- which, fortuitously, sound great, and are all accompanied by backstories. Very much in the authorative tone fans of America’s Test Kitchen- type publications will recognise (indeed, a recipe inspired by Christopher Kimball appears), this is a definitive collection of breads for every conceivable occasion- from ‘Peasant Breads’, through ‘Flatbreads and Pizzas’ to ‘Enriched Breads and Pastries’.

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day
by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois
Photography by Mark Luinenburg
Published by St Martin’s Press
RRP $27.95

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River Cottage Handbook No. 3: Bread

picDeceptively presented like a little hard-cover novel, this book is beautifully illustrated with Gavin Kingcome’s rustic photography. The book is prose-heavy and goes into a lot of detail – amateurs may want to give this one a miss, but serious breadheads will be chuffed with such a large amount of information in such a small package. An interesting read as well as a recipe book, the book covers bread history, ingredients, science and a guide to step-by-step breadmaking. Troubleshooting guides, conversion charts and a supplier directory are well presented and helpful – and then come the recipes.

Methods are comprehensive and the breads themselves sound lovely- anything but the ‘run-of-the-mill baking book’ type. Try out Hazel-maizel bread, Vetkoek, or make a foray into the world of sweet baking with Lardy Cake. A particularly nice touch is the final section on using up bread leftovers- I’d be tempted to whip up a loaf simply to make a batch of Beetroot Houmous. If you’re project-inclined, the handbook also shows you the basics of how to build your very own clay oven.

River Cottage Handbook No. 3: Bread
by Daniel Stevens
Photographs by Gavin Kingcome
Published by Bloomsbury
RRP £ 14.99

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Cookbook for Girls

picI’m not quite sure that I get the idea of a cookbook aimed at girls rather than children in general, but presumably the publishers had thought about this when choosing a title which excluded all those budding Jamies and Gordons in favours of the Delias and Nigellas.

However, having gone down this path, Dorling Kindersly have pursued it with some vigour. From the exceptionally pastel cover, with the tag-line ‘fabulous food for gorgeous girls’, through to the sections on making invitations for a sleepover party, place settings and table decorations, it does everything it can short of nail a sign on the front of the book reading ‘Boys Not Allowed’.

I can’t help but nurse a sneaking feeling, however, that recipes for fishcakes, club sandwiches and beef chow mein would be just as appealing to boys; and while it’s a relief to be able to report that the recipes didn’t automatically steeer girls towards bowls of salad and fear of carbs, there is a tendency towards pink lemonade and grilled fruit. But along the way, the diverse recipe selection includes everything from jambalaya to veggie spring rolls, taking in salads and cheese straws en route.

On the other hand, the ‘sweeties’ featured are devilishly indulgent, and the real ‘baking’ content spot on. Cute mini-muffins, white chocolate & raspberry brownies, and the obligatory cupcakes, will capture the heart of many pre-teen girls, and could easily inspire them to progress onto more advanced projects.

There are some blips- the lasagne photograph appears raw – whilst some timings seem odd or optimistic – butternut squash soup is given a cooking time of 39 minutes, why not 40 – and I had to wonder if the gingerbread house had been ransacked, with its garden seemingly full of candied broken glass, leading me to look for a derelict sponge cake Ford Escort, jacked up on marzipan bricks!

Although not the most serious or involved book, ‘Cookbook For Girls’ is a great introduction to a wide variety of recipes and techniques. The format is quite ‘sociable’, making it ideal for baking parties. A great stepping stone for girls beginning to express an interest in food and wanting to share it with their friends. But where is the companion title for boys, and what would be in it ?

Cookbook for Girls
By Denise Smart
Photography by Howard Shooter
Published by Dorling Kindersley, August 2008
128 pages; RRP £12.99
Target age group: 6-10

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