The chapters most immediately relevant to a baker are those on breads & pancakes, and on fermented grain “porridges”. In the former, the basic sourdough starter recipe suggests using potato or pasta cooking water and possibly some organic grapes or berries to kick start the process, and asks us to cover the open bowl with something porous like cheesecloth, and the following bread recipe encourages experimentation, with its use of leftover grains and a variety of liquids, including stock, beer or sour milk, and we are urged to allow as long as it takes for the dough to rise.

There are also recipes for an onion-caraway rye bread, an Afghan flatbread and the sprouted-grain Essene bread, amongst others, but the book is primarily a call for us to be more aware of the ubiquity of fermented foods in all their forms, and most of all, it is its author’s personal story of a love affair with fermentation and its perceived health benefits.

Given that you can’t spend an evening in front of the television in the UK without being bombarded with adverts extolling the benefits of “good” micro-organisms in commercially-available yoghurts, it’s perhaps surprising that “artisanal” fermentation is still in its infancy here; and surely any reaction against the bland flavours of processed foods should wholeheartedly embrace the stinky-zingy-tangy palate of fermented flavours, so many of which we could cultivate in our own homes.

I’d never assert that any one book contained all the answers, but at least this book isn’t afraid to ask us questions, about how we eat and how we react to now-unfamiliar food tastes and smells, which our ancestors would almost certainly have been familiar with. So much more than a bread book, this paperback will also guide you through fermenting vegetables and beans, dairy products and more; the section on “country” wines, made from fruits and vegetables, reminded me of the knockout potions my grandfather used to brew from his Buckinghamshire garden, drinks so strong that my Aunt Joan still calls them “idiot’s brew”.

This book clearly grew from the author confronting a health crisis in his own life, and from his need to acquire a new focus and meaning, and along the way he has clearly created a happy synthesis of where he came from, where he is now and where he is heading. It’s an unusual book, a kind book, and an affirming book. For anyone who ever looks inward, and contemplates their own place in the bigger scheme of things, it’s a rewarding book.

above, the tear caused by the slashing of the baguette dough with a razor blade, a perfect example from the book. Photographs from Le Pain – l’envers du décor © Moussa Elibrik

Books written specifically for the working baker are somewhat hard to come by. Publishers are in the book selling business, and over the past few decades there just weren’t that many bakers to sell books to. However, that has changed and we’re starting to see publishers who recognise a growing market for artisan baking books, publishers that aren’t fearful of detail or text, using lively photography that doesn’t seem stuck in the 70s.

above, perfect aeration in the crumb of a loaf baked by Thom Leonard, baker at Farm to Market Bread Co., Kansas City. Photographs from 'Artisan Baking Across America' © Ben Fink

Maggie Glezer’s Artisan Baking Across America is a book I have recommended more than many others. It’s the one that working bakers so often talk about, telling me ‘I really like that book’. A vibrant and honest account of contemporary bread baking in North America, it also helps to demonstrate that traditions can be re-established, and that it’s possible to create workable, visually appealing, revenue earning bakery systems using old artisan methods and slow processes.

Though her text is lucid and detailed, not all the bakers I work with are big on reading. The photographs by Ben Fink, shot in natural light and vividly saturated, helps explain to wannabe breadcrafters the hard-graft edge to the bakers work, and emphasises that artisan baking can be boisterous and energetic. There is a sense of sweat and labour in every bakery Glezer visits, and the photographs show bakers mixing leavens, carefully selecting flours from old varieties of wheat, proving soft dough on cloths and in linen lined baskets. But every baker is still modern, still living in the 21st century, and driving prosperous bakery businesses forward.

above, a page showing baker Aaron Weber at the Della Fattoria bakery, Petaluma, California

The Della Fattoria bakery in Petaluna, California is one of the great bakeries featured (they have a website at www.dellafattoria.com, with more photographs of the bakery looking ever so idyllic). Alan Scott, author (together with Dan Wing) of the artisan bakers’ bible The Bread Builders, and who also features the bakery in his book, built the oven for Kathleen and Ed Weber in their back garden. Here, the Weber’s baking first started very much as a business from home until the orders grew sufficiently to take on employees outside of the family.

Recipe ingredient quantities throughout the book are written in a block, that lists the quantities in volume, imperial, metric and percentages. All made very clear, and most recipes extend over two or three pages, giving plenty of room to explain each step in detail. I like details such as ‘recipe time: about 23 hours’. Excellent. Lots of cut loaves showing the open crumb texture now preferred by contemporary bakers, a texture that is a league away from the homogenous crumb still common in the UK. Old school industry figures here tell me that ‘women’ in Britain (don’t you just love those sweeping comments) would hate an open texture in the bread’s crumb. So that’s probably why ciabatta has been such a ‘failure’ in the UK? The truth is that it’s easier to industrially process a dough with a homogenous crumb.

Financiers, a traditional French cake; photos from 'Small Cakes' © Sian Irvine

The first surprise you get when looking through this book is that quite a few of the recipes are not, in fact, for particularly small cakes!

There’s a very proud looking Dundee cake (one of several recipes made in 16cm diameter tins), and even a 26cm chocolate cheesecake, for example. But this is only a slight quibble, and I’d much rather emphasise that the recipes give very precise measurements (so a set of electronic scales would be useful) and clear instructions, and that many of them are quite short and simple. Add to that the clean photography by Sian Irvine, and a design which generally places recipe and photograph side-by-side, and you have a rather seductive – if at 64 pages rather slight - collection of baking recipes.

Dundee cake

However, in those pages, the book crams in a reasonable three dozen or so recipes in total, covering everything from those contemporary must-haves, cupcakes (with a range of vivid toppings, from peppermint cream cheese to classic buttercream), to raspberry & coconut buns, muffins, and classics like Bakewell tarts and Eccles cakes, not forgetting the Florentines and fondant fancies of the strap-line.

Something in the precision and method of the book tell you that it comes from the mind of a pastry chef, and I must express my pleasure at finally seeing a book by Roger Pizey, the Manchester-born baker who was once responsible for all the good things which filled the tiny Peyton & Byrne shop on London’s Tottenham Court Road (and also their cafe at the Wellcome Collection, round the corner on Euston Road), before he moved on to rejoin his old mentor Marco Pierre White at the latter’s new restaurant at Chelsea Football Club’s Stamford Bridge ground. Roger isn’t one of those “chefs” who has enjoyed overnight success, sprung on us by a TV company promoting cooking as a game show; he’s acquired skills and experience the hard way, working first for the Roux brothers and then MPW, before taking time out to help Oliver Peyton get his baking venture off the ground.

Profiteroles

He’s also proved himself as more than capable of passing these skills on – World Chocolate Award winner Paul A Young says “Roger Pizey taught me discipline, attention to detail and to work hard… It’s about being meticulously correct every time, which is the really difficult bit” – and this book brings his methodical approach to the average reader.

I’d happily recommend this book to any keen cake maker, but most of the recipes are so straightforwards that even a relative novice wouldn’t be out of their depth. A great first book, Roger; how about a follow-up with your Scotch egg and sausage roll recipes?

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.

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.

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.’

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

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

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

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

The Vicomte de Mauduit

First published in 1940, this is a thoroughly lovely little reprint, tapping firmly into the increasing trend for foraging. Without photographs, quaint illustrations alone help to evoke a sense of ‘simpler times’ and show how bounteous the countryside can be. A great stand-alone read, ‘They Can’t Ration These’ truly comes into its own when used as the handbook for a country ramble with a big basket! One for fans of self-sufficiency, the book is filled with recipes for foods from land, hedgerow, river and sea, not to mention information on producing one’s own alcohol, beauty products and natural remedies. It’s surprising how modern the majority of the prose feels, and how timely – the advice on growing veg is spot on. Both an amusing diversion and an invaluable guide to helping yourself! 

Persephone Books specialises in finding and republishing neglected – but potentially classic – titles; its books are designed to be quietly beautiful, with uniform dove-grey covers and cream ‘title panels’, individually designed end-papers and clear, easy-to-read typefaces. 

The Vicomte de Mauduit was himself a fascinating character and a brief biography can be found at http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/pages/authors/index.asp?id=61 

They Can’t Ration These
by the Vicomte de Mauduit
Published by Persephone Books
RRP £10.00

Swiss baker Gregor Michaud has worked all over the world and the recipes in this glossy book reflect his international influences. Another one for serious breadheads, it covers history, farming, wheat science, additional ingredients, extensive information on ferments, baking techniques and production methods… and that’s before you’ve even reached the recipes.

When you do, chapters span ‘Natural Starter Breads’, ‘Special Breads’, ‘Savoury Breads’, ‘Sweet Breads’, and ‘Croissants and Danishes’. The book’s presentation makes it easy to navigate despite being published in dual-language format. The author knows his stuff and the baker senses he’s being lead by an expert- which always instils greater confidence when trying recipes in a home kitchen. Each recipe comes with a photograph and a small box for ‘Suggestions and hints’ to inspire further creativity.

Artisan Bread
by Gregor Michaud
Photographs by Johnny Han
Published by Food Paradise Publishing Co.
RRP HK$168