Baking Bread

Bread can make you a hero. It comes together easily and fast, if you do not count time waiting for it to proof. Yet, it can make new friends and impress enemies. With four basic ingredients: flour, water, yeast and a touch of salt, you get a classic, good, bread dough. Bake it with the windows open, fill the neighborhood with the mouth-watering goodness of fresh bread aroma and even the most unfriendly neighbors will turn out.

My mother baked her bread in a style referred to as American Style, that is, with eggs and sugar added to the four basics. Why this became the predominant style for bread here, if it became the predominant style for bread here, remains unclear. Perhaps bread-makers felt the hard, new world, wheat varieties needed help. Perhaps mothers wanted more nutrition and sweetness in their loaves. Whatever the cause, my mom’s sugar and egg bread has a very different flavor and texture than does the classic water, flour and yeast bread.

If memory serves, the label American Style comes from Bread Alone by Daniel Leader and Judith Blahnik. In my opinion, this is one of the best books covering the art of bread baking.

If you lack a copy, tell someone who needs to buy you a holiday gift. If you know someone who could use a good book about bread, this would be a good gift choice. For me, it opened a world of bread styles, from the simple, basics, to the complexly flavored, nut filled breads of traditional tables. They write about the breads, the flours and the ovens. This book exposed layer after layer of the complexity of bread baking; the joy of making a poolish starter; the 20% bran flour; the beautiful, regional recipes, all combined to educate and delight.

Putting a poolish into the refrigerator at night, getting up early and baking fresh loaves for breakfast will gain big brownie points, not to mention a warm, inner sense of accomplishment. Digging deeper to explore the breads of your heritage, can set you on a path, the path of the bread baker.

copyright 2005 Chromia Poetics