30.09.16 By nick Leave a Comment

The bread book to end all bread books?

Modernist Bread Everyone loves a good cookbook. It seems that today, more than ever, new books are coming out on a regular basis that make you quite literally want to eat the pages with pictures are so stunning and descriptions so mouth watering! Personally, my household has more cookbooks than we could count. We get them at garage sales, on amazon, as gifts, and as splurges. We read them, browse them, look at them in wonder, and try their recipes with excitement and admiration. I believe that description of a good book is shared universally.

Maybe so do the folks at Modernist Cousine. Next spring, they will release their new book titled “Modernist Bread”. A 5 volume series, it is made up of 1,200 recipes, 1,500 experiments, 2,000 pages, and 3,000 new photos. It will be in full color and will require 4 pounds of ink per book. This will be the bread book to end all bread books and a treasured item in your collection. However, don’t expect to find this book on the discount isle at Barnes & Noble. It will cost you about $600.

22.07.16 By nick Leave a Comment

S’Mores Cupcakes

And now for something completely different!

A few weeks ago I was cruising my usual baking forums when I encountered something awesome and I just had to share it with you all. I think you all know that I love bread but most probably don’t know that I have a sweet tooth as big as Alaska, so when I saw Abigail’s cupcakes I just had to reach out. She’s an amateur baker and was happy to share one of her cool recipes with me.

Abigail Groff, a 23 year old self-taught baker from the suburbs of Pennsylvania, started baking cupcakes two years ago. What started out as a delicious, fun, experimental hobby quickly became a creatively-driven passion. From game night with friends while betting on platforms such as 핑카지노 to children’s birthday parties, there is certainly a cupcake for every occasion! When Abigail is not baking in the kitchen, she works as an activities assistant in a dementia unit. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, playing music, going bowling, and photography.

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5.07.16 By nick Leave a Comment

How to feed your sourdough starter

Often times people get caught up in the “how to” details of doing something and decide not to do said thing because they are unsure of the entire process. Let me tell you, “been there, done that”! With a lot of things in life you’re really not aware of how simple something is until you get started. Our brains sometimes over-complicates trivial details, but let me tell you, maintaining your sourdough starter is just that, quite trivial.

Sourdough starters are quite resilient. Certain strands have been around, allegedly, since the gold rush years and you can get them delivered to your house, if you wish. If they can survive a for over a century and still thrive in your kitchen, then you certainly can keep a starter if you want to.

So, to dive in to this video, I want to preface it by saying that I don’t keep a lot of starter around just because I don’t really like to waste flour. I keep just about a tablespoon in a plastic jar and two days before I want to bake, I feed it and grow it until I have enough to make bread or sourdough pancakes or waffles.
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1.07.16 By nick Leave a Comment

Simple Challah Bread

Phewww summer is off to a busy start! Here at makebread HQ we’ve been busy camping, having visitors, and making pizza. Making bread has also been on the docket but I was rushed and didn’t take any pictures of those bakes.

That being said, I wanted to experiment a little bit and revisit an old friend that hasn’t made many appearances on this blog. Say “chello” to my little friend, Challah. Challah bread is a great direction to go if you are looking for something other than straight white bread and or are looking for something slightly softer and sweeter. It pairs wonderfully with jams you’ve made this summer and makes amazing french toast.

If you’re new to Challah, it lies somewhere between “delicious” and “decadent”. On a scale from not-brioche to brioche, it tips more towards being a brioche since it includes egg and sugar. This is probably the only site where you’ll see challah rated on a scale between white bread and brioche, but liek I said it falls somewhere past the halfway point since it is a sweet-ish dough with eggs. For your enjoyment, here’s the chart of where I think challah falls on the scale of “brioche or not brioche”:
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30.05.16 By nick Leave a Comment

Josey Baker’s Lesson 2 Bread

After my original post on Josey Baker’s book where I talked about his first recipe, or “lesson 1” bread, I decided that continuing his book as a sort of mini-series might be a good idea. Like I mentioned on that post, Josey’s book is easy to read and is built kind of like a workbook where each recipe builds on the previous one.

His first lesson was about mixing ingredients and showing readers how flexible baking can really be. If you’re in a hurry do the mixing and waiting in warmth and if you want to slow things down put the dough in the fridge until you’re ready. When it’s all said and done you end up with a nice bread that doesn’t taste artisenal, but looks impressive.