Peter Reinhart speaks at TED

We each have our own personal bread 'crushes' on certain bakers and it is no secret that one of mine (Beth) is Peter Reinhart. I have been a fan since the days of Brother Juniper's Bread Book, buying each of Reinhart's books as it hit the shelves, then disappearing into the kitchen to emerge hours later in a whirlwind of flour bearing freshly baked loaves of goodness.


In fact, if I had to name one baker who helped make me the bread-junkie I am today, it would be Peter Reinhart. Credit or blame, I lay it at his feet. Bread Baker's Apprentice is my definitive book of bread science, and I recommend it to everyone I know who is learning to bake bread. The detailed explanation of the science behind the various stages of bread making are worth the cost of the book and the time to read them carefully.

This video was shot at TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design.) which, if you haven't heard of it, is a great thing. The annual conference challenges speakers to 'give the speech of their lives' in eighteen minutes. There's an entire list of food-related TED talks for your viewing pleasure.

Start here, with Peter Reinhart talking about bread.




May your bread continue to rise.

Technorati: Food | recipe | baking | bread | artisanal | artisan | bread baking | Peter Reinhart

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Index of our Recipes

This is one of those housekeeping posts that I have been needing to do for a long time and I apologize for taking so darned long. Unlike Susan, I can't even claim to have been out in the barn with the totally adorable, entirely too cute for words baby lambs. (and chicks)

Simran from Bombay Foodie, who is baking through our first year, has inspired me to get on with it and put together an index of our recipes. This list is arranged by month, in the order we did them, with additional recipes, tips and tricks, and other relevant posts following. Once you've found a recipe for your next batch of bread, stop by Bombay Foodie and cheer on Simran's year of baking dangerously.

Pizza
Kevin: Pizza Dough
Kevin: Pizza II
Beth: Pizza Dough
Beth: Pizza crust 2
Susan: Pizza Dough
Kevin: Calzone

No-Knead Breads
Beth: noKnead Bread
Kevin: No-Knead Muffins
Susan: No-Knead Bread

Basic White Sandwich Breads
Susan: Farmhouse White Bread
Kevin: Sour Cream Bread
Beth: Potato Bread

Summer Breads
Kevin: Summer Breads - Buns
Beth: Summer Breads - Pesto Rolls
Susan: Summer Breads - Parisian Daily Bread (A Four Hour Baguette)

Italian Breads from Local Breads
Susan: Italian Breads From Local Breads - Black Olive Cheeks (Puccia)
Kevin: Italian Breads From Local Breads - Focaccia
Beth: Italian Breads From Local Breads - Filone

Quick Breads
Kevin: Quick Breads - Cheese Bread
Beth: Quick Breads - Blueberry Muffins
Susan: Quick Breads -- Beer Bread
Beth: Feta & Chives Cornbread Recipe

Whole-grain Sandwich Breads
Beth: Honey wheatBerry Bread Recipe
Kevin: Sandwich Rye Bread Recipe
Susan: Whole Grain Cottage Cheese Bread
Susan: Honey Bran Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread Recipe

Holiday Breads
Beth: Holiday Rolls - Rosemary Fans
Susan: Holiday Rolls - Carrot Herb Rolls Recipe
Kevin: Holiday Rolls - Yeast Beer Rolls Recipe

Seasonal Breads
Kevin: Seasonal Breads — Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
Beth: Seasonal Breads: Challah Recipe
Susan: Holiday Breads - Italian Rosemary Raisin Bread

Bite-sized Breads
Kevin: Bite-sized Bread - Gougères Recipe
Beth: Onion Cheddar Breadsticks Recipe

Other recipes
Susan's Savory Cheese & Scallion Scones
kitchenMage's Quick and Flaky Biscuits
Kevin: Butter Popovers
Susan: Easy Rosemary Focaccia (Flatbread) Recipe
Kevin: Hot Cross Buns
Kevin: Prosciutto Bread Ring Recipe
Kevin: Reuben Braid

Tips and Techniques
Baking Better Bread
Beth: Weights & Measures
Susan: How To Shape Dough Into Sandwich Loaves
Ever wondered how to cut an epi?
Math is NOT hard! Adjusting yeast for slow rise bread.

Ingredients
obsessions: oat flour

Story contest
Prizes! Awards! Gimmicks!
Bread Time
Tales & Travails
Being the Heartland
Breadtime Stories
Deadline
The Lost Stories
We have one winner!
Bribery, Blackmail, and Physical Threats

Conversation
What Are Your Bread Baking Goals for 2009?
The Knead to Know: Your Bread Baking Questions Answered

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The Knead to Know:Your Bread Baking Questions Answered

Susan's 'Perfect for Beginners' Farmhouse White Sandwich Bread

We love to hear your feedback about our recipes, and we enjoy answering the many bread baking questions you ask us. But since our (often longwinded) replies usually end up buried in the comments sections of past posts, we thought it would be more helpful to start turning them into their own little mini posts instead. And besides, we can never pass up the opportunity to use a good (bad?) bread pun. As always, we welcome your input! —Susan and Beth

Our first official Knead to Know question is about Susan's popular Farmhouse White andwich bread and comes from Shelby, who blogs at Eat Local Santa Fe:

I have a question. I made your bread today, and it is beautiful and it tastes great. But I am having a problem. I live at 7000 feet and have been experimenting with different breads and keep having the same problem. The breads come out looking great. They sound hollow when I tap them, but after they have cooled and I cut them open, they are almost too moist and gum up on the knife. What am I doing wrong? Do I need to increase the cooking time? Maybe the flour? Not sure. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Okay, Shelby, first a disclaimer—I have no high altitude baking experience. But my immediate thought when I read your comment was something I see you mentioned in your Farmhouse White blog post, and that is oven temperature. If all of your breads are turning out too moist inside, they simply may be underbaked. An inexpensive oven thermometer can be very helpful in this regard. What you assumed was 375 degrees might actually only be 325 or 350—and that can make a big difference.

Remember, too, that all ovens bake a little differently, so bread that bakes in 35 mintues in my 375-degree oven might take 40 (or even 30) in yours. The easiest thing to do is experiment. Turn up the heat. Or try baking your breads even longer than you already are. If you're baking more than one loaf at a time, pull one out when you think it's done, then let the other(s) bake longer and compare them.

Another question: Are you slicing into your breads straight from the oven? Once you take them out of the oven, the loaves actually continue to bake. Eating them right away can lead to gummy, undercooked interiors even if they look perfectly done on the outside. For most breads, it's best to let the loaves rest intact at least 40 minutes (which often seems like an interminable amount of time!) before slicing into them. And no, contrary to what Beth claims, tearing into the bread with your hands rather than using a knife still counts!

There are a few exceptions to this 40 minute rule—rolls can usually be eaten after just a few minutes (click here for all the roll recipes on A Year in Bread), as can my favorite Four Hour Parisian Daily Baguettes.

Shelby, we hope you'll let us know how things go with your breads. In the meantime, do any of you have other thoughts or ideas to add—or tips for baking bread at high altitudes?

© Copyright AYearInBread.com, the fun and floury bread baking blog where you have all of the questions, and while we definitely aren't yeasty know-it-alls, we do have some of the answers.

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Math is NOT hard! Adjusting yeast for slow rise bread.

Those of you who have read a few posts here may know that I am a huge fan of cold-fermentation. The long, slow process allows the flavor of the grain to fully develop and the ability to bake bread on my schedule, rather than the dough's, is extremely useful.

Most recipes can be made using this method, just start with cold ingredients and reduce the yeast a bit. Therein lies the rub, or the knead. How much do you reduce the yeast? What is 'a bit' anyway?

While wandering the tubes of the internet today, I stumbled across this post at The Fresh Loaf. It has an actual formula for calculating the amount of yeast you need when you adapt a recipe to the long, slow fermentation method.



Using Susan's Farmhouse White Bread as an example, let's see how this works.

Her recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of yeast and 60-90 minutes of bulk fermentation, so let's start by converting the yeast to teaspoons: 6 teaspoons to be exact. We'll use 90 minutes, or 1.5 hours, since that's about what it takes when I make this bread. My typical long, slow rise time is 12 hours so that's what we'll use. Then we do the math, which gives us 3/4 teaspoon of yeast.

See?

6 teaspoons of yeast X 1.5 hours
---------------------------------
12 Hours

9
-- = 3/4 teaspoon
12


This looks about right, but I have to test the theory later this week. After I get to the store and buy some bread flour. Because I don't have any in this house. Whatever the heck is up with that. Bad breadie!

Theories are great and all, but we want to know about your real-life experiences trying this. If you adapt a recipe, please stop back and let us know how it worked.

Technorati: Food | recipe | baking | bread | artisanal | artisan | bread baking | slow_rise

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2008 Food Blog Awards: It's Time for You To Vote! (And Some Sourdough Inspiration)

It's great to hear that many of your 2009 bread baking goals (keep them coming!) involve sourdough. And we promise this really is going to be the year we finally take you step-by-step through the simple process of creating, caring for, and using your very own sourdough starter. I've been wanting to make the German Rye Sourdough in Local Breads since I first flipped through this wonderful book (which you can read more about here). My own rye starter died from neglect several months ago, so now I'm especially motivated. I miss my sourdough onion rye bread!

In the meantime, sourdough novices and experts alike will find plenty of beautiful and delicious inspiration over at Wild Yeast, which has just been nominated for Best Food Blog—Theme in the 2008 Food Blog Awards. Congratulations!

And I'm thrilled that my blog, Farmgirl Fare, has been nominated in the Best Food Blog—Rural category.

The Food Blog Awards are a wonderful way to discover dozens of the best food blogs around. The polls are open to the public and you can vote on all 14 categories here. Voting ends Saturday January 24th at 8pm EST. Have fun!

© Copyright 2009 AYearInBread.com, the bread baking blog where sometimes the hardest step when making a sourdough starter is actually getting around to starting it!

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What Are Your Bread Baking Goals for 2009?

White Pizza Goes Green: Susan's Swiss Chard Artichoke Pizza

The other day my foodie friend Mark Overbay, who works at the awesome Counter Culture Coffee in Durham, North Carolina, shared one of his New Year's resolutions with me. "I’ve vowed to myself to learn how to bake good bread from scratch in 2009," he confided in an e-mail. "My goal is to be able to provide my friends with loaves of delicious bread by next Thanksgiving. I will be referencing A Year in Bread often, I’m sure!"

Of course we think this is a wonderful New Year's goal. And Mark isn't the only one with bread baking plans on the brain. I've been hearing from people all over who really want to start baking their own bread in the coming months.

Is 2009 the year you've decided to get back into a regular bread baking routine? Maybe you're planning to retire the bread machine and try kneading some dough by hand? Or perhaps you've decided you're ready to invite a sourdough starter to live in your fridge? Small steps can be exciting (and good for you), too—using more whole grains, seeking out local and organic ingredients, vowing to figure out what a sponge actually is (besides the thing you clean with) are all worthwhile ambitions.

You can even multi-task your resolutions. Do you aim to eat more healthy greens this year? Just cook them up and spread them on some homemade pizza dough! My easy Swiss Chard and Artichoke Pizza is so good you'll forget how good it is for you.

Here at A Year in Bread our goals for the year are simple:
1. Bake more bread.
2. Expand and share our bread baking experiences and knowledge.
3. Post a lot more often.
4. Finally get around to tackling sourdough starters with you!

So what about you? We'd love to hear your own personal bread baking goals for the year. And hopefully we can help you achieve them. Requests for what you'd like to see us cover on A Year In Bread are always welcome.

Related posts:
Links to All the Sandwich Loaf Recipes on A Year in Bread
Susan: Farmhouse White Sandwich Bread (a great beginner loaf)
Susan: Pizza Dough
Beth: Pizza Dough
Kevin: Pizza Dough
Susan: Arugula Pesto Pizza
Susan: Three Onion and Three Cheese Pizza
Susan: Fresh Tomato and My Favorite Basil Pesto Pizza

© Copyright 2009 AYearInBread.com, the bread baking blog where life is always better when there are Four Hour Parisian Daily Baguettes (so good, yet so easy to make!) and a couple of kinds of homemade pizza in the freezer.

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Susan:Honey Bran Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread Recipe

A Whole Grain Loaf Even Diehard White Bread Fans Will Love

I'll admit that things have improved somewhat over the past several years, but for the most part bread still doesn't get the respect in the United States that it deserves—especially the poor sandwich loaf. Is there anything more depressing than a sandwich that is packed full of amazing stuff yet held in place by two totally disappointing slices of something that barely deserves to be called bread?

In a perfect world, both the filling and the bread would be wonderful, but I, for one, would much rather have a so-so filling surrounded by superior bread than the other way around. Bad bread can ruin even the best sandwich, and good bread can make it.

We're a very bread oriented household here on the farm, and we take our sandwiches seriously. I took it as a compliment when a houseguest once said, after polishing off one of the homegrown lamb salami sandwiches I'd packed for us to eat while out running errands (I never leave the farm without food), "I'm so full. Your sandwiches are like a meal!" but at the same time part of me was thinking, Well, yeah. It was lunch.

Boring Old Tuna? Not on this Bread

A sandwich shouldn't be something you're forced to eat—it should be something you want to eat. And it doesn't have to be expensive or fancy to be fabulous. Start with nice ingredients and you'll end up with a very nice sandwich. Plain old peanut butter and jam? A perennial favorite around here. But the bread is freshly baked, the peanut butter and jam (reduced sugar—you can taste the fruit!) are organic, and the mandatory ice cold glass of milk served alongside came straight out of a happy Jersey cow who lives six miles down the road. In fact that's what I had for breakfast this morning. Open faced on one slice of lightly toasted Honey Bran Whole Wheat.

Lunch? Leftover roast chicken (locally raised on pasture and organic grains) topped with soft and sweet slices of roasted onions (both heated ever so slightly), a sprinkling of salt and freshly ground pepper, a thick smear of mayonnaise (I've always been a Best Foods/Hellman's girl), and plenty of lettuce. More of the Honey Bran Bread. Maybe toasted, maybe not. Make the bread, make the sandwich. Make a meal.

Crusty, freeform artisan breads are popping up all over, but the sandwich bread section at most supermarkets still remains a disappointing (and sometimes frightening) place. How can ingredients with 22 letters belong in a loaf of bread? And why is Oroweat not spelled Orowheat? Is it like creme and cheez, which don't contain cream or cheese?

The sandwich solution? Set aside a couple of hours every week or two and bake your own loaves. It's easier than you think, tastier than you can imagine, and costs less than the storebought equivalent—that is if you could actually find a storebought equivalent. You'll have friends and family singing your praises, and your sandwiches will never be the same. All because of a simple loaf of bread.



Susan's Honey Bran Whole Wheat Bread
Makes 3 large loaves, about 36 ounces each

When it comes to baking bread, my motto is If you have friends or a freezer, never bake just one loaf at a time. It only takes a few more minutes of work to bake two or three loaves, and homemade bread freezes beautifully.

This is a variation of my popular Farmhouse White, which is the kind of simple, scrumptious loaf people tend to imagine apron-clad grandmothers baking. Farmhouse White is also almost foolproof, which makes it a great beginner's loaf. I realize that in these health conscious days white bread isn't for everyone, but if you've had disappointing, doorstop-like whole grain baking experiences in the past, you might want to bake up a batch or two of the basic recipe first and then start making it healthier.

Farmhouse White is open to an infinite number of interpretations, and this is my latest favorite variation. It also makes wonderful dinner rolls and burger buns. It's not 100% whole grain and uses white whole wheat flour, which means it's a lighter, easier dough to work with and also rises beautifully, while still offering plenty of whole grain goodness, especially with the 2 cups of bran tossed in.

You don't have to weigh your ingredients when baking bread, but a digital kitchen scale really does make baking and cooking a whole lot easier. It's also nice to be able to weigh your dough as you're dividing it into loaves (or rolls) so you know they're the same size. I am loving my new Oxo Good Grips Kitchen Scale: it weighs up to 11 pounds, lets you pull the display out from the base so you can weigh really large bowls (so cool), and was recently voted #1 by America's Test Kitchen, the people who publish Cook's Illustrated magazine. Can you say incredibly useful, under $50 holiday gift?

Bake your bread in 8" x 4" pans if you want the rustic look of taller loaves with mushroom-shaped tops (like in the photo above), or 9" x 5" pans if you prefer shorter, more square-shaped slices (like the tuna sandwich photo). I can't say enough good things about these Chicago Metallic commercial loaf pans. For the price of a few loaves of bread they're definitely worth the investment—and come with a 25-year warranty. What they call a 1-pound pan is basically an 8-inch, and the 1-1/2 pound pan is equivalent to a 9-inch.

As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients whenever possible. I've found that organic flour makes a big difference when baking bread, and it often only costs a few more cents per loaf. Look for organic flours and brans in the bulk section of natural food stores.

If you don't have bread flour for this recipe, just use more all-purpose flour. Increase the honey to 1/2 cup for a slightly sweeter loaf. I like to bake all my breads, including those in loaf pans, on a baking stone, as I find it bakes them more evenly and gives the bottoms a nicer crust (and it also simulates the ceramic deck in the 7-foot wide bread oven in my someday-bread-bakery-to-be), but it definitely isn't necessary.

4 cups / 1 lb-4 oz / 568 g all-purpose flour
2 cups / 10¼ oz / 290 g bread flour
1 cup / 4¼ oz 122 g oat bran
1 cup / 3¾ oz / 109 g wheat bran
1½ Tablespoons / 1/8 oz / 17 g instant yeast
2 Tablespoons / 30 ml canola oil or melted butter
1/3 cup / 3-5/8 oz / 102 g honey
5 cups / 40 fluid oz lukewarm milk (about 85 degrees F)
4 cups / 1lb-5 oz / 604 g white whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoons / 30 ml salt

Mixing and fermentation
In a very large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, bread flour, oat bran, wheat bran, and yeast (I use a wooden spoon). Make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the canola oil, the honey, and then the milk. Mix well, then continue to stir vigorously, slowly adding 1 cup of the white whole wheat flour at a time, until you've added 4 cups, or until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough. This should take a few minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 6 or 7 minutes, adding more flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or the work surface.

Place the mixing bowl over the dough, and let it rest for 20 minutes. This rest period is called the autolyse. (You can read more about autolyse in the sidebar on my Farmhouse White recipe post.)

Remove the bowl, flatten out the dough with your hands, and sprinkle about half of the salt over it. Begin kneading the salt into the dough. After a few turns, sprinkle on the rest of the salt and continue to knead for 5 to 7 minutes, until the salt is completely incorporated and the dough is soft and smooth.

Place the dough in a large plastic straight sided container with a snap-on lid. With masking tape or a felt tip pen, mark the spot on the container that the dough will reach when it has doubled in volume. Set it somewhere that is preferably between 70F and 78F for about one hour. Ideally, the dough should also be between 70F and 78F. It's easy to check the temperature of your dough and ingredients with an inexpensive instant read thermometer.

When the dough is ready to be shaped, you should be able to push a floured finger deep into it and leave an indentation that doesn't spring back. Unless your dough is rising in a straight-sided container, it can be difficult to judge whether it has "doubled in size," which is the guideline most recipes use. I find the finger poking method to be more reliable.

Shaping and final rise (proof)
Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, flattening gently with your hands to break up any large air bubbles. Divide the dough into three equal pieces.

Shape the dough into loaves and dust the tops with flour. There are dozens of ways to do this; instructions on how I like to shape my sandwich loaves can be found in this post. Place loaves seam side down in greased loaf pans (I've become addicted to baking spray—so convenient.)

If desired, an hour before baking, place baking stone in the oven and heat to 375 degrees.

Cover the loaves with a damp tea towel and let them rise for 45 to 60 minutes. The dough should rise well above the rim of the pans, and when you lightly poke it with a floured finger it should spring back just a little.

Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown and the bottoms sound hollow if tapped (you can carefully pop one out of the pan and put it back in if it's not quite done). Remove immediately from pans and let cool on a wire rack. Try to wait at least 40 minutes before cutting into a loaf, as it continues to bake while cooling. Store at room temperature or freeze in zipper freezer bags. Make sure loaves are completely cooled before sealing in bags.

Still have more flour left?
Check out all the other sandwich bread recipes on A Year In Bread.

© Copyright 2008 AYearInBread.com, the bread baking blog where on more than one occasion we've happily eaten sandwiches (on homemade bread of course) for three meals in one day.

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