A new crop of bread books just in time for my birthday

I'll admit it readily - I am a cookbook junkie. I don't often cook things from the cookbooks I own (case in point - The French Laundry Cookbook - gastroporn at its finest but not something you'd actually want to cook from) but I read them like novels and drool over the pictures. I recently freecycled a couple of boxes of cookbooks I knew I'd never look at again and, even though I am not a packrat in the rest of my life, I will admit to a pang or two when this lot left my house. Thankfully, two long awaited bread books have come to take their place.

Anyone who knows me knows my complete obsession with no-knead bread, particularly the version introduced by Mark Bittman of the New York Times and Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery. Since I first discovered this bread four or so years ago I have baked hundreds of loaves and taught the technique to more people than I can even count. Imagine my excitement when I read that Jim Lahey had published a book called "My Bread." I decided to give myself a birthday present and buy the book (along with "Healthy Breads in Five Minutes a Day" - more about that later).

My friends, it is everything I hoped for and more. This is a guy who is serious about his bread and it shows in every aspect of this book, particularly the obsessively concise directions and the "food as still life" photography. Since I'm the obsessive type myself, this book spoke to me loud and clear.

Some of the recipes sound so fantastic I can hardly wait for the weekend to bake, particularly fennel-raisin bread (candied fennel stalks combined with fennel juice, Pernod and golden raisins - I'm in heaven), carrot bread (carrot juice instead of water) and the various pizzas. My hubs and kids are a little bit over the whole homemade pizza every Friday night thing but this week they have no choice. How could you not want to make (and eat!) cauliflower pizza or fennel pizza or Pizza Bianca?

Now, on to the other book. I really enjoyed "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day," the first book from the authors, Hertzberg and Francois. The brioche in particular was spectacularly good and I like the idea of making a large quantity of dough and baking it to order over the course of two weeks.

What they've done with this book is use the same technique with various whole grain and even gluten free breads. I didn't expect to get quite as jazzed as I was for Jim Lahey's (they are a wee bit less serious) but I found myself getting pretty excited. I'm thinking brown rice bread or oatmeal date bread sound good as my first breads from this book.

Its going to be a busy weekend.

I haven't posted much lately, in fact, I've barely posted at all this year. I don't have much of an excuse except that life has definitely gotten in the way. One bright note in all of this is that we now have pizza night every Friday and, thanks to Breadtopia, I have come a long way towards the pizza crust of my dreams (thin, crisp and chewy a la Saviano's on Long Island). Hopefully we'll be grilling pizza this summer too - a rather different experience but a delicious one nonetheless.

But I digress. Any reader of this blog knows I've had a love affair of long standing with Jim Lahey's no knead bread. It has been my go-to ever since I first learned the technique and is still a standby when I need to produce bread the next day but there's always been the issue of "what if I forget or I don't know I'll need a loaf the next day?"

Enter "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day." I really didn't want to like this book because it seemed to want to horn in on the no knead movement and take it to the masses. Then, I caved. I heard the authors on "The Splendid Table" describing making brioche in just a few minutes and my curiousity got the better of me. I bought the book, made the bread and, well, drank the kool-aid.

The basic premise is that you mix up a big ol' mess of dough, refrigerate it and cut off a hunk whenever you want to bake. The dough lasts for two weeks in the fridge and by the end of the two week period has soured a bit for a slightly more complex flavor. The concept is simple and brilliant and I've ended up talking to about everyone I know about how to do this (after I spent the last three years bending their ears about Lahey's no knead technique).

This morning I went to the next level and used the brioche dough (and yes, it really is that simple - it took more time to melt the butter than it took to mix up the dough) to make sticky buns.

OH MY GOD!!!! THEY ARE NOT TO BE BELIEVED!!!

I'm not given to Valley speak or multiple exclamation points under normal circumstances but normal speed and punctuation really don't do these rolls justice. They are just that good. Even my sub-standard photography captures the insane amount of luscious caramel topping. I am still, almost twelve hours later, in awe of the deliciousness.

If you're a baker and you don't already own this book, buy it immediately. I mean it.

Today's bread bakeoff

One of my coworkers and I have been talking baking for some time and I got her started on my beloved no-knead. Of her own volition (I'm so proud) she found the Artisan Baking in Five Minutes a Day website and has turned into a baking maniac. Talk about going from zero to sixty in 10 seconds! She's now baking just about every day.

At any rate, we decided, since we were both in the office today, that we'd do a "bread off" and each bring a loaf in for our coworkers to taste. Hers was a bit softer and less sour than mine; mine had a chewier crust and a slightly "holier" look but there weren't even any crumbs left after the ravenous hordes were done.

I'm so glad I've been able to convert her. Tomorrow, total global baking domination...

And so another month begins

I have been the world's worst blogger, especially for someone who says she wants to get serious about this stuff, so I'm going to commit to blogging a bit more. I certainly don't want to get maudlin but it is amazing to me to think I've been baking for over 50 years! How the heck did I get THAT old?

More later...

Is it Reinhart?

Or is it me?

Oh, I think we all know the answer to that question, but it frustrates me nonetheless. I've been baking for a really, really, really long time (yes, I am that old) and never in my life have I had so many disasters as since I've taken up this BBA challenge. I'm starting to feel like a flour covered loser and my family is resisting eating any more of my failures.

Just to make myself feel better, I've baked three gorgeous loaves of my beloved no-knead bread (my stable bread-boyfriend who never lets me down) plus cornbread (not from BBA) and the best chocolate cupcakes I've ever produced, all in one week. I'm starting to regain my confidence, slowly, but I'm feeling a bit more like myself again.

Here's a picture of this morning's loaf, which I have to admit is just plain delicious. The girls have developed a new obsession with garlic bread so I think we'll be having that tonight along with our soup for dinner. Mom and Dad will have grownup grilled cheese (grated sharp cheddar with pepper jelly).

On the subject of cupcakes, before I forget, they are from Georgetown Cupcake, a precious little bake shop in DC where they sell upwards of 4000 cupcakes a day! They won the Washington Post's cupcake contest and having tasted the results, I can certainly see why. These cupcakes are simply spectacular - just don't overfill the cups or you'll get martian tops, which are a bit less lovely but still delicious. Here's the link to the recipe. Try it, you won't regret the calories one bit.

As for me, I may have the courage to pick up BBA again this weekend. Wish me luck.

Not a complete disaster by any means...

But not exactly what I was going for... yet again.

It all started when I realized I had a fair amount of roasted red pepper hummus but no pita with which to scoop it up. The hummus to pita ratio never seems to work out here (not unlike the dog to bun ratio in houses where hot dogs are consumed - not this house any more, sadly, because even though I know hot dogs are the work of Satan I still love them). At any rate, I needed pita and I needed it quickly.

In keeping with my personal challenge to bake my way through the Bread Baker's Apprentice, I didn't go directly to my fave pita recipe (Baking with Julia, the episode with Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, a couple of my favorite food writers). I love this recipe and have used it many, many times with complete success. BUT, I promised I'd stick with Reinhart so off I went. Turns out he doesn't have an actual pita recipe but suggests that using his lavash dough you can approximate pita if you make rounds and bake on a stone instead of a baking sheet.

The dough was nice to work with, shiny and smooth, and only needed to ferment for 90 minutes so it seemed I was in good shape. Once I was ready to bake I divided the dough into four pieces of about three ounces each and rolled them out into rounds (sort of). On to the stone went the first two but there was no puffing going on in my oven that day. I ended up with chewy, crispy flatbreads, which were delicious but definitely not pita.

Caroline suggested that I write an indignant letter to Peter Reinhart complaining about his recipes. I had to remind her that he's one of the most famous and respected bakers in the world and if I wasn't getting the right results the issue was most likely in MY kitchen, not his.

Sigh...

The countdown is on

One of the greatest pleasures of the holiday season for me is to get invited to my best friend Caroline's parents' house. No matter which holiday they have a full house of beautifully dressed, interesting people sipping cocktails and discussing things like art, music and books. This year we're invited for both Thanksgiving and Christmas and I got Big Daddy to agree to Thanksgiving (we'll work on Christmas later - he won't know what hit him).

At any rate, my contribution to these soirees is always dessert and this year I'm pulling out the stops. I have to do something flourless since Caroline's mom is gluten free so my trusty Giada de Laurentis chocolate cake with almonds and amaretti will do nicely (this is from her Everyday Italian cookbook - I'm not normally a Food Network kind of gal but got this as a gift and the chocolate cake is worth owning the book for). Next is my beloved sweet potato bourbon cheesecake. I have to leave out the bourbon since we'll have a couple of people in recovery in attendance but it is spectacularly delicious even without it.

Of course there has to be pumpkin pie but I'm going to do an apple buttermilk pie as well. This pie is the evolution of a recipe that Big Daddy presented to me when we were first married. His version calls for canned apple pie filling and a sweetened condensed milk custard topped with oatmeal strusel. Oh honey, that baby was so sweet I thought my teeth were going to fall right out of my head! I've reworked the recipe to call for caramlized Honeycrisp apples and a buttermilk custard but kept the strusel because it is GOOD. Big Daddy says his version is better but that didn't seem to stop him from eating three pieces of the test pie I made over the weekend.

So that leaves one dessert left and I can't decide what it should be. Different factions are rooting for their favorites - Caroline wants Shaker lemon tart, the kids want Hershey bar cake and I'm leaning towards something chocolate like Claudia Fleming's cheesecake tart only with a chocolate cookie crust instead of graham crackers. Plus I'm in the mood to make a salted caramel sauce and that would be delishment on a chocolate something. Watch this space to see where I end up.