After FWSY..,
I have baked my way through all of the recipes in FWSY (except one) by Ken Forkish and I am asking for recommendations for my next bread book.
I totally enjoyed FWSY. I loved the mild taste of Ken's breads made with hybrid yeast/levain or straight levain (not a fan of strong sour bread), and want to continue making bread by hand using the stretch and fold techniques. I also want to explore more making breads using the refrigerator for bulk fermentation and/or proofing. I want to continue using a scale for recipes and do not want to go back to measurIng cups. The one area that I really want to improve is the volume of my loaves either through better judgement of when bulk fermentation and proofing is done or through better oven spring which is really related to the former two.
I have read reviews on The Village Baker, The Baker's Apprentice and a few others and can't decide so I am throwing it out there for debate. I am located in Canada so books that work with the flours readily available here are preferred.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Bread by Hamelman is a great resource. I would certainly take it over BBA. Don't have the village baker so I can't comment on that...
If indeed you've mastered Forkish, then Tartine 3 will broaden your horizons about what formulae can include. Very creative and tasty exploration of bread space in that book.
Tom
In no stretch of any imagination would I say that I have mastered Forkish. I have baked some very nice breads using his technique and formulas but I have a long way to go.
Hi Toad.de.b, I'm curious, what's the difference between T3 and T1? I have the original Tartine book and after completing all the FWSY recipes have baked this standard loaf from the Tartine book. How are the subsequent books different from the original?
@bread1965,
In T1, Robertson primarily presents (in something like 70 pages) his legendary (and for good reason) liquid levain, gentle folding, low starter %-age, long fermenation, cast iron pot method for heart levains. He follows with some tasty variations on it in T1 but he doesn't stray far from the basic Tartine Country loaf. There are some other diversions in the back half of T1 but I confess I haven't gone there much.
In T3, Robertson presents the results of his World Tour, where he encountered and experimented with fasionable ancient grains and how flaked and sprouted grains can be incorporated into his basic process (porridge loaves, e.g.). One downside of T3 is his prescription of high extraction flour almost throughout. This ingredient is easier for him to come by than us mortals -- Golden Buffalo is the only one on the market that I'm aware of (and it's probably nothing like what he gets custom bolted and mixed from his supplier). He suggests workarounds for that ingredient, but the product will likely differ substantially from bakes using exactly the flour he prescribes.
In T3 he also goes off into flatbreads and other variations I can't readily reel off without it in front of me. Best way to answer your question is to visit a bookstore and flip through it of course. Graphically almost as nice as T1 (I think Robertson took the pictures in T3) and at least as inspirational as T1 if not more so. I confess I've gotten more ideas than verbatim formulae from T3. The 100% whole wheat + oat porridge bread I bake 1-2x/week for my wife's sandwiches, for example.
Happy baking,
Tom
... was there a Tartine 2...??
Not really... There is Tartine Bread, Tartine (book is on pastry I believe), Tartine Blook No. 3: Modern Ancient Classic Whole, and Bar Tartine : Techniques and Recipes (not a bread book either). Chad Robertson is a co-author of Tartine Bread and Tartine 3 so those two are the bread books.
If you want to continue reading and learning about baking bread in general, and work through a variety of really sound recipies and techniques: Hammelman and/or DiMuzio provide really excellent comprehensive artisan bread books, although DiMuzio is less centered on formulas (but it certainly has them). I'm personally not so much of a fan of Reinhart's books.
If you want to further explore a range of challenging high hydration doughs in a variety of forms - one of Robertson's Tartine books - it is hard not to be inspired by his work...
The Village Baker is what first got me inspired to make rustic artisan breads, and is a nice tour of traditional European bread, but it's been a long time since I used it.
Hi Danni
Like you, I've baked my way through all of FWSY. I'm curious, which one bread recipe did you not bake? I've since baked Tartine and enjoyed it very much. I too don't like "sour" sour-dough. And the Tartine bread, from the original book, was for me remarkable. Very different than FWSY breads, and yet I'm not sure I should say better or different. But clearly worth the effort to bake. I'm also wondering what book to bake my way through - I seem to do better this way than juse randomly bake breads at this point as I've got so much to learn. I'll be curious to see what you decide. Please post. Oh, and also like you, I'm in Canada - Toronto to be exact. I've been using Arva Flour from near London Ontaio - give it a try. They deliver and I think it's very good freshly milled flour. Let me know..thanks for posting.. Bake happy !
is the one that I haven't got to yet. I am going try a baguette recipe that I got from a friend first and then I will do the Warm Spot Levain. I had to figure out a place for it first and as suggested in the book, the oven with the light turned on will work just fine.
I am with you that I learn better going through a book rather than doing random recipes or formulas. So I will definitely let you know which book I will follow next. I got the kindle version of the Bread Baker's Apprentice and have started reading it but which ever book I will follow next will be a hard copy. Following recipes on an iPhone is just too hard. I really appreciate all the suggestions so far but haven't made a decision yet. Keep the ideas coming. :-)
PS. I am located in Thunder Bay so way up North West of you.
You might enjoy Richard Bertinet's "Crust". He has some very interesting recipes in there as well as different techniques. What part of Canada? I'm in Victoria, and use Roger's Silver Star bread flour, milled in Armstrong. It's not generally available in grocery stores (it's more for commercial bakers) but I buy it in 20 kg bags from Costco.
You should also be able to create your own recipes soon if you're good with baker's percentage now. Blend different flours to a total amount, add enough water for a high hydration (75% - 80%, depending on the flours) add 2% salt and your levain, and then whatever add-ins you like (soaked grains, seeds, chopped fruit, herbs, etc.). Fun!
I am in Thunder Bay, which is in Northwestern Ontario. Big town in the middle of nowhere basically.
I haven't seen Roger's Silver Star flour in my travels around town but it doesn't mean that it isn't available here. I will make more of an effort to see if it is available locally. No Costco here yet even though they keep promising we will get one.
I am working on creating my own recipes, the last one being a seed bread that tastes good but turned out a bit heavy. I messed up the hydration a bit due to chia seeds in the mix but I am learning so it is all good.
I will look at the book you recommended. I finished reading The Baker's Apprentice and although it has some recipes that I will use in the future, most of you were right in that is not the book I am looking for.
While Mississauga is larger than TBay, I still wasn't expecting a whole lot of bread books but was pleasantly surprised by the selection our library has. So, I've been able to read through quite a few and to find quite a few recipes / methods that I've either tried or plan to.
I settled on Tartine Bread. I d/led the Kindle version and read it last night after returning The Baker's Apprentice (who knew that you could return Kindle books to Amazon). I think that playing around with the different aspects of his basic loaf will help me with the areas of bread baking that I am trying to improve. It is going to be a learning experience to adapt his parameters such as room temperature to my conditions. When I followed Forkish, my room temperature is exactly the same as his so I could follow his time schedules and I feel I didn't learn to read the dough to see if it is ready or not to go on to the next step. Thanks for everyone's input.