Just Baking

I’m rather fond of the letter S, having lived with it as my first initial for quite a while now. It’s probably the letter I write more than any other, especially considering I have to sign my name or initials about 100 times a day at work.
So while I wasn’t consciously setting out to make […]

If you’re anything like me, you may still be feeling the effects of those holiday indulgences that just kept adding up and up. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but it’s definitely time for a few changes for the healthier around here.
These 100% whole wheat pitas are not only 100% good for you, they also […]

It’s that time of year when many of us find ourselves thinking about how to create festive dishes for our holiday gatherings. For bread bakers, creative shaping is one way to add that extra flair that can elevate a loaf from the everyday to the celebration-worthy.
This rosette looks complicated to make, but in fact it […]

The first days of November mark Mexico’s Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos), a lively and rich tradition in which departed loved ones are honored and the cycle of life is celebrated.
Although I have never had the opportunity to visit Mexico during this festive time, I wanted to try my hand at making […]

If you think you can’t bake bread (which is probably a false notion, by the way), grissini are a sure-fire way to fast success.
These thin bread sticks could not be simpler to make. If you love playing with dough, you’ll get plenty of opportunity here. And who doesn’t love their eminently nosh-able crunch, not to […]

I love my range, with its capacious workhorse of an oven, but there are times when I just don’t need almost four cubic feet of heat. And my pop-up toaster is okay, but now and then it would be really great to be able to toast more than two slices at once.
So I convinced myself […]

The birds, from my mental To-Try list:

A flatbread
More rye bread
A bread that doesn’t take all day (or longer) to make
A recipe from Daniel Leader’s new book, Local Breads

And the stone:

Leader’s Rye-Fennel Crackerbread from far northern Italy was absolutely painless to make, a real treat to eat, and a welcome break from boules and batards. It […]

This was going to be a post about one thing: shaping a fendu loaf. Then I ended up having to improvise a little with the dough formula, so it will be about that, too.
First, the fendu: I’ve been getting a little bored with basic batards lately, so I thought I’d do something just a bit […]