The Recipe Files

A collaborative blog for sharing recipes, locating great restaurants and upholding the proposition that we live to eat.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Baking Books

SQT asked for some baking book recommendations. I'm no expert baker but here's my experience.

Nowadays first place I'd go would be online to the Food Network and to a website called Cooking For Engineers. The latter has some of the Elton Brown flair but with a greater emphasis to testing and researching.

The CFE webmaster recommends the Bread Bible. I borrowed a copy from the local library but haven't had time to read thoroughly. I really enjoyed reading Julia Child's baking book
and I like Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything for simple recipes and clear instructions. I tried to read Fannie Farmer's baking book, but found the instructions rather difficult to follow.

One thing about all cooking books - don't buy unless you really plan to refer to it on a weekly basis. I find public libraries can supply adequate cook books for almost any occasion and often have out of print rarities. Even if you don't find the book you want in your library, check out the library's website and see if you can find a copy elsewhere. An unused cookbook is a waste fo shelf space. A few years ago I bought about 10 recipe books including the updated Joy of Cooking book, I find that I only refer to Bittman's book when I want to cook. I'll probably add a Japanese cookbook and a baking book in the future to round off my personal reference collection, but I find the public library to be my best resource if I am planning ahead for something special.

Another thing about cooking is to familiarize yourself with the ingredients. There are some cookbooks that focus on the ingredients. They're not worth buying but are good to read once over to gain more knowledge. I think the reason cooking is intimidating for many people is because at first they are not comfortable with the ingredients, the kitchen tools and the techniques. For me, once I become comfortable with an ingredient or technique, I become a much more creative cook of that ingredient.



My basic bread recipe is very simple and I know it's not artisanal bread, but I find the flavor and texture of the final product preferable to most bakery bread. To make:

You need a big plastic or metallic bowl (at least 8 quarts), I just mix a starter with 3 to 4 cups of flour and 1 or 2 tbsp of dry yeast (depending on the temperature and when I want to bake) and salt and enough water to make it soggy but not liquidity. I cover and let sit for 4 to 12 hours. If it gets too bubbly and you're not ready to cook, use a spatula and stir to let out the air.

Then I mix in enough flour to make a firm dough, let it sit for another hour or so before shaping. How wet depends on the kind of bread you like.

I usually make a very stiff basic dough because I like to mix in some nuts and oily flavoring like olive, marinated artichoke or sundried tomatoes. I find the oil and water in the additives soften the dough up. Mix in any additional ingredients before letting the dough sit prior to shaping. Taste the dough and adjust for flavor - salt and pepper or garlic or paprika can really liven up the flavor.

If you just want to make rolls and not sandwich bread, you can make rolls in small batches in small non-stick pans and bake to finish a toaster oven. Just pull a piece of dough, roughly shape and squish them against each other. Bake at 375F until light brown on the outside, spitzering a little water into the oven ever 5 minutes will help make a crustier bread. You can wrap up the rest of the bread dough into a tupperware container and refrigerate. I find they keep just fine for about a week - just shape and bring to room temperature, give a little time to rise and bake.

One final thing. I know hardcore breadbakers use wet towels for bread rising. I just lightly spritz the dough surface and cover the bread with a large pan or bowl, I find this will conserve moisture just fine and there's less of a mess at the the end.

Remember to keep a good quality long serrated knife for cutting bread. It doesn't have to be a bread knife, but a flat edge won't give you the necessary sawing action needed to cut breads and cakes. If you haven't bought a knife for this purpose, I recommend a Forscher or an Ikea branded 6"-8.5" serrated chef's knife. This would be a good sandwich knife that excel for tomatoes and cooked meats, and does not take up nearly as much space as the traditional 10" bread knife.

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tips Astrid. I have Bittman's book too, but only use it occasionally. I find that my handy Better Homes cookbook gets the most use for everyday cooking.

I've experimented with recipes from The Joy of Cooking, Bittman, Better Homes and Lauren Groveman. I like your tip to go to the library though. That'll definitely save me $$ on books that I wouldn't necessarily refer back to.

4:03 PM  
Blogger astrid said...

Thanks, I haven't read any Better Homes cookbooks and maybe it's time to start.

The thing I like about Bittman's books is that they're very easy to modify to the supplies on hand. With the other cookbooks I often feel uncomfortable substituting.

6:28 PM  
Blogger Peter P said...

I cannot bake at all. :(

We have not used the oven for at least 5 years.

12:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Peter

Are you not fond of sweets? I love to bake, I always have. My grandfather used to tell me I should be a pastry chef, but I prefer to bake for enjoyment rather than work.

9:03 AM  
Blogger astrid said...

Baking for work can be a lot of fun, especially if it's a specialty bakery that frequently changes recipes.

Now that I have this blog, I'll have to stop by my old work place in SoCal to *borrow* some recipes. They have an amazing recipe for whisky pudding made with rum soaked raisins.

I don't like using the big oven either. I use my small toaster oven for 90% of my cooking and I'd put in a convection oven if I ever own a house or get into a perfect rent control situation.

An unused oven is a great place to store pots and pans.

9:32 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love whisky pudding. My mother in law makes a great one with a hard sauce. I think she got the recipe from The Joy of Cooking.

Both my in laws are really good cooks. My mother in law makes the best green onion buttermilk bisquits that we serve at Thanksgiving. I'll definitely have to post that here.

6:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have had good results with the few recipies that I've tried from Baking Illustrated from the Cooks Illustrated magazine people.

There are a good variety of recipies, but my favorite part is how each recipe gets a small essay covering what their goal was (how they wanted the recipe to come out) and all of the various things that they tried to get there. I enjoy the insights from their tinkering.

7:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No cookbook library can be considered complete with Southern Living Cookbooks. A collection of good 'ol southern recipes. After all, cooking was INVENTED in the South!

http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Living-Cookbook-Staff-Magazine/dp/0848714717

7:59 PM  
Blogger Peter P said...

What about savory pastry? I am dreaming about a whole fish baked in bread. :)

8:50 PM  
Blogger astrid said...

Whole fish baked in pastry sounds very complicated.

Right now, I can't believe how long my "easy" fried recipe is. It takes about as long to follow as it takes to actually prepare.

10:48 PM  
Blogger astrid said...

I also can't believe how bad my word skipping/word substitution/erroneous tense problem is getting.

I should get a grammar tutor... My apologies to all those forced to suffer through my bad grammar.

4:42 PM  

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