The Art of Baking Bread: What You Really Need to Know to Make Great Bread

192 Pages·2012·0.61 MB·English

by  Matt Pellegrini

THE ART OF
Baking Bread
THE ART OF
Baking Bread
What You Really Need to Know to Make Great
Bread
BY
Matt Pellegrini
Skyhorse Publishing
Copyright © 2012 by Matthew A. Pellegrini
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
ISBN: 978-1-61608-537-7
Printed in China
T
o my bread tasters:
Mom, Andy, Jill, Mary, Sally,
Dan, Brandy, Ally, Appie, and
Momo (as long as the bread had butter on it).
I hope it wasn’t too much trouble.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Section One: INGREDIENTS AND EQUIPMENT
Ingredients
Eqiupment
Section Two: TECHNIQUES
The Eight Essential Steps of Bread Baking
Step One: Preparing Your Mise en Place
Step Two: Mixing Ingredients
Step Three: Kneading
Step Four: Bulk Fermentation
Step Five: Preshaping and Resting
Step Six: Final Shaping
Step Seven: Proofing
Step Eight: Baking and Cooling
Section Three: RECIPES
Straight Dough
Prefermented Dough
Enriched Dough
Sourdough
Conclusion
Resource Guide
Index
About the Author

Introduction
T
he goal of this book is simple: I want everyone with the desire to bake bread to
be able to read the instructions contained within and create a bakery-quality loaf
of bread on your first try—no matter if this is the first or fiftieth attempt at doing
so. I fully appreciate the monumental challenge inherent in this objective; however, at
the same time, I recognize that this goal is wholly achievable so long as one key
ingredient is present: detailed, step-by-step instructions with plenty of photos that
describe and depict not only what to do but what you should be thinking about,
anticipating, smelling, feeling, and ultimately, tasting as you bake great bread.
My conviction for creating this book arose because of what I encountered during my
pursuit to create the best of the best pain di mie, baguettes, ciabatta, focaccia, brioche,
and challah, along with many others varieties of bread. I had read the classics, which
are nothing less than an absolute necessity for any baker aspiring to advance her skills.
But aside from that, those same books are almost universally geared toward individuals
with an already existing base of knowledge. And all too often the descriptions and
instructions, along with a general lack of photos and other visuals that make life for the
beginner easier, left out certain steps or explanations that play an enormous role in the
baking process for the beginner. For the new student, these often overlooked and
underdiscussed steps are, in fact, some of the most important to a complete
understanding of the topic or discipline at hand.