Bread Book: Ideas and Innovations from the Future of Grain, Flour, and Fermentation [A Cookbook] (Hardcover)
“The most rewarding thing about making bread is that the process of learning never ends. Every day is a new study . . . the possibilities are infinite.”—from the Introduction
More than a decade ago, Chad Robertson’s country levain recipe taught a generation of bread bakers to replicate the creamy crumb, crackly crust, and unparalleled flavor of his world-famous Tartine bread. His was the recipe that launched hundreds of thousands of sourdough starters and attracted a stream of understudies to Tartine from across the globe.
Now, in Bread Book, Robertson and Tartine’s director of bread, Jennifer Latham, explain how high-quality, sustainable, locally sourced grain and flours respond to hydration and fermentation to make great bread even better. Experienced bakers and novices will find Robertson’s and Latham’s primers on grain, flour, sourdough starter, leaven, discard starter, and factoring dough formulas refreshingly easy to understand and use.
With sixteen brilliant formulas for naturally leavened doughs—including country bread (now reengineered), rustic baguettes, flatbreads, rolls, pizza, and vegan and gluten-free loaves, plus tortillas, crackers, and fermented pasta made with discarded sourdough starter—Bread Book is the wild-yeast baker ’s flight plan for a voyage into the future of exceptional bread.
Jennifer Latham is Tartine’s director of bread and manages the bread-making teams in Northern and Southern California, collaborating with Robertson on innovations and techniques. She and Robertson cowrote and recorded the Getting Started with Sourdough audiobook.
Liz Barclay is a photographer, creative director, and visual artist with a passion for food, music, art, and culture. Her clients range from the New York Times, Vogue, and The New Yorker to Nowness, Nike, Capitol Music Group, and Apple. Barclay is also an ambassador and volunteer with CoachArt, Food Bank for New York City, and Edible Schoolyard Project.