Friday Bread Basket 10/7/22

Goblin mode 👻

A recipe from this book

Welcome to the Wordloaf Friday Bread Basket, a weekly roundup of links and items relating to bread, baking, and grain. This week’s email fully embraces autumn, even if its author refuses to.

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Cider donuts, is there anything they can’t do?

Here in New England, autumn means many things, including leaf peepers, avoiding Salem at all costs, and cider donuts, which are sold at orchards and farm stands throughout the apple-obsessed region. And thanks to one Alex Schwartz, finding a good cider donutterie is easier than ever:

…Schwartz, known to legions of fans online as the “Cider Donuteur,” has already begun making pit stops at many of the region’s apple cider purveyors.

The 35-year-old’s crowd-sourced New England Cider map, which gained widespread attention last fall, now includes a whopping 310 locations that make and sell cider doughnuts — 50 of which he’s visited himself.

You can find the map right here, but for those of you too far away to visit one of these spots, there’s always Sarah Jampel’s apple cider doughnut loaf cake recipe.

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tarawinequeenwrites

A post shared by Tara Wine-Queen (@tarawinequeenwrites)

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The Houses of Windsor

Though it’s not clear yet where and when non-Canadians are going to be able to watch this, I’m excited for the eventually release of Tristan Laughton’s new doc The Pizza City You’ve Never Heard Of. It’s all about Windsor, Ontario, which is just across the river from Detroit; I had heard of Windsor, but I did not know of its reputation as a great pizza town. When I finally make my way to Detroit for pizza research, I’ll be sure to bring my passport with me.

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keely flaherty @keelyflaherty

strongly relate to the honey cake’s needs

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Beard on Bread

Standard Baking, in Portland, Maine

My pal Dayna Evans wrote a post for Eater on how the James Beard Awards have just added categories specifically focussed on bread:

Today, the James Beard Foundation announced updates to its awards categories for the forthcoming 2023 awards in a response to changing trends in the restaurant industry. One trend the foundation has picked up on: Bread is back and better than ever.

Given the proliferation and excellence of cookbooks focusing specifically on bread in recent history, it’s no surprise that the James Beard Awards will now include a specific category to recognize the best bread books published that year. According to a press release from the foundation, the bread book category will “include books with recipes focused on the art and craft of making bread, including ingredients, techniques, equipment, and traditions.” To be eligible, books must have been published in the 2022 calendar year.

…In 2023 the awards will also include a new category for outstanding bakery, which will recognize a “baker of breads, pastries, or desserts that demonstrates consistent excellence in food, atmosphere, hospitality, and operations, while contributing positively to its broader community.” In an interesting twist, this baker does not have to have a brick-and-mortar — so pop-ups and cottage bakeries will be considered — but they must have been baking for the public for the past three years to be considered.

This new could not come at a better time, since someone you know might just be hoping to publish a book on bread in the next few years…

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That’s it for this week’s bread basket. It’s Indigenous People’s Day on Monday, making it a long weekend for many of us, so there won’t be an email that day from me. Have a peaceful and hopefully long one, see you on Wednesday.

—Andrew