Monday Open Thread 6/6/22
What would you want in a new bread b$%k?
Right now I am working on a top secret project that very well might come to nothing, so I am reluctant to discuss it in any detail just yet. Let’s just say that it rhymes with a dread nook disposal.
But: hypothetically speaking, if you were able to influence the sort of information and recipes that a new bread b$%k might contain, what would you ask for? Given that it is entirely fantastical at this point, the sky is the limit, so don’t hold back!
—Andrew
A book on the science of baking each variety of bread . . . which demonstrates the techniques and ingredients to use for success and also illustrates the point at every step where you can alter what you do . . . for the better or the worse . . . (with a shift in techniques and ingredients) and an explanation of why. For example, with an enriched bread . . more or less water or eggs or oils or different types of flour . . . starter versus yeast . . . different kinds of yeast . . . hand kneading versus KA versus Ankarsrum . . . overnight chilling versus proofing drawer. I have purchased over 1,000 cookbooks . . . do not need any more recipes . . . need to learn what makes a recipe great. Take the reader inside your head and guide our hands.
Oh Andrew! That is indeed an exciting secret project that understandably you don’t want to discuss too much until it’s for sure. I had wondered if you’d ever consider doing one. I think with how much enthusiasm the genre continues to have and the community you’ve built here, it’ll be a raging success! I hope the publishers don’t f$&k this up. If anyone has the qualifications and audience to write a bread book, it is you.
I do think you should include recipes based on newsletter favorite recipes, because although I like working off of print outs for baking, I would love having a nice copy of all your best recipes for reference. Also for gifting, to introduce people to all your stuff in a nice volume. Hm I guess I like the broad themes you try to teach and talk about on the newsletter, and I don’t know if it would be a coherent way of making a cookbook for the general masses, but for me it would be a wonderful encapsulation of you as a bread maker and baking teacher and the spirit of the newsletter to have chapters focusing on (many similar to what Nancy suggested): basic daily recipes (the Loaf, focaccia, baguette, with variations), lean breads with distinct flavors or techniques like rye or a porridge, pizza, other flatbreads, enriched breads and rolls with emphasis on tangzhong, whole grain elevating recipes including high extraction and non-bread whole grain recipes, holiday breads and traditional cultural breads, discard recipes, and practical technique or sciencey essays peppered along the way (with Johanna’s cool illustrations?!). Also I think a very unique thing you do with many of your recipes is to give a yeast version and a separate sourdough-only or plus-sourdough version, and that would be double the work but even if you do for just some subset of recipes you’ve already got the formulas for both, I think adding that option to recipes would be very unique in the world of baking books I’ve come across.
Best wishes for the process and finding the right home for it!!