How to Bake More Bread: Modern Breads, Wild Yeast

Kalanty’s follow-up to 2011’s How to Bake Bread expands on the theme, focusing on wild yeast and how it can impart unique flavors into artisan breads. It all begins with a starter, a living culture of flour, water, and yeast that deepens in flavor complexity over time. The wild yeast found in the whitish bloom on fruits such as grapes and plums is employed in lieu of commercial yeast to create the starter. Kalanty walks readers through the entire process, from creating the starter and daily feedings to tips on keeping that culture alive and thriving so it can be used for future loaves. Once readers have their starters, Kalanty gives detailed instructions on baking classics such as pain au levain and sourdough, as well as an apple-walnut farmhouse bread studded with caramelized fruits and a grits and goat cheese porridge bread. The book’s textbook approach and abundance of charts, figures, precise measurements, and detailed steps are probably best suited for professionals and culinary students. That said, novices are sure to come away with a much greater understanding of bread fundamentals (there are lots of photos and asides on techniques such as rotating breads in the oven and ornamental scoring), and amateur bakers obsessed with making perfect bread will have a hard time finding a better guide. (BookLife)