Holiday and Celebration Bread in Five Minutes a Day: Sweet and Decadent Baking for Every Occasion

Pastry chef François and writer Hertzberg’s latest installment in their Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day series collects a variety of solid recipes for celebratory breads. The authors painstakingly address how they transform traditional, time-consuming breads into refrigerated doughs that require only five minutes of prep time, and explain how several factors, such as water temperature and resting time can affect the final product. The authors provide a repertoire of basic dough recipes that are repurposed for dozens of different holiday-inspired breads. Buttermilk bread dough, for instance, can be used to make soft dinner rolls, sticky caramel nut rolls, and ricotta-stuffed savory doughnuts. In addition to western European Christmas bread staples, such as panettone and stollen, the authors include recipes from around the world, such as Turkish Ramadan pita, Mexican pan de muerto, and Ukrainian chocolate-raisin babka bundt for Easter. With step-by-step photographs, this book is a real confidence-booster for home cooks who wish to sharpen their bread-making skills. Agent: Jane Dytsel, Dystel and Goderich. (Nov.)