Mother Grains: Recipes for the Grain Revolution

Jullapat, owner of the Friends & Family bakery in Los Angeles, serves up recipes that employ eight “mother grains” in this delightful work. A chapter is dedicated to each grain—barley, buckwheat, corn, oat, rice, rye, sorghum, and wheat—each of which begins with a study of that grain’s history (“rice toes the line between mundane and mystical”) and the forms in which it is available (barley comes as flour, berries, and a malt syrup that can be used, for instance, in a caramel topping for almond bars). Instructions—including those for home-milling flour—are thorough and use metric weights, and the author sets up schedules for more complicated projects, like chocolate babka with rye streusel. Jullapat doesn’t cut corners, insisting on homemade raspberry jam for a chocolate raspberry tart with a buckwheat crust. Flavor profiles run the gamut, from sweet Persian New Year rice-flour fritters with cardamom and rosewater to Finnish-style rye bread. Jullapat also pays homage to California with Sonora wheat croissants that can be split, filled with a halvah mixture, and baked. Homey choices include chocolate chip cookies made with seven of the eight grains, and spelt pretzels poached in beer. This compendium triumphs by making grains feel anything but stodgy. (Apr.)