Additions to my cookbook collection

[Mike Nolan]

I've been making several additions to my bread cookbook collection lately.

I started with the Poilâne book, which I wrote a review of last week, then I ordered two Bernard Clayton books, his 'New Complete Book of Breads' and his 'Breads of France'. The latter is sort of a travelogue with recipes, fascinating reading and there are a number of recipes I plan to try over the next few months. I wonder how many of the French bakeries he visited back then (in the 70's and 80's) are still around, though probably under younger management?

I also just got Stanley Ginsberg's 'The Rye Baker', which I haven't started to read yet. I am impressed that he used the inside front cover (aka the front endpaper) to put in tables of equivalents (how much a cup of various types of flours weigh, etc.)

Ordered but yet to come is Laurel Robertson's 'The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book', which several sources have cited as one of the definitive books on whole grain baking.

I've also been making some notes on a possible book of my own, on how shape influences bread texture and taste. The current plan would be to start with a fairly basic bread recipe, take it through a couple dozen shapes (including several braids), then move on to some other recipes, taking them through the same repertoire of shapes, then move on to tailoring some of the recipes to take better advantage of certain shapes. This is a project that could take several years to research, and of course there's no guarantee it would be publishable.

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[BakerAunt]

That would be a great book, Mike. I'd buy it. 🙂

I play around with the idea of a low-saturated fat baking book that would have recipes that people might actually want to bake and eat. I'm slowly building up a repertoire by adapting recipes. It seems that most recipes are "low fat," which cuts out healthy fats. Such recipes also seem to favor "the numbers" over taste and texture, which are important.

[Mike Nolan]

The Bernard Clayton book on the breads of France has a number of recipes for what in France they call pain de regime (diet bread).

[skeptic7]

I very much liked Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. It has good ideas and lots of information. Some ideas I turned upside down when implementing. she said "Excess kneading can oxidize the dough and reduce the whole wheat flavor" since I didn't particularly want a strong whole wheat flavor, I kneaded away quite happily. the recipe for English Muffins is impossible -- well at least for me -- it recommended overkneading the dough to create the large holes. I get bored and tired long before the dough is over kneaded..
I tried to read Clayton's "New Complete Book of Breads" but found myself skipping around. It has almost too many recipes.

[Mike Nolan]

I think Clayton's complete book of breads is rather like the Joy of Cooking, it isn't intended to be read cover to cover, it is more of a reference for when you're looking for certain types of breads. I glanced at all the other breads in the 'little breads' chapter while I was working on the eggshell rolls, there are a few I might try.

BTW, I entered his eggshell rolls recipe into my baker's math calculator and at 4.25 ounces per cup of flour it came up at about 86% hydration, which explains why I had to add so much extra flour, as Cass would say that's almost soup. I'm going to try a variant on it, starting with a pre-ferment and then subbing in about 20% rye flour. I sized it down a bit, too.

[BakerAunt]

I don't have Clayton's Breads of France, but I have both editions of his Complete Book of Breads, as well as his book on little breads, his pie baking book (where my streusel apple pie recipe came from), AND his soup cookbook. I initially bought them because 1) I was interested in baking, and 2 I had joined a book club in order to get a good price on the Oxford English Dictionary with magnifying glass (remember those? I still have mine), and I needed to buy four or five additional books before I could resign from the club.

With the bread books, the amount of yeast must be reduced at bit, and mixers are now more powerful, but Clayton has some excellent recipes.

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by BakerAunt.

[Mike Nolan]

Not only do I still have our two volume OED, I still use it from time to time. We have a second one that is missing the magnifying glass.

Years ago I had a chance to purchase the OED in its original 13 volumes, I still regret not doing that.

I was collecting dictionaries for a while and have a number of very good ones including the 2nd edition of the Websters Unabridged Dictionary, which many people consider to be the finest unabridged dictionary ever published. I have a number of French dictionaries these days to help me with my French studies and I have one Irish dictionary, though I haven't done much studying of Irish in the past two years.

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