When baking is a lifestyle

You write baking books

It’s just flour

Baking scares cooks silly.  Highly skilled cooks, people at the stove making dinner to order, have turned to babbling babes at the request to make bread.

When I was a young cook, watching skilled cooks bulk at baking meant baking was hard.

Flour, water, salt, and yeast, and sometimes not commercial yeast, is bread baking.  From those three or four ingredients comes hundreds of variations. What could go wrong?

Cooking seemed, therefore, easier and I focused on that.  By the way, cooking is hard.  Just so you know.  Anyone can throw food in a pan.  It takes a lot more than that to make a great dinner.

Baking can’t be bullied

Baking was thrust upon me.  A challenge to be overcome was all I needed to start.  Jack was a Certified Master Chef and decided that we, he, chef Todd, and I were going to dive into the deep end of baking.  To navigate those waters was Bread Alone, by Daniel Leader. I’ve used that book more than a bit, as you can see.

What’s the secret?

As questions go, after the one about I just ate something; what as it?, asking cooks what is their specialty or what’s the secret is likely to get a sigh, rolled eyes and a snappy answer.

The big secret is there is no secret.  The other secret is that the secret is hard work, attention to detail and repetition.  That’s not what the curious want in an answer.  The secret is do it a hundred times then a hundred more.  When you have that level of skill and knowledge in your hands, that’s when competence comes in.  How do bakers like Leader make it look so easy?  Practice, practice, practice.

C’mon, really, what’s the secret

When we push past the idea that there is a one-sized-fits-all answer to how baking works (there isn’t), patience is the secret.  Why did so many cooks bulk at baking?  They’re in too much of a hurry.  Line cooking is fast fast fast and baking cares not one whit about that.

Yeast goes as it goes.  You can alter its environment and change that pace, but not without altering the finished product.

Puff pastry and Danish and croissant need to be cold.  If you deny them that, they will make you pay in poor quality products, amazing frustration and maybe wasted time and ingredients.

All these processes are time tested and unalterable.

Mostly.

Not everyone can do this

Every once in a while someone comes along to change how we see things.  In Leader’s new book, scheduled for October, 2019, the preview page reads like a thriller: Vegan brioche and chocolate sourdough babka.  Those aren’t a Who-Done-It? but a How’d-You-Do-That? and the suspense is amazing.

Leader is a professional baker.  But, he writes for the home baker.  I had to convert those recipes, so many alterations and adjustments for Florida, from 2 loaves to 20.

Oh, and the real secret….take notes and leave them as bookmarks in the book.  What was the weather and temperature and what did you have to change for that day?  I promise, after 2 different kinds of bread, you’ll never remember.  But, a quick reminder brings you right back.  That’s how you build knowledge in your fingers.

Living Bread

Leader’s new book is due out in October, and you can preorder it here through this Amazon link.  When you purchase through this link, I earn a commission at no cost to you.