The Bread Baker s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart, Ten Speed Press, p., $35.

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1 The Bread Baker s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart, Ten Speed Press, p., $35. I am a rice eater, so my Europeanized husband often mourns the lack of bread at our table. In Venezuela, his family goes down to the corner Portuguese bakery for fresh bread twice a day. Good bread, by which I mean crusty loaves with well developed texture and crumb, is much easier to find now than it was when I was growing up in the land of Wonder Bread. Still, it is hard to have in the house every day. My few previous experiments with bread making had produced an unacceptable work-to-results ratio. Artisanal loaves go stale far faster than the two of us can eat it, the bakery is a car trip away, and we don t have a bread machine. So for many meals, we do without bread. That is, we did until I saw Peter Reinhart s new book, The Bread Baker s Apprentice. There is a young Japanese woman on the cover, one of Reinhart s students, dressed in a spotless cooking school uniform. She is clasping a huge round loaf in her arms, and her eyes wear a calm, knowing expression. She loves bread, I thought. Suddenly, I wanted to be that student. I pulled out my flour and got to work. Peter Reinhart, I quickly learned, has quite the medieval idea of apprenticeship. It s back to basics time, often just flour, water, salt, and yeast. Sometimes, you even have to spend a week catching the yeast yourself, then commit the rest of your life to feeding it. The first hundred pages are devoted to a minute deconstruction of the breadmaking process, sort of a 12-step program for bread heads. Most recipes take about two days to complete. This is serious bread, built from the ground up, and only the truly dedicated need apply for membership into this guild. But membership has its rewards. The first is some 50 meticulously tested, carefully illustrated formulas for the home baker who wants to learn not only to bake but also to think like a professional. Reinhart is a gifted and generous teacher, acknowledging his own teachers and passing their accumulated wisdom to his students. He shows, in clear language, not only what to do, but how it will affect the result. I also got to brush up on my math skills. Each recipe comes with baker s ratios that help apprentices find their wings and manipulate the outcome. But the greatest benefit of all is the gift of a baker s feel for dough. Because it is a living organism that is sensitive to ambient conditions, bread making will always be more of an art than a science. The recipe may specify the amount of ingredients by weight to three decimal places, but the actual amount depends ultimately on the baker s ability to feel when it is right a very difficult thing to learn alone in the kitchen. After a bit of beginner s luck with the focaccia, which turned out perfectly despite following the directions to the letter, I soon learned that I can t simply follow the recipe mindlessly. The French bread dough felt too stiff, but I did not add water. It didn t look quite browned when it registered 205 degrees, but I took it out anyway. Bake and learn. But we are not alone when this book is in the kitchen. The key to success is to create a dough that fits the detailed verbal description and illustrations in the recipe. And Reinhart gives us many ways to test for proper dough behavior. We might need a little more flour or water, a little more kneading or resting, until the dough passes the windowpane test or the float test or just feels right and looks like the picture. He gives us the map, but we must find our own way.

2 Once I understood this principle, I became fascinated by the way that flour and water could turn into beautiful brioche, sinfully rich cinnamon rolls, or genuine, New York-style bagels with plenty of chew and attitude. But the dough that changed everything was the pain à l ancienne. Reinhart reveals a revolutionary delayedfermentation technique for a dough made with ice water, a trick he picked up from Parisian champion boulanger Philippe Gosselin. This is the bread I want to eat every day from now on, and it is easy enough to do so. The bread looks like crusty, feather-light bones, with sweet, nutty flavor trapped in a lovely web of large, airy holes. This recipe alone is worth the price of the book. My adventures stalking wild yeast, however, were something of a mixed bag. The directions for the initial seed culture were the only ones that I could not get to jibe with the intended results. On Day 1, 1 cup rye flour mixed with ¾ cup water made a thick batter, not a stiff dough. I found that ¼ cup water to 1 cup flour produced the desired stiffness, but in that batch, the strong, unpleasant aromas that Reinhart warns about never dissipated. They just penetrated my kitchen like a toxic cloud. The first batter-like seed culture worked fine as a leavening agent, but the taste was distinctly more sour than I would have liked. But my barm is still young, and I will continue to adjust its feeding according to Reinhart s guidelines and see how it develops. The exceptional acidity of our native bacteria that works so well for San Francisco sourdough makers is less attractive in wild-yeast panettone, which to me should be a rich, yeasty, sweet bread perfumed with flowers and fruit. The texture was a shade dense, but the crumb structure was otherwise promising and I already know how I will try to improve my results next time. With a little trepidation, I even made the huge, round miche loaf shown in the cover photo. Here was the flavor of long fermentation, the dense texture giving full expression to the whole wheat. It was certainly not a true Poilâne, but I recognized the family resemblance even in my first clumsy attempt. In this wild yeast dough, there was also the unmistakable tang of our own Lactobacillus sanfrancisco. The taste experience was like eating bread at the corner of Lombard and the rue du Cherche-Midi. When the miche came out of the oven looking picture-perfect, I too wanted to throw my arms around it. I too now love making bread. I have become the baker s apprentice. Review Summary: Pros: Not just another bread book. Helps beginning as well as accomplished home bakers truly understand the inner workings of the process that turns flour to bread. Provides accessible and carefully illustrated formulas for about 50 artisanal-quality breads. Includes extensive resource list, including books and web sites, baking programs, and mail order sources. Cons: None, just a warning that this book is for serious bakers only. No quick breads except corn bread, which takes 2 days to make. Days to Make: 2 Bagels

3 Day 1: 2 hours sponge; minutes mixing;1 to 1 ½ [hours] fermentation, shaping, and proofing. Day 2: 10 minutes boiling; 15 to 20 minutes baking. Makes 12 large or 24 mini bagels. Sponge 1 (.11 oz) instant yeast 4 cups (18 oz.) unbleached high-gluten or bread flour 2 ½ cups (20 oz.) water, at room temperature Dough ½ teaspoon (.055 oz.) instant yeast 3 ¾ cups (17 oz.) unbleached high-gluten or bread flour 3 ¾ teaspoon (.7 oz) salt 2 teaspoons (.33 oz.) malt powder or 1 tablespoon (.5 oz.) dark or light malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar To Finish 1 tablespoon baking soda Cornmeal or semolina flour for dusting Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, kosher salt, rehydrated dried minced garlic or onions, or chopped fresh onions that have been tossed in oil (optional) 1. To make the sponge, stir the yeast into the flour in a 4-qt. mixing bowl. Add the water, whisking or stirring only until it forms a smooth, sticky batter (like pancake batter). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the mixture becomes very foamy and bubbly. It should swell up to nearly double in size and collapse when the bowl is tapped on the countertop. 2. To make the dough, in the same mixing bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer), add the additional yeast to the sponge and stir. Then add 3 cups of the flour and all of the salt and malt. Stir (or mix on low speed with the dough hook) until the ingredients form a ball, slowly working in the remaining ¾ cup flour to stiffen the dough. 3. Transfer the dough to the counter and knead for at least 10 minutes (or for 6 minutes by machine). The dough should be firm, stiffer than French bread dough [something you would know only if you have made French bread ], but still pliable and smooth. There should be no raw flour all of the ingredients should be hydrated. The dough should pass the windowpane test [meaning a small piece of dough can be stretched into a paper-thin, translucent membrane] and register degrees F. If the dough seems too dry and rips, add a few drops of water and continue kneading. I the dough seems tacky or sticky, add more flour to achieve the stiffness required. The kneaded dough should feel satiny and pliable but not be tacky.

4 4. Immediately divide the dough into 4 ½-oz pieces for standard bagels [this works out to be pieces], or smaller if desired. Form the pieces into rolls. [P.R. then refers us to a photo illustration of the process.] 5. Cover the rolls with a damp towel and allow them to rest for approximately 20 minutes. 6. Line 2 sheet pans with baking parchment and mist lightly with spray oil. Proceed with one of the following shaping methods. [More photos. I poked my thumb through the center of the ball and then widened the hole to 2 ½ inches in diameter, rotating it and keeping the amount of dough even all around.] 7. Place each of the shaped pieces 2 inches apart on the pans. Mist the bagels very lightly with the spray oil and slip each pan into a food-grade plastic bag, or cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let the pans sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes. 8. Check to see if the bagels are ready to be retarded in the refrigerator by using the float test. Fill a small bowl with cool or room-temperature water. The bagels are ready to be retarded when they float within 10 seconds of being dropped into the water. Take one bagel and test it. If it floats, immediately return the tester bagel to the pan, pat it dry, cover the pan, and place it in the refrigerator overnight (it can stay in the refrigerator for up to 2 days). If the bagel does not float, return it to the pan and continue to proof the dough at room temperature, checking back every 10 or 20 minutes or so until a tester floats. The time needed to accomplish the float will vary, depending on the ambient temperature and the stiffness of the dough. 9. The following day (or whenever you are ready to bake the bagels), preheat the oven to 500 degrees F with the two racks set in the middle of the oven. Bring a large pot of water to boil (the wider the pot the better), and add the baking soda. [P.R. says baking soda alkalinizes the water and helps deepen shine and caramelization.] Have a slotted spoon or skimmer nearby. 10. Remove the bagels from the refrigerator and gently drop them into the water, boiling only as many as comfortably fit (they should float within 10 seconds) [but we already knew that, didn t we ]. After 1 minute flip them over and boil for another minute. If you like very chewy bagels, you can extend the boiling to 2 minutes per side. While the bagels are boiling, sprinkle the same parchment-lined sheet pans with cornmeal or semolina flour. (If you decide to replace the paper, be sure to spray the new paper lightly with spray oil to prevent the bagels from sticking to the surface.) If you want to top the bagels, do so as soon as they come out of the water. You can use any of the suggestions in the ingredients list or a combination. I make a seed and salt blend. 11. When all of the bagels have been boiled, place the pans on the 2 middle shelves in the oven. Bake for approximately 5 minutes, then rotate the pans, switching shelves and giving the pans a 180-degree rotation. (If you are baking only 1 pan, keep it on the center shelf but still rotate 180 degrees.) After the rotation, lower the oven setting to 450 degrees F and continue baking for about 5 minutes, or until the bagels turn light golden brown. You may bake them darker if you prefer. 12. Remove the pans from the oven and let the bagels cool on a rack for 15 minutes or longer before serving. Lavash Crackers

5 Days to make: 1 10 to 15 minutes mixing; 2 hours fermentation, shaping, and panning; 15 to 20 minutes baking. Makes 1 sheet pan of crackers. 1 ½ cups (6.75 oz.) unbleached bread flour ½ teaspoon (.13 oz.) salt ½ teaspoon (.055 oz.) instant yeast 1 tablespoon (.75 oz.) honey 1 tablespoon (.5 oz.) vegetable oil 1/3 to ½ cup (3 to 4 oz.) water, at room temperature Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, or kosher salt for topping 1. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, yeast, honey, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full ½ cup water, but be prepared to use it all if needed. 2. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. The dough should pass the windowpane test [meaning a small piece of dough can be stretched into a paper-thin, translucent membrane] and register degrees F. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call a medium-firm dough), satiny to the tough, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. 3. Ferment the dough at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also instead retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading.) 4. Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper-thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors. 5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F with the oven rack on the middle shelf. <ist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds and spices on the dough (such as alternating rows of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, kosher or pretzel salt, etc.). Be careful with spices; a little goes a long way. If you want precut crackers, use a pizza cutter and cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.

6 6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough). 7. When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. You can then snap them apart or snap off shards and serve.