Elinor Klivans - Fast Breads: 50 Recipes for Easy, Delicious Bread

For the four generations of my bread-baking and bread-loving family and for Jeff, who baked real good bread

It takes a village to make a book happen: an agent, a publishing team, a photographer, a food stylist, family, friends, testers, and lots of listeners. Thank you all.

My agent, Judith Weber; editorial director Bill LeBlond; editor Sarah Billingsley; copyeditor Sharon Silva; photographer Susie Cushner; food stylist Carrie Purcell; Doug Ogan, Anne Donnard, Ben Hasman, Peter Perez, David Hawk, and the fabulous team at Chronicle Books.

My family, who care, support, and encourage me; make me laugh; and are baking partners: my dad, Laura, Michael, Charlie, and Oliver; Kate, Peter, Madison, Max, Sadie, and Kip.

My supporters and friends, who ate a lot of bread and gave a lot of encouragement: Flo Braker, Sue Chase, Michael Drons, Susan Dunning, Maureen Egan, Carole and Woody Emanuel, Rosalee and Chris Glass, Karen and Michael Good, Kat and Howard Grossman, Faith and David Hague, Helen and Reg Hall, Carolyn and Ted Hoffman, Alice and Norman Klivans, Susan Lasky, Robert Laurence, Rosie Levitan, Gordon Paine, Joan and Graham Phaup, Janet and Alan Roberts, Pam and Stephen Ross, Louise and Erv Shames, Barbara and Max Steinheimer, Kathy Stiefel, Carol Witham, Elaine and Wil Wolfson, and Jeffrey Young.

The brave and thorough testers: Jennifer and Howie Goldsmith (the day before Jennifer gave birth), Howard Grossman, Cheryl Matevish, Taylor Mudge, Dawn Ryan, Allyson Shames, Louise Shames, Kate Steinheimer, and Laura Williams.

If I were stranded on a desert island, I know exactly what my choice for survival food would be: bread and butter. Biscuits, muffins, cinnamon buns, yeast breadsI like them all. I have been baking bread since I was a teenager, and today it is still a pleasure to turn a few simple ingredients into a colossal popover or see a buttermilk loaf rise high in the oven and then eat it.

All the breads I bake take only a short time to put together, and then I fit finishing themusually shaping and baking themaround my schedule. I assemble scones, corn bread, crusty loaves, and doughnuts in minutes. I make yeast-leavened sticky buns, brioche, dark rye, and a crusty multigrain loaf that sit in the refrigerator for as long as several days. They wait to be baked until I have the time or the inclination, and then they rise just once in the pan. My buttery rolls, cheese loaves, buttermilk loaf, focaccia, and nut-and-fruit whole-wheat rounds are all batter breads, made from a soft yeast dough. They are mixed with an electric mixer, in a food processor, or by hand, and rise just once in the pan immediately after mixing and shaping. Morning toast and crumpets, lunchtime sandwiches, and dinner rollsbread is an important part of every meal. Good bread is a given; the nurturing, pride, and enjoyment are your gifts.

Years ago, David Gayson, the late American essayist and journalist, aptly wrote, Talk of joy: there may be things better than beef stew and baked potatoes and home-made breadthere may be.

Here are the good ideaseverything from my favorite pans to tips on leaveners to how to choose the best ingredientsI have learned from a lifetime of bread baking.

Most of the pans for making bread, including baking sheets, muffin tins, and loaf pans are probably already in your kitchen. If you do go shopping, remember to buy good quality pans and tools. You will work more efficiently and your new purchases will last for years.

Heavy-gauge aluminum conducts heat evenly and does not warp or bend with repeated use, making it a good choice for bread pans of all shapes and sizes. Baking sheets with a low rim on one or more sides simplify sliding baked breads onto a wire rack to cool. Measurements suitable for home ovens range from about 15 by 12 in to about 17 by 14 in.`

A jelly-roll pan is a baking sheet with a 1-in rim on all sides. The most common size is about 15 by 10 in. I use this pan when making to prevent the excess butter from dripping onto the oven.

The loaf pan I use most often has a capacity of about 8 cups and measures about 9 by 5 by 3 in. Round, rectangular, and square pans in varying sizes should have 2-in sides. Ceramic baking dishes in these shapes are good oven-to-table choices.

You will need a tube pan with a permanently fixed bottom, and a diameter of 9 in or 10 in. A fixed-bottom tube pan, which is especially useful for batter breads and bread puddings, is somewhat harder to find than a pan with a removable bottom, the classic angel food cake pan. The 9-in one-piece tube can be difficult to locate, too, but Nordic Ware makes an excellent one-piece 10-in tube with a 12-cup capacity in heavy-duty aluminum. Even if your tube pan has a nonstick coating, line the bottom with parchment paper, which ensures that a large, sticky bread will release smoothly.

I use a so-called Texas muffin tin, also known as a jumbo muffin tin, for my muffin making. It has six wells, each with a capacity of 1 cup. You can use it for my , too.

A heavy-duty stand mixer with a 5-qt bowl performs any bread mixing job with ease. The mixer comes with a flat beater for beating, a wire whip for whipping, and a dough hook for kneading yeast dough. The flat beater works fine for beating batter breads and mixing and kneading soft-dough yeast breads. In the few recipes where a dough hook is preferred, I have noted it. You can use a handheld mixer with a powerful motor for any recipe that does not specify a dough hook.

A food processor can mix and knead bread dough in seconds, rather than minutes. If you have a standard-capacity food processor, you will need to mix most recipes in two batches, however. I find it easier to use an electric mixer or to knead by hand than to go through the process of dividing the dough. I also like the slowerbut not slowprocess of watching the bread dough form and the opportunity to get the feel of the dough as it comes together, which isnt as easy in a food processor.

The temperature inside your oven will vary about 10F, with the upper third and the rear usually the warmest areas. If you find that your bread is burning or underbaking even though you have closely followed the temperature and timing directions in the recipes, use an oven thermometer to test your oven. Place it in the center of the oven, turn on the oven, and allow at least 20 minutes for it to preheat fully. Check the thermometer, and if it does not match the temperature on the dial, you can adjust the dial accordingly when you bake. If the temperature is too far off, have the oven checked by a professional.

I have included the position of the oven rack in each recipe, though most breads bake in the middle of the oven. Dont be tempted to bake too many items at once. Air needs to circulate around breads (or anything) as they bake, or they wont bake evenly.

Use unsalted butter when making breads. Its use controls the amount of salt added to a recipe because none is hidden in the butter.

When I need to add a flavorless vegetable oil to a recipe, I use corn oil or canola oil. For olive oil, I use an extra-virgin oil, made from the first pressing of the olives without the use of heat or chemicals. Taste or smell your oils often to make sure they have not turned rancid.

Nonstick cooking spray is handy for greasing pans evenly. Be sure to buy spray made from a flavorless oil.