Ciril Hitz - Baking Artisan Pastries and Breads: Sweet and Savory Baking for Breakfast, Brunch, and Beyond

Baking Artisan Pastries & Breads

SWEET AND SAVORY BAKING FOR BREAKFAST, BRUNCH, AND BEYOND

CIRIL HITZ

FOREWORD BY PETER REINHART

BEVERLY MASSACHUSETTS

2009 by Ciril Hitz

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the copyright owners. All images in this book have been reproduced with the knowledge and prior consent of the artists concerned, and no responsibility is accepted by the producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement of copyright or otherwise, arising from the contents of this publication. Every effort has been made to ensure that credits accurately comply with information supplied. We apologize for any inaccuracies that may have occurred and will resolve inaccurate or missing information in a subsequent reprinting of the book.

First published in the United States of America by

Quarry Books, a member of

Quayside Publishing Group

100 Cummings Center

Suite 406-L

Beverly, Massachusetts 01915-6101

Telephone: (978) 282-9590

Fax: (978) 283-2742

www.quarrybooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hitz, Ciril.
Baking artisan pastries and breads : sweet and savory baking for breakfast, brunch,
and beyond / Ciril Hitz ; photography by Kylee Hunnibell Hitz.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59253-564-4
ISBN-10: 1-59253-564-X
1. Pastry. 2. Bread. I. Title.
TX773.H567 2009
641.815--dc22
2009021088
CIP

ISBN-13: 978-1-59253-564-4
ISBN-10: 1-59253-564-X

Digital edition: 978-1-61673-553-1
Hardcover edition: 978-1-5925-3564-4

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cover Design: Sussner Design Co.

Book layout: Rachel Fitzgibbon, studio rkf

Photography by Kylee Hunnibell Hitz

DVD filmed and produced by Nick Versteeg, DV Cuisine/www.dvcuisine.com

Printed in Singapore

To my wife, Kylee
You are the light that makes me shine.

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This is a great time to be a baker. (The bakery business, howeverthats for the few and the brave). The art and craft of baking for the sheer joy of it is enjoying a golden era, worldwide. The home-baking movement is ever-expanding, a subculture full of people hungry for knowledge culled from the professional community. Simultaneously, the professionals are seeking out masters from previous generations, as well as new frontiers of information, to expand their skills. Wonderful new books full of innovative techniques appear every season, feeding this insatiable hunger. This hunger is a passionate yearning for authenticity, beauty, and, above all, exquisite flavor, and its what interests me the most. Those who feed these hungry people especially intrigue me. The current name for these folks is artisans, a term, I fear, that is in danger of dilution through misuse and appropriation by the marketing industry.

My thoughts on the word artisan apply to craftsmen in fine woodworking, pottery, glasswork, and other non-food crafts, or who make cheese, fine chocolates, beers and, of course, chefs of all types. But because Ciril Hitz and his books epitomize and embody the proper expression of this term, artisan, I will focus on the world of baking. It is important to note that Ciril could have easily remained an artisan working in the ceramic and furniture-making mediums of his earlier life had he not found his current calling as a baker and baking teacher. People such as Ciril may be the ones to revitalize the term through demonstrating the distinctions between true artisanship and marketing pretense.

The products photographed in these pages embody authenticitythe real deal. Having sat in on Cirils classes over the years when we worked together at the Providence campus of Johnson & Wales University, and observed his attention to detail and the degree of precision he instills in his students, made me one of his biggest fans. More important was the sense of satisfaction and pride of achievement emanating from his students after their training, as they were introduced to their inherent artisan potential.

Beyond the beauty of artisans work, another hallmark is their ability to inspire and ignite transformation. I call it transformation because it causes a radical change from one thing into something new and different. A craftsperson expresses this act through the medium of his or her craft, but an artisan teacher has to use the craft to initiate a transformation in the student, too. In this sense, a baking teachers product is not the transformation of flour and leaven into pastries and bread but, rather, the transformation of the students themselves.

I believe that those who embrace the instruction and teachings in these pages also become candidates for the kind of transmission that Cirils full-time students experience. That is a lot to lay on any book and, knowing the natural humility and humanity of Ciril, he might be uncomfortable with me saying it, but he did, after all, ask me write this foreword with full latitude to speak my mind. So, as one who has watched him teach, and studied his methodology, allow me to give all who dare proceed the following suggestions:

Follow his instructions, even if you think you know better. Ive heard Ciril tell his students, I know these formulas work because Ive thoroughly tested them, but I can only guarantee them if you follow my directions exactly. (To be fair, Ciril also tells them that once theyve mastered the procedures they can feel free to improvise and build on what hes taught them.)

Study the photos as well as the written procedures and emulate the care you see demonstrated.

Study the procedures as well as the photos and try to replicate the steps accurately. Dont rush. There is beauty in the process.

Use his organizational system as a template upon which to model your own baking and cooking. You will soon find yourself working smarter and, eventually, faster.

Traditionally, there has been very little patient, gentle mentoring in the world of baking and pastry chefs. It used to be sink or swim, do or die. The current generation of artisan baking teachers are forging new ground in which patience as well as structure and discipline are a virtue, even an improvement, in passing knowledge from one generation to the next. Because of this, I foresee a reclamation of the term artisan, rescued from those who think of it as a mere slogan or way of capitalizing on the groundwork lain by real craftsmen and women. If artisans are, as we see reflected by people like Ciril, the mentors and role models of those who hunger and thirst after the elusive real deal, then we also need a generation of mentees to fortify the term artisan and to protect it from dilution. That, fellow readers and users of this book, includes you.

In short, being an artisan is not what someone does but, rather, its what someone is.

Peter Reinhart
May 2009
Charlotte, North Carolina

There were many reasons I felt compelled to follow up my first book, Baking Artisan Bread, with a book on pastries and breads, but two are most prominent: evocative sensory memories of morning meals and the variety and flavor inherent in this class of baking. Growing up in Switzerland, I experienced a culture that revered its bakers and homemakers alike, where each day began with something hot from the oven. Whether it came from the corner bakery or was made by Mom, it was made with care from fresh, local ingredients. A typical Sunday morning featured the laughter and conversation of relatives and friends mingling around a table spread with croissants, rolls, and braided bread; complemented by a savory platter of cheeses, smoked meats, spreads, and jars of sweet butters, jams, and honey.