Ciril Hitz - Baking Artisan Bread: 10 Expert Formulas for Baking Better Bread at Home

10 EXPERT FORMULAS FOR
BAKING BETTER BREAD AT HOME

Ciril Hitz

PHOTOGRAPHY BY
RON MANVILLE

BEVERLY MASSACHUSETTS

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my children, Kira and Cailen.

Their unconditional love is more gratifying than the

best bread I have ever baked.

THE WORLD DOESNT SEEM TO BE SLOWING DOWN; at least, the human beings who inhabit it dont. More work, more stress, more demands on our time; many perhaps even feel disconnected from fundamental human links, as if something within us is cracked, almost broken. And so it seems ironic to see the great resurgence in bread baking in so many parts of the world. After all, with so much tugging at us, how can we find the time to bake for ourselves, for our family and friends?

We are emotive creatures, and we require fulfillment, both tactile and creative. When we enter the realm of bread, we find that the chatter of life slips away, that our hands regain their tender partnership with the breathing dough. We reunite with an ineffable and elemental connection that has been part of our shared heritage for thousands of years. When bread comes fragrant from our ovens, we are rewarded with a most marvelous experience of creation.

Baking Artisan Bread is a friendly book, written by a friend of good bread. Ciril Hitz is an outstanding teacher, and he has distilled his years as an instructor into a book that is both good and earnest, one that will make it easy for readers to enter the kitchen with confidence. Ciril rolls up his sleeves from the first page and has us pulling out the flour. His approach will be especially helpful to those new to baking. The recipes he offers are sound and solid, and the variations he gives for each of them enable us to really expand our repertoire. Its particularly valuable to be able to make good bread, a tasty savory item, and even a dessert from just one dougha small increase in time and ingredients results in a large increase in products and flavors.

On their own, Ron Manvilles photographs are absolutely delightful; when coupled with Cirils discussions of themes such as shaping and troubleshooting, there is a synergy that vividly elucidates the topic. Habits, either good ones or bad, feel natural, and the combination of clear text and skilled photography will prove especially helpful to new bakers who are learning the basics, those whose habits have yet to be fully formed. Ciril has opened a door into a room full of many possibilitiesyour kitchen. His hope, which I fully share, is that you take the time to explore that room and expand your experience and your love of baking fine breads.

Jeffrey Hamelman is an employee-owner of the King Arthur Flour Company in Norwich, Vermont. He is the director of the King Arthur Bakery, and instructs the professional classes offered at the King Arthur Baking Education Center. He is the author of Bread: A Bakers Book of Techniques and Recipes.

FLOUR, WATER, SALT, AND YEAST these four simple ingredients when combined create the magic that is bread. Baking bread is a time-honored tradition honed over more than six thousand years. The craft is a truly sensory experience: the warmth of the dough in your hands, the aromas lingering in the air during baking, the crackling of the crust as it cools, the complex and seductive flavors on your tongue. Yet for some, the process of making bread strikes fear in their hearts. I hope to change that.

In the world of bread bakers and grammarians alike, there has been much debate about the usage of the word artisan. Artisan is actually a noun that refers to a skilled worker or craftsman, but due to the ebbs and flows of popular usage, it is applied as an adjective for carefully handcrafted food and beverages, such as cheese, wine, chocolate, and, of course, bread. The romance associated with something handmade, especially in our hustle-bustle world, entices people to seek out artisan products. Unfortunately, the word artisan is sometimes liberally used and abused in the marketing campaigns of larger bakeries and corporations, diluting its meaning.

As for defining artisan, if you asked fifty artisan bakers to describe exactly what being an artisan baker means, fifty different styles would be conjured. My personal definition of artisan bread is handmade bread that is crafted using quality, natural ingredients and does not include any added chemicals or artificial ingredients. Anyone who considers himself an artisan baker has the responsibility of aiming to reclaim the true origins of the word through experience and education.

The good news is that the quest to make good bread by hand is not one of endless toil. Technology is the bakers friend, and mixers and other equipment are welcome time-savers. It is my opinion that a baker can craft handmade bread while taking advantage of helpful technology. Time is also a critical ingredient that cannot be shortchanged.

Being organized and rational about the baking process will aid the aspiring artisan baker. When I competed in my first international baking competition, I streamlined my baking style to maximize my performance and products within a limited amount of time. As a result, Ive learned to work through geometric expansion, increasing the number of different breads that can be made from one dough.

With these artisan formulas, you can create a multitude of ide of fantastic, flavorful breads for any occasion.

My premise is simple: If you are going to invest the ingredients, time, and energy in making a dough from scratch, then why not maximize this effort to create more bread? After all, isnt time one of our most precious resources? With just small adjustments or additions, each of the ten bread formulas in Baking Artisan Bread generates a new bread form. A baguette dough yields a bouquet of breadsticks, a buttery brioche dough elegantly becomes a fruit danish, and so on, through more than thirty mouthwatering variations.

Baking Artisan Bread provides clear definitions, thorough explanations, and logical steps for creating wonderful bread at home with professional-quality results. The main ingredients are introduced and pored over in , an overview of the ten steps of baking that provides the organizational thrust of each formula. This chapter introduces what happens at each stage of the dough development and whywhat mixing really is, why a dough needs to rest, and when it is ready to bake. It is followed by the formulas and variations, presented in lush, step-by-step photos. And as a bonus, you can refer to the instructional segments in the accompanying DVD to view basics, such as mixing and shaping, explained in action. If by then you havent become a disciple of bread baking, it is my hope that with time and practice, you will revel in its joys as much as I do.