Tandoh Ruby - Crumb : the baking book

Copyright 2014, 2015 by Ruby Tandoh

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
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Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Originally published in hardcover in slightly different form in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus, an imprint of The Random House Group Ltd., London, in 2014.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following to reprint previously published material:

Anchor Books: Excerpt from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962: Transcribed from the Original Manuscripts at Smith College by Sylvia Plath, edited by Karen V. Kukil, copyright 2000 by The Estate of Sylvia Plath. Reprinted courtesy of Anchor Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Puffin Books and David Higham Associates: Excerpt from Matilda by Roald Dahl, copyright 1988 by Roald Dahl (Jonathan Cape Ltd., London, and Puffin Books, New York). Rights for eBook administered by David Higham Associates, London. Reprinted by permission of Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC and David Higham Associates.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tandoh, Ruby.
Crumb : the baking book / Ruby Tandoh ; photographs by Nato Welton. First American edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Baking. I. Welton, Nato. II. Title.
TX763.T36 2015
641.815--dc23

eBook ISBN: 978-1-60774-837-3
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-60774-836-6

Design & Art Direction: Hyperkit
Photography: Nato Welton
Index: Ben Murphy

v3.1

Theres a lot more to baking than meets the eye. Millions of air bubbles suspended in a bowl of beaten egg whites can make a meringue melt on the tongue. Theres science behind the deep brown crust of a brioche loaf and the tenderness of a pastry shell. Just a few degrees can nudge a pot of boiling sugar from sweet syrup to caramel (or to bitter cinder, if youre unlucky). Ive taken great care here to explain the whys and hows of baking, in the hope that this will give you the confidence to get started and adapt recipes to suit your tastes and preferences.

But science alone wont bake a cake. It cant replicate the feeling of cool pastry under your fingertips or completely describe the consistency of the perfect custard. Something happens between the numbered steps of a recipe and the end result that cant be predicted or prepared for. This is where baking soars clear of plain chemistry. Its not the kind of thing that can be dissected under bullet-pointed headings or jargon it has to be witnessed firsthand. For that reason I urge you to dive in, make a mess, and not be squeamish about getting your hands dirty. Enjoy the sensory pleasures that baking has to offer, from the exertion of a long knead to the crackle of a rustic loaf cooling on the countertop. Youll soon find that the processes of baking are every bit as exciting as tucking in to the finished product.

This sensuous side of baking is about more than just hedonism. A finger gently pressed into a rising loaf can tell you whether its ready for baking; a piece of dough is well kneaded if you can stretch it so thinly that, when its held up to the sun, you can almost see straight through it. Baking isnt just about the tasting: prod, sniff, listen to, and squeeze your food. This is not baking by rote.

The recipes in this book arent grand or highly decorated; their roots lie in the thrill of a new ingredient or the comfort of a familiar food. They aim to please, rather than to impress. I hope that theyll make it to your table over and over again. I may digress at points, singing the praises of black currants or writing an ode to doughnuts. I make no apologies for this. I bake for the love of it, and I hope that you will, too.

Crumb started long, long before it was bound into the book you hold now. Perhaps the story begins with childhood birthday cakes, or at three years old felt-tip pen clutched between my stubby fingers as I circled each and every dessert in my parents illustrated cookbook. Maybe it was The Very Hungry Caterpillar so well thumbed that its pages wore thin at the edges or Bruce Bogtrotters chocolate cake in Matilda . Later there were food supplements torn out of newspapers and messily archived, lunchtime feasts in the school cafeteria, homemade bundles of fudge, and a whole summer spent rereading the Great Hall feast scenes in Harry Potter . Teenage romances played out against a backdrop of cake: to charm, to celebrate, to appease, and to soothe the hurt of the breakup.

It could be that this book started while I was in college, at the Christmas market baking stall that I spent three months preparing for and made about $50 from. Or maybe it was in a Lisbon backpackers hostel, where a cheesecake landed me a kitchen job and where, from that point onward, I spent every second of each day jotting down recipes, writing shopping lists, and planning menus in what felt like a dream come true. Then again, it couldve been in the park at Belm, eating the fabled pastis de nata , that the penny finally dropped.

I was living in a dank London flat when I saw a TV baking show and wondered whether it was something I could do. Perhaps the book really began to take shape there: in the pages of scrawled notes on baking theory and chemistry that I made in a bid to learn all that I needed to know to survive in the competition. Before long, I was spending my weekends on the set of The Great British Bake Off as a season 4 contestant, and during that time some of the recipes in these pages began to crystalize. Notes still stored on my phone (try coffee & black currant. do washing. make croissants) are the reminders of this baking storm.

By the time season 4 of The Great British Bake Off began to air, I had dozens of books of notes: paeans to profiteroles, half-finished recipes, flavor combinations, diary entries fondly recounting good meals, sketches of cakes, breads, and cookies, and scores of shopping lists. This book is built from those musings, experiments, and memories. Its the distillation of my obsession with food. Its been a pleasure.

Theres a misconception that baking is different from cooking. I hear friends sincerely proclaim that they can cook but not bake, or bake but not cook, as though it makes any sense to abstract one from the other. Baking is cooking. If you enjoy food if you can operate an oven and follow a recipe youre most of the way there already. Dont overthink it, and dont assume the worst before youve even gotten started.

That said, Ill admit that the equipment, methods, and vocabulary of baking can be daunting if youre new to it. To take out the guesswork, Ive explained some of the baking-specific equipment, ingredients, and techniques in this introduction. If youre a seasoned baker, just head straight to the recipes youll find that theres a mix of easier and more involved recipes in each chapter, and a progression through the book from familiar cakes to meringues, tarts, and pastries.