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Raising a Good Loaf

by · September 10th, 2009
Books, Bread, Cookbooks, Cooking, Film

Tassajara Bread

Remember back in the day when you told someone you ate mostly vegetables and organic food and they told you they only ate food that tasted good? You’d ask them what wasn’t good about the organic food they’d tasted, and usually they’d describe some sort of hard, seedy, lumpy thing. They’d use the word “brick”.  They’d mime chewing like a mouth on novacain. I’m sorry to tell you, but they’d probably been eating bread at my house.

Here’s what happened: I decided maybe seven years ago that I was going to learn how to make bread, except I didn’t really understand why you would spend all that time shoving it around on a table and punching it  if you didn’t have to. Luckily, there was the Cuban bread recipe in a copy of the New York Times cookbook. That no-knead, no-nonsense bread was an excellent gateway drug, but it was also kind of flat; and when you make it with whole wheat or spelt, it ends up looking sort of like a large, good-smelling cow pie.

It turned out that if I wanted to use whole grains, I needed to knead, so I found a good recipe, added all the ingredients together, and shoved it around on the table and punched it. This, as any veterans will know, did not lead to stellar results. My sourdough starter gave me a bread that looked and tasted like a huge pickle, and my potato bread was somewhat too baked. I was starting to think I’d never get it right. This was fine with me, I’d eat sour, hard bread forever, but alas, not everyone in my life is so inclined. Several months ago my girlfriend began to put “one loaf crusty bread” on the shopping list in a rather prominent position and I knew I was running out of time.

Then, last week, a friend of mine lent me her copy of the Tassajara Bread Book. She considers it the bible of breadmaking (although actually, the bible is kind of the bible of breadmaking). Sure enough, at the end of my day of breadbaking, having beat, folded and kneaded in between grading papers and reading for class, I pulled two loaves out of the oven and both of them are high, broad, brown and crispy on the outside and chewy and fluffy on the inside. What happened? Ed Espe Brown taught me to mix, to knead, and to use two packs of yeast.

Apparently, Brown’s is a household name for everyone either 1) over forty and into natural foods, or 2) from the west coast. Being that I’m neither though, I figured some of us could use a bit of background information. Brown is one of our kind, in that he approaches food and cooking through a religious/spritual lens, his being Zen Buddhism.  He’s the author of numerous cookbooks, and was for years the chef at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco. The Bread Book doesn’t read like a koan though– it’s as straight-forward as a cookbook gets. It’s even illustrated, so if you’ve despaired of ever raising a good loaf, don’t. Give Brown’s technique a try and see how high those babies climb.

At the moment, there’s a movie about Brown out on DVD. You can see the trailer below. Happy baking in the new year!

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10 Responses to “Raising a Good Loaf”

  1. Rhea Yablon Kennedy Says:
    September 10th, 2009 at 11:04 pm

    I love your style–I laughed a lot while reading your post–and your bread looks delicious! Thanks for the info… after giving that cookbook as a gift, I think it’s time to get my own copy.

  2. Liz Says:
    September 11th, 2009 at 12:07 am

    Great post, Nina! I tried making challah once but got intimidated by the yeast. I couldn’t figure it out, since I’ve been baking cookies since I was eight and I’m, well, a lot older than eight, so you do the math. But bread, as you pointed out, is a whole other thing. Maybe I’ll try again in the new year.

  3. Hannah Lee Says:
    September 11th, 2009 at 7:33 am

    I started making bread while in college and the early loaves were suitable as a doorstop, but I’ve become much better and my husband now prefers my challah to storebought ones. Our youngest likes the cotton-candy feel of commercially prepared challah. My sister who makes her own candy is daunted by yeast (while I no longer own a kitchen thermometer and cannot tell if something is at the proper temperature). My brother-in-law tried the no-knead bread recipe from the New York Times and almost burned down his apartment.

  4. susan g Says:
    September 11th, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    Use Ed Espe’s directions for braiding challah. Very rewarding!

  5. Susan Bodnar Says:
    September 11th, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    We are new to bread making in our family and it is actually my husband who seems to be paving the way toward soft insides, crunchy outsides. I’m still hard, tough and flattish. I think I’ll check out the book, and thanks for the warm invite to the world of bread.

  6. Renee C Says:
    September 12th, 2009 at 6:34 pm

    I began baking bread years ago with nothing more than a plastic bowl, a wooden spoon, and a cookie sheet. Later, I bought bread pans. I’ve never had a thermometer — water for the yeast should be what I’ve often called baby-bottle warm. Now I have Kitchen Aid mixers that knead the dough for me. Ed Espe’s book was great — years ago a friend threw a bowl large enough for his recipes to do its rising. When I first started, I would put on some music I liked, set a timer for 10 minutes, and knead until the alarm rang. I’ve learned that as long as the yeast is alive, dough will rise no matter what the temperature is. I bake all of our bread these days — except for bagels and New York City Rye bread……….I can make a tolerable rye, but bagels have been failures, although this winter I think I will try again.

  7. alix Says:
    September 12th, 2009 at 6:57 pm

    I wrote this post http://jcarrot.org/how-i-love-my-cuisinart some time ago about my secret for making the best bread: the bread machine. I still feel a wee bit guilty about it, but it really takes all the guesswork out of it. Not only do I make delicious challah (some have told me it’s the best they’ve ever had) but other kinds of breads as well. We had one when I was growing up, so I knew it was something worth having as an adult. When making challah, or any bread, I take the dough out before the machine starts baking it, to braid it or shape it into a regular loaf. Delicious!

  8. Shoshana Says:
    September 12th, 2009 at 9:39 pm

    I have to admit that I have had the Tassajara bread book sitting on my shelf for years and haven’t made anything from it. (I’m from California) Lately I have been having great luck with no-knead crusty loaves with Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day. Here is where I posted about it. http://www.couldntbeparve.com/.....wagon.html Whole wheat flour can be subbed for much of the white flour with great results.

  9. Kathy McQuown Says:
    September 14th, 2009 at 12:53 pm

    Beautifully written, Nina, and do you have any of the pickle-tasting bread left? Sounds like a winner to me. I’m sure bread machines make good bread, but to me the hand kneading is the point. It has all the good effects of meditation and weight training in one pleasurable, rhythmic, fragrant few minutes.

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