French bread is the ultimate juxtaposition of refinement and simplicity – just fresh ground flour, water, salt, and yeast. While making bread can challenge home bakers (part of the fun!), the purpose of our “cool control” technique is to eliminate heartbreak and make your baking endeavors easy and delicious.
Category: Bread
The bread behind the iconic New York City Deli sandwich. It typically contains 20-30% rye flour, fermented with sourdough starter, giving it a subtle tang and malty rye notes, while the wheat flour lends a soft crust and tender, even crumb. Amazing stacked with pastrami, corned beef, or smoked whitefish.
The arrival of summer screams for the most classic of all backyard grillable foods – the burger! These buns are quick and easy (25 minutes) to make and keep well in the freezer. Golden brown on the outside, sweet and soft on the inside, these whole grain buns are the perfect base for a classic beef or bean burger, portabella mushroom or grilled chicken breast.
Challah is an ancient bread with sacred origins in the Jewish culture. Enriched with honey or sugar, and often topped with sesame or poppy seeds, this style of bread has become popular worldwide, inside and outside the Jewish community.
This type of roll was popularized by Italian American immigrants, who filled them with Italian-style cured meats, cheese and pickled vegetable antipasti (like giardinera). The original “Italian” sub inspired many variations that are now famous in their own right, like the Philly Cheesesteak (recipe below!).
This hearty, nutritious rye bread is delicious sliced thin and topped with cheese, spreads, smoked meats and pickled vegetables. Because of its density, it doesn’t go stale as quickly as wheat bread, so you can keep it on hand for a healthy snack.
This style of sourdough bread is what opened my eyes to the aesthetic and transformative side of bread making. It’s biology, chemistry, engineering, pleasure and adventure all at once.
These enormous dark and crusty whole wheat loaves can be made any time you like. They don’t have to be big, but they are at their best when they are a larger loaf. The balance of flavors and textures, the tangy, cool, and moist crumb, and the chewy, dark molasses crust make for a satisfying slice of toast, or loaded with your favorite sandwich toppings.
Before developing my recipe and process for making bagels at my bakery, I toured the famous bagel houses of New York and Montreal, each with their own unique style. This recipe is akin to the New York style, with a dense, chewy crumb and toothsome crust.
This paper thin flatbread is prepared much like pita, except the dough is rolled and stretched as thin as possible and baked in under two minutes on a very hot pan, griddle or tandoor oven. Delicious served in a wrap with Falafel and hummus, bhabaghanoush and cucumber tomato salad.