Very Good Bread: The Science of Dough and the Art of Making Bread at Home by Melissa Weller

From the acclaimed baker and James Beard Award nominee, here is a master class on making perfect breads at home—from sourdough loaves and baguettes to bagels, pitas, tortillas, and pizzas

For Melissa Weller, bread is the foundation for every meal, an elemental ritual that leads to mouthwatering results. Bread is also inspirational—the taste of a brioche, and Weller’s obsession with perfecting it, made her fall in love with baking many years ago. Now, after years of working as the head baker at some of the country’s most celebrated restaurants, Weller shares her best recipes for consistently making the highest-quality breads.

Weller knows that baking is about precision and science, and here she gives you the tools to take your breadmaking skills to the next level. With detailed and accessible step-by-step instructions on techniques, equipment, ingredients, and flavors, Weller gives you everything you need to achieve beautiful and impossibly delicious results. Here are steps on how to create a simple baking schedule that allows breadmaking to seamlessly fit into your daily routine, how to weigh and measure ingredients, and how to make yeast and sourdough starters. Weller also shares her best tips on mixing, explains the finer points of fermentation, and lays out the basics of shaping and folding each type of loaf. Here too are extended recipes for what to do with the bread you bake, like Everything Bagel Tuna Crunch Sandwiches, Tacos with Pulled Pork and Salsa Ranchera, and Pizza Margherita. With more than seventy recipes, this is the essential book for making bread so excellent that it earns a place at the center of the table.

Included are sections and recipes such as: •Bagels (Sourdough, Everything, Salt and Pepper, Pumpernickel Raisin, plus spreads to go with them) & Bialys •Flatbreads •Sourdough Loaves •Petits Pains •Sandwich Buns and Rolls •Baguettes and Ciabatta •Pizza and Focaccia