That lovely boule is a Pain de Provence. There are lots of recipes out there for making Pain de Provence, but I didn’t use any of them. Instead, I played around with the Baker’s Percentage of a standard lean dough.

Categories: baking, bread, technique
Tagged: baking, bread, technique

If there is one arcane art in baking, it’s understanding and using the Baker’s Percentage. Once you’ve grasped the fundamentals, the whole world of baking seems simpler.

Categories: baking, bread, mother recipe, technique
Tagged: baking, bread, mother recipe, technique

At its most fundamental level, bread is a magical mixture of flour, water, salt, and yeast. The one ingredient in that short list that causes fear is yeast.

Categories: baking, bread, technique
Tagged: baking, bread, technique

Lately I’ve been having a lot of fun with bread, especially recreating familiar breads but using wild yeast starter, or sourdough starter, as the primary leavening. Le Gibassier was so tasty it didn’t last nearly long enough, so I was “forced” to make another breakfast bread. I thought raisin bread sounded like a winner, especially [...]

Categories: baking, bread
Tagged: baking, bread

Dark, rich coffee, a bit of fresh fruit, and Le Gibassier still warm from the oven. Ah, morning in Provençal.

Categories: baking, bread
Tagged: baking, bread

When I first started as a pastry chef, I was handed a recipe for a chocolate-hazelnut torte and told to fix it. Not just make it, but make it special. I think I succeeded, and apparently so did the judges at the very first Taste of Ashland (Oregon), who awarded this torte a first for [...]

Categories: baking, chocolate, dessert, technique
Tagged: baking, chocolate, dessert, technique

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

Categories: baking, Daring Bakers' Challenge
Tagged: baking, Daring Bakers' Challenge

Having a good basic quick bread recipe in your repertoire makes life easy when you want to use up some bananas or zucchini, or find yourself hosting a brunch, or just want something tasty while you watch the snowstorm blowing outside your window. Michael Ruhlman’s Basic Quick Bread/Muffin Ratio from his book Ratio: The Simple Codes [...]

Categories: baking, bread, mother recipe, technique
Tagged: baking, bread, mother recipe

With all the snow blowing around outside, I feel a need for biscuits. Just plain old buttermilk biscuits, flaky and buttery and begging for some of the raspberry jam I made last summer while still in Oregon.

Categories: baking, technique
Tagged: baking, technique

I love making scones. When you know that while working as a pastry chef I made scones by the gross on Sundays, and made as many as 150 dozen on Mothers’ Day, you might be surprised that I still love making them. But I do, because then I get to eat them. Here’s a good, [...]

Categories: baking, mother recipe, technique
Tagged: baking, mother recipe, technique