All my worldly possessions are in storage at the moment. It’s all too clear, I’m afraid, where my priorities lie: 3 boxes of clothes, 5 boxes of books and 11 boxes of kitchen equipment. (I think you can probably guess for yourself that most of those books are cookbooks.) While my prized mango slicer, silicone tongs and embarrassingly extensive tupperware collection are stuck somewhere in Dorking, I brought just one proper recipe book with me to the Bahamas. It was the only one that fit in my suitcase but luckily it’s a corker. This is the handy A5 size Bread handbook (UK Amazon; US Amazon) from the River Cottage team, which covers all manner of bread making essentials.
I’ve made some breads before, but never with huge success – they’ve always turned out a bit dense or doughy and I never understood why. Yes, I know there are tons of blogs and sites out there to learn from, and I have a MacBook Air (smugness) which will sit happily on my knee while I read them… But, for me, nothing beats the feeling of a new book which opens up another world to you, pages wedged under the handle of a mug of tea, getting a crumby initiation from a dunked Digestive. This book gave me that wonderful feeling.
As well as having a linen cover which just cries out to get all floury, the contents are superb. The explanation of different ingredients and how the combination of yeast, salt and water combine to make bread magic is clear enough that you know what to look for when shopping. There is a super explanation of the various stages of bread making, which really helped my confidence – lots of photos and calm, practical descriptions of each stage, from mixing to proving and baking. The recipes are great too, especially the basic bread and sourdough formulas with lots of ideas and practical tips on variations. There are also speciality breads (the bagels were delicious), non-yeasted breads (thumbs up for the spelt digestives) and some yummy River Cottage accompaniments (beetroot hommous was a revelation). The final part of the book is for when you’ve really got the baking bug and want to create your own clay oven (just as soon as I have a house…).
I can’t recommend this highly enough. On an island where good bread requires (a) a significant journey and (b) far too much cash, we now have freshly baked, increasingly delicious bread every day, and that’s down to this book. If you’re an experienced baker there won’t be anything totally new here, but for newbies like me, or those looking for proven recipes for old standards, this is a great reference.
(All the breads shown in this post were baked based on recipes from this book.)
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