Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Latest Project - TwD - White Loaves

Several years ago I bought a beautiful bread book called Dough by Richard Bertinet.  The pictures are gorgeous and he advocates a kneading technique I'd never heard of.  There was even a video to help convey the Bertinet technique.  Problem was my bread didn't come out.  It didn't rise or the texture wasn't right or the flavor didn't pop.  I googled Richard Bertinet trying to figure out where I was going wrong only to learn that he teaches bread classes at his shop in Bath, England.  When my husband suggested I sign up and go I jumped at it!  There I learned many things...not the least of which that mistakes had been made in the translation from metrics to American standard.  In other words most of the problems I had were due to poor recipes, the ratios were wrong!  I've been kind of hard on cookbook authors ever since. (These errors were corrected in subsequent editions, only the first printing has it wrong.  I know you might love him and his books.  I do too but I'm still bothered about the experience!)  I see buying a cookbook as entering into a contract.  I agree to follow the recipe and the author agrees to provide recipes that produce the stated results.  If I DON'T follow the recipe (I know folks, but it happens) I can't blame the author but I DO EXPECT recipes with proper ratios!!  Until my Dough experience I didn't really understand the responsibility a cookbook author has.

Off my soapbox and moving on to Baking With Julia.  Dorie Greenspan wrote this cookbook based on the PBS series of the same name that aired in 1996/97.  I saw a few of the episodes but that was a much busier phase of my life and I was probably at either a soccer or hockey game for most of the episodes.  For over a year Julia Child featured different renown bakers preparing one of their signature products.

Now Tuesdays with Dorie.  I was late to the party for the original cooking group based on Dorie Greenspan's book Baking, From my Home to Yours and organized by Laurie Woodward but now Laurie has launched another Tuesday group based on Baking With Julia!  Here's our first recipe. White Loaves.

This is the best white bread recipe I have ever made.  I want to repeat that.  This is the best white bread I have ever made!  The recipe works like a magic formula that's been handed down from baker to baker in whispers.  I even substituted (see, I told you it could happen!) white whole wheat flour for 1/2 of the bread flour because I have a husband fighting off Type 2 diabetes and I try to complicate every carb I possibly can.  Those simple carbs are the bane of the diabetic!

Anyhow, this bread had it all, rise, texture AND flavor!  Great directions, simple recipe.  I'm a happy Dorista!  Stay tuned for Chocolate Truffle Tartlets in two weeks! All the Tuesday Doristas can be found at Tuesdays with Dorie.

31 comments:

  1. Tricia and I are excited about this new blog, Tuesdays with Dorie. I like
    the look of your results, and how wonderful to go to England for a
    cooking class. I agree, this was an excellent recipe and I loved making
    bread from scratch.

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  2. It's great to see so many FFwD members on this go-round with TWD. Bread is one of my absolute favorite things to make in the kitchen - there is something very rewarding about the process (and result).
    Your loaf looks lovely - looking forward to seeing everyone's chocolate tarts in a couple of weeks.

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  3. I agree, definitely one of the best bread recipes I've tried. Your loaf looks beautiful!

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  4. Your loaves look plenty delicious! I subscribe to a similar belief that if I follow the recipe as written, I require that my product be the same as the cookbook's result. Ha!

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  5. I love your photos. The bread looks yummy. Now, I have to bake the white loaves at least twice more; once with a cinnamom swirl and once using some whole wheat flour.

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  6. Very nicely, done! Mine turned out great, too. In fact, I'll be using it for this week's FFWD recipe, too.

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  7. Hello - I was sorry to hear of your experience and felt I should respond to explain how it works from the author's perspective. My working language is British English. I write my books and work very hard with my editor and other members of the team to get everything absolutely right. We pore over the text and revision after revision. To date there have been only a couple of small errors in the UK English versions of any of my books. Once I have completed the English (UK) version all other 'foreign' editions are completely out of my hands and in the custody of the publishers. I am not shown proofs or drafts. The US version is put through a process called 'Americanisation'. Unbelievably this is done by people with the job title of 'Americanisers'. They are selected and employed by the publisher and I do not meet them or have any control over how they might amend or interpret the book. They are of course supposed not to change the recipes but I am not in a position to check them or even pass comment. I do hope this helps.

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  8. Your bread is a total work of art--and it looks absolutely delicious! I feel you on complicating the carbs, and it's obvious you did a stellar job here.

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  9. Your bread looks perfectly beautiful! Wow...how nice that you went to a baking class in England! Pretty cool! I really loved this bread, too. At one point I thought I might burn out my mixer but it persevered. See you friday!

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  10. Beautiful job! Congratulations on your bread and it looks great in your photo;-)

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  11. Your bread looks wonderful! After having been in TWD for all but four months of the group's existence, I can testify that Dorie has a way with recipes...BFMHTY is full of recipes that succeed on the first try. I'm looking forward to getting a chance to make so many recipes from so many famous bakers included in this book...just sounds like fun to me! Will be fun to see what you think recipe by recipe.

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  12. Welcome to the gang! Your bread looks great, and it's nice to know that the whole wheat flour works so well. Best of luck to your husband, too!

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  13. Glad you are baking along with this new group. Enjoyed and agree with your post. Pretty fun that you went abroad for some baking classes. Love your switch of flours...I struggled with using only white flour and would have been happy with a whole wheat version. Glad to know it works well with this recipe...I'll follow your example next time.

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  14. Love your photos! Can't wait to see your chocolate tartlets, I know I've got the dough for mine in the freezer already :)

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  15. It's nice to know that the bread was delicious with 1/2 white whole wheat flour. I love the color of your loaf, Lola.

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  16. Whoa! You had quite the bread trauma! I'm glad this recipe worked so well, and your bread is gorgeous! I prefer whole grain breads, so one of the versions I made was 1/3 white whole wheat. You really should try Dan Lepard's simple milk loaf, I make mine part whole wheat and the technique is sooo easy.

    Glad you're finally part of the group!

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  17. I'm glad you found this to be the best white bread recipe you've ever made too. What I especially love it that it made TWO gorgeous loves! Your photo is lovely and your bread looks simply perfect!

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  18. What an amazing experience and how fortunate to be able to have that experience! I think this is quite delicious and want to make it again too...Can you believe how many posts there are for this? I think I'm only up to 8 am on Tuesday morning in post reading. So much fun to read everyone's posts.

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  19. So glad you are part of this round of TWD. I appreciate your story about the experience with the first cookbook. I want my recipes to turn out if I make them exactly as written too! :) Your bread looks perfect!

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  20. Your bread looks amazing! Im happy your baking along with us..were going to have a great time!

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  21. Your bread is gorgeous! I loved this bread too - so easy and forgiving!

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  22. Wow, perfect bread! And I love knowing that you can substitute some of the white flour with whole wheat...my preference, too. Looking forward to sharing many more Tuesdays with you~

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  23. So happy that you loved this!!

    It's funny, I have a cup measure that I brought back from Australia when I lived there so that I can measure correctly!

    This has been fun, I'm looking forward to more!

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  24. So glad to hear this works well with 1/2 white whole wheat. I am not participating in TWD, but I must try this recipe!

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  25. That must have been frustrating! It sounds like it could be frustrating for the author also. Glad you had good luck with this recipe and I'll be sure to try it with ww flour.

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  26. Sorry about your experience with the Dough book but how amazing to take a class in England by the author!

    Your whole wheat loaf looks amazing. I want to try that next time I make a go of this recipe!

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  27. I love your idea that buying a cookbook is akin to signing a contract with the author - more authors should keep this in mind! I loved this bread, too, but probably won't often make a white loaf - complex carbohydrates are healthier, by far.

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  28. First...I enjoyed reading the soapbox...and your bread photo is fantastic. Love the lighting...

    ~ Carmen
    http://bakingismyzen.wordpress.com

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