Cookbook focuses on artisan bread
In “Artisan Bread: 100 Years of Techniques and Recipes, “Keith Cohen, owner of Orwashers Bakery, a 98year-old institution in Manhattan, expresses his passion for good bread.
He and his staff bake traditional artisan-style bread daily, using timehonoured methods updated slightly so that they can take advantage of such modern elements as electricity.
He wrote the book for home bakers, beginning and advanced, and for those who are considering getting into small-scale production of artisan breads. It is an instructive book, and Cohen’s wish is that as readers learn the secrets of making artisan bread, they will be inspired to pursue bread-making in a creative way.
It’s a good reference for anyone wanting to bake better bread.
He stresses that, contrary to what I have been taught, baking is not an exact science. Flours, like wines, differ from one year and one location to another, depending on weather conditions, soil and other factors. They have different flavours and textures, they hydrate (combine with water) differently. Those differences may be more evident when locallysourced artisan flours are used, rather than commercial bread flours which are blended for consistency. Bakers who understand the principles of bread-making can learn to feel the differences in doughs, recognize and accommodate the nuances and create their own variations.
Cohen included information that will enable the reader to learn the principles of baking bread: selecting and using ingredients; preparing not only bread doughs but also preferments (live active yeast cultures that are added to dough to give bread more complex flavours); and shaping, rising and baking bread, buns and rolls. And there are, of course, recipes.
The organization and design support the book’s aims. A table of contents, index and glossary make it easy to find what you’re looking for, and content is arranged in chapters that make sense. Fonts are easy to read, the quality of the paper is good (a useful quality in a book that will be referred to in a working kitchen), and the generous use of colour photographs illustrates the instructional text as well as tempting readers with pictures of finished products.
Here is Cohen’s recipe for white bread. It, like all of the recipes in the book, specifies amounts of ingredients in weights and not measures, for accuracy. The author explains the reasons: people may measure volumes inconsistently, and different brands and types of an ingredient such as flour can have different densities. Weighing ingredients is the best way to ensure consistency.
When I made this bread, and others in the book, I did two things differently than instructed. Because my stand mixer cannot accommodate 5 pounds of flour at a time (roughly the standard for the recipes), I made half batches; and I weighed ingredients on my kitchen scales which indicate only whole grams, rather than being accurate to the recommended 2 decimal places. According to Cohen, you get best results by making larger batches and weighing more accurately, but I was happy with the results I got with this and other breads.
The white bread was tasty, a soft bread with an even texture, tender crumb and crisp crust. Next time I make it, I’ll take a close look at it at 35 minutes, as I’d prefer the crust to be just slightly lighter than it was at 40 minutes. All ovens are different.
WHITE BREAD
Adapted from Cohen, Keith: “Artisan Bread; 100 Years of Techniques and Recipes,” Race Point Publishing Inc., New York, 2014.
1.34 kg (2.95 lbs) bread flour 734.82 g (1.62 lbs) water 104.3 g (0.23 lb) sugar 58.97 g (0.13 lb) vegetable oil 27.22 g (0.06 lb) salt 13.61 g (0.03 lb) instant yeast
Set up stand mixer with a dough hook. Place flour, sugar, water, oil, salt and yeast in a mixing bowl.
Mix on medium-low for 4 minutes. Mix on medium-high for 8 minutes. Dough temperature should be between 24 C and 26 C (76 F and 78 F). Dough should appear shiny and pull away from the mixing bowl.
Do the dough test, to see if the dough has been mixed or kneaded enough: Cut off a small amount of dough, roughly the size of an egg. Hold it between your thumb and the first two fingers with both hands. Spread your fingers and thumbs apart, stretching the dough. You should be able to see translucency in the middle part of the dough, similar to a windowpane. If the dough is not translucent, mix for an additional two minutes and try again.
Take the dough out of the mixing bowl and transfer to lightly oiled airtight container.
Let dough rest on countertop for approximately 30 minutes. Dough should double in size.
Roll dough out of container onto a lightly floured work surface (marble or butcher block is ideal.) Cut dough with a scraper into 4 even squared/rectangles, approximately 567 g (1.25 lbs) each. Shape each into a boule, or a Pullman loaf placed into a pan. If shaping into a boule, score an “X” in the top. If the loaf is in a Pullman pan, score 3 diagonal cuts across the top, about 3.75 cm (1.5 inches) apart. Let dough rest 4 hours after shaping.
Preheat oven to 200 C (400 F.) Bake for 40 minutes until the crust is golden. Makes 4 loaves.