Since putting on a baker’s hat at work I’ve noticed that it’s impacted baking at home, namely leading to a smaller size of roll. Maybe it’s the demands. At work there’s so much hand work focused on the multiple serving batches, with lots...
The holidays led to spending a lot of time with lievito madre, the wonderful sourdough foundation of baking panettone. Refreshed and bathed to cleanse residual acidity, it demands three-hour feeds that are cycled in-between for double mixes. It comes with the need to...
A few years ago I left New York City and my Sunnyside apartment for a bread class in Norwich Vermont, home of King Arthur baking and flour. It also was home to King Arthur's Master baker, Jeffrey Hamelman. Recently I fished out my notes from the class to make his...
Every year I try to sneak a stollen in my Christmas-time baking. I view it as my "naughty dough," a nod to a Kurt Vonnegut story. It also serves as a narrow window to my birth country, Germany. To me, it's a baby Jesus bread, whose fruit and nuts give it...
Poppy seed rolls are a goody that I first enjoyed at New York City's legendary Lower East Side Jewish delis and bakeries. But later I discovered great poppy seed rolls could be found in the Polish enclave of Greenpoint in Brooklyn. I remember biking...
