This collection of nearly 100 recipes from the village bakers of France, Italy, Germany, and regional America is full of healthful and delicious departures from the usual array of baked goods. Professional baker Ortiz provides additional assistance with an entire chapter devoted to bread making techniques, with easy-to-follow instructions and two-color illustrations. Ortiz brings his years of personal experience and his endless travels through Europe to the one subject he holds so dear: good bread. Dense, crusty, flavorful loaves of bread that support life in and of themselves. Ortiz maintains the promise that this can actually be accomplished in the home kitchen--with the highest standards. "While recipes for professional bakers are included, the home baker--even the novice--should be able to follow the Ortiz method and come up with some great stuff." -Publisher's Weekly

Since 1978, Gayle's Bakery and Rosticceria in the Santa Cruz-area town of Capitola, California, has grown from a humble 800-square-foot shop to one of the largest, most successful fine-quality bakeries in the country. The Village Baker's Wife compiles the all-butter, real-sugar, whole-cream, fine-chocolate desserts and pastries that made Gayle's legendary. With more than 150 recipes, 130 instructional illustrations, and 25 essays on baking techniques, this is the only cookbook you need to make show-stopping desserts and pastries, such as: -Lemon Lust Bars -Princess Cake -Ham and Cheese Croissants -Apple Bear Claw Danish Braid -Chocolate Truffle Cake -Hazelnut Twist Cookies -Garlic Cheese Pretzels Brimming with anecdotes and insightful baking tips from Gayle and Joe Ortiz (author of The Village Baker) this personal collection will inspire and delight any avid or occasional home baker—the sweeter the tooth, the better.

The village baker is a story about the daily life of a baker, and how his love of baking impacts the entire village. Everyone enjoys his bread, and it makes them happy as they eat it.

A tale beautifully, wisely, and masterfully told.” — Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun From the multiple-award-winning, critically acclaimed author of The Hummingbird and The Curiosity comes a dazzling novel of World War II—a shimmering tale of courage, determination, optimism, and the resilience of the human spirit, set in a small Normandy village on the eve of D-Day. On June 5, 1944, as dawn rises over a small town on the Normandy coast of France, Emmanuelle is making the bread that has sustained her fellow villagers in the dark days since the Germans invaded her country. Only twenty-two, Emma learned to bake at the side of a master, Ezra Kuchen, the village baker since before she was born. Apprenticed to Ezra at thirteen, Emma watched with shame and anger as her kind mentor was forced to wear the six-pointed yellow star on his clothing. She was likewise powerless to help when they pulled Ezra from his shop at gunpoint, the first of many villagers stolen away and never seen again. In the years that her sleepy coastal village has suffered under the enemy, Emma has silently, stealthily fought back. Each day, she receives an extra ration of flour to bake a dozen baguettes for the occupying troops. And each day, she mixes that precious flour with ground straw to create enough dough for two extra loaves—contraband bread she shares with the hungry villagers. Under the cold, watchful eyes of armed soldiers, she builds a clandestine network of barter and trade that she and the villagers use to thwart their occupiers. But her gift to the village is more than these few crusty loaves. Emma gives the people a taste of hope—the faith that one day the Allies will arrive to save them.

"Good bread is hard to find and easy to make," says Dan Leader as he draws you into the ancient world of traditional bread baking. Unlike any other bread book, Bread Alone will provide you with a comprehensive guide to creating—at home—the country-style breads that have consistently captured the imagination and the taste buds of the world. In a richly told tale, Leader chronicles his crossings of America and Europe to locate the most vital ingredients at the source, to learn from the methods of the world's great bakers, and to perfect their traditional techniques. His recipes are ones that have been used for centuries: large sourdough ryes, rich and dark raisin pumpernickel loaves, real French pain au levain, big round wheats with walnuts, crusty baguettes, high and airy breads, and more. Made from organic, stone-ground grains, these breads are slow-leavened, hand-shaped, and baked to perfection on heated baking tiles. As you read through the recipes, you can almost smell the ancient aroma of baking bread. And as you begin to bake, you will learn the importance of the primary ingredient in great bread: your own observations. These are some of the breads and techniques you will master: In the chapter "Becoming Bread," you will learn to identify and shop for the highest quality flour available. And you will seek it out because you'll taste the difference. Making a poolish will become second nature to you as you master the Learning Recipe: Classic Country-Style Hearth Loaf and its delicious variations. Whatever your schedule, there is a bread for you. In the chapter "Straight-Dough Breads: Traditional Breads for a Modern Life-Style," you are shown how to start and finish a recipe in five hours, or morning-to-night, or night-to-night. You will bake sourdough bread in its many forms. By gently introducing the concept of sourdough—how it is made, how it is maintained, and how to get the best flavor from it—Leader demystifies it and makes it accessible to you. Discover the wonders of rye bread: From the dense and chewy Finnish Sour Rye to the fragrant Danish Light Rye, everyone's tastes are served. The mystery of pain au levain, French for "bread from a sourdough or wild yeast," unfolds into an understandable, user-friendly process. From My Personal Favorite Pain au Levain, a typical large Parisian loaf, to Pain au Levain with Pecans and Dried Cherries, the "Family of Traditional Pain au Levain" includes some of the best loaves baked around the world. A perfect baguette is a beautiful thing. From shaping to scoring, you will learn how to make the authentic French baguette at home. The purpose of an organic certifier—find out how and why one farmer becomes dedicated to his role as land steward. Brioche, Chocolate-Apricot Kugelhopf, Panettone, and Semolina Sesame Rolls are a few recipes you will find in "A Family of Breads Inspired by Traditional French and Italian Breads." Finally, when a quick bread is all you have time to bake, you will find recipes for such delights as Vanilla Bean Butter Loaf; Dried Pear, Port, and Poppy Seed Loaf; and Provolone Sage Corn Loaf. Bread Alone is the bread book that cooks and bakers have been waiting for. From the wheat fields of the Midwest to the hot and steamy boulangeries of Paris, you will travel the long and delicious road to flawless bread baking. You will emerge a better baker and with a deeper understanding of what it takes to make perfect loaves. Bakers entertain you with stories of their love of baking (even in the most adverse situations). Bread Alone is the bible of bread books and a must-have for bread lovers everywhere.

Bread is one of the most fundamental parts of our diet, yet so many of us rely on bland grocery-store offerings when flavorsome breads can easily be made at home. Della Fattoria Bread teaches readers to make the popular breads of this award-winning bakery. More than an instructional guide, the book takes the fear out of bread baking,and encourages bakers to draw on their senses, experiences, and instincts. Weber’s teachings are homespun and based on passed-down wisdom, not on finicky science or dull kitchen textbooks. The book is filled with invaluable bread-baking secrets, including starters and proper techniques, and features recipes for all levels of bakers. Beginners can learn to bake yeasted breads using pans. Advanced bakers can jump right into making free-form loaves of naturally leavened breads in all shapes and flavors. Other chapters include recipes for enriched breads like brioche and challah; pre-fermented breads, including baguettes; and crackers, breadsticks, naan, and more. The book includes recipes that incorporate the breads, too, such as Tomato Bread Soup and Della Fattoria’s famous Tuna Melt Piadina, along with the stories of the bakery and the unique family that has run it for nearly 20 years.

Mention Grand Central Bakery to a Seattle or Portland native and they’ll light up as they tell you about gooey, jam-filled buttermilk biscuits, insanely flaky pies and pastries, and flavor-packed whole wheat cinnamon rolls. Now these much-loved recipes are available to home bakers for the first time, accompanied by easy-to-follow pointers on baking breakfast and brunch, cookies, fruit desserts, cakes, pies, and more. This collection of more than 100 recipes draws on a treasury of Grand Central staples and family favorites. The Grand Central Baking Book offers detailed, delicious recipes for some of the bakery’s best-loved goodies, along with technique-driven workshops offering in-depth explanations of baking methods and helpful shortcuts from seasoned bakers. On page after page, Piper Davis, the daughter of Grand Central’s founder and now the company’s cuisine manager, generously lets home bakers in on all the family secrets that have made Grand Central the first morning stop for locals since 1972. Distilling more than thirty-five years of innovation, experience, and genuine love of good, fresh food into simple, accessible recipes, Piper Davis and award-winning pastry chef Ellen Jackson invite you to make popular Grand Central Bakery goods in your own kitchen.