Master the Art of Baking with Modernist Bread at Home

Not long ago, I discovered the set of books entitled Modernist Bread, a five-volume collection that explores the history and nature of virtually everything related to the baking of bread.  The brainchild of Nathan Myhrvold, its fascinating details are beautifully and imaginatively illustrated by photographs made by Myhrvold himself.  Modernist Bread is a successor to prior sets entitled Modernist Cuisine that explored and developed techniques for cooking a full range of menu items and Modernist Pizza, which did the same for that popular food.

Because the full set of Modernist Bread is somewhat inaccessible to the average household (it’s quite pricey), the authors published a single-volume issue, entitled Modernist Bread at Home.  This nearly 400-page oversized volume distills the essential bread baking guidance, along with a full set of recipes, into a single volume that’s accompanied by a spiral bound kitchen manual that contains the recipes.

Myhrvold, whose Ph.D. in mathematical physics earned him the position as Microsoft’s first chief technology officer, took up culinary pursuits after retiring from Microsoft.  He set out to develop texts that established and defined the Modernist style of cooking, which had been previously lacking.

Modernist Bread at Home consists of two principal parts.  The first, Techniques, describes all you need to know about how to bake well, diving not only into the hows but also the whys and the so whats.  Covered topics include baking tools, fermentation, mixing, dividing and shaping loaves, final proofing, scoring, baking, cooling, slicing and serving, and even recovering stale bread, should it somehow escape being eaten sooner.

Part Two presents recipes for dozens of types of bread.  First are lean breads, created with flour, leavening, water, and salt.  These include sourdough, country style bread, ancient grain breads, ciabatta, and focaccia, along with variations of each type.

Enriched breads, which include sweeteners or other ingredients beside the basics found in lean breads, extend to white sandwich bread, rolls, Jewish rye bread, pumpernickel, brioche, and challah.  Rye breads follow, and they’re succeeded by bagels and Bao.  Gluten-free breads finish the volume.

While Modernist Bread at Home cross-references additional details in the full set of Modernist Bread books, it’s completely self-sufficient and the full set, fascinating as it is, is not needed to successfully bake a variety of interesting and tasty breads. 

The authors’ favored recipe is a sourdough bread baked in an inexpensive cast iron covered skillet.  It’s my favorite (so far) as well.  But the book offers many more options that I’ll explore as I develop my talent and love for baking fresh bread for the home.