Allow me to introduce the bread I made today: Caramelized Hazelnut Squares. I first made this stunning open-crumbed, nut-studded bread in the Advanced Breads workshop at the San Francisco Baking Institute. As I have said many times, I’m a big fan of SFBI and I think everyone who can possibly manage it should take a course or two or five there.
If you can’t, the next best thing is the book Advanced Bread and Pastry by the school’s founder Michel Suas, and I just happen to have a signed copy to give away, courtesy of Michel and the other very nice people who run SFBI.
This incredibly comprehensive textbook lays out the theoretical and practical foundation you will need in order to understand and execute its 300 or so bread and pastry formulas, many of which are staples of the SFBI curriculum. From fermentation to flour technology to shaping techniques, it’s all in there. The book is intended primarily for professional baking students, but like the SFBI courses themselves, it is quite accessible to home bakers who are serious about learning and practicing the craft.
That’s you, right?
You can earn a chance to win the book by saying something interesting in the comments before 11:59 PM (PST) on Tuesday, February 10. I’ll draw one at random, and SFBI will ship the book directly to the lucky winner (who must have a USA shipping address).
If you can’t think of anything to say, feel free to tell me which of these breads, which were made and photographed by me in various SFBI workshops, and whose formulas are also found in the book, you would most like to make:
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Baguettes from Artisan I |
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Multigrain Sourdough from Artisan II |
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Buckwheat Pear Bread from Whole Grains and Specialty Flours |
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Croissants from Viennoiserie |
I totally wish I could afford to go to those sessions – they would be so amazingly wonderful and fun. In the meantime, I’ll make do. *sigh* 🙂
I haven’t made bread in 2 weeks, and I miss it so much.
I would love to make that buckwheat-pear bread. Oh, *and* the multigrain sourdough.
Oh My goodness I would love love love this book, my husband and I are baking bread for a local Farmers Market and we really could use all the help we could get.
Love your Blog
Paula
Oh, the book would find me at a time when I needed it most . . . when my hands were suffering the withdrawal of a doughy sphere to tend.
Wow, that buckwheat pear bread sounds amazing, but I’m sure I’d find a thousand more loaves I’d want to make in that book! I’ve been eying it on Amazon.com for a while now.
Please, please I hope I will win this book…please… I want it so badly!
I love those “Buckwheat Pear Bread” very very much. I want to try to make it. Click the link, disappointed….no recipe, hick!
Elra
I have promised myself that this is the year I will improve my breadmaking. Oh, and the pear buckwheat bread sound unusual and amazing!
Something interesting! (Just kidding) I found your blog and well, the buckwheat pear bread looks good, as do the grissini you have a recipe for… and I just love the Yeastspotting days… So many recipes, so little time…
Bread is my # 1 weakness, so as a new years resolution, I gave it up. Yes, NO BREAD…at least till St. Patrick’s day, a random end date for my horrific new years resolution.
the buckwheat pear looks so delicious. i am salivating over here
I’ve been dying to take an artisan baking class. How fortunate to have a great organization like SFBI to learn from! Do those croissants have chocolate in them? They would be the death of me but I would want to make them for a Valentine’s Day treat!
I have been trying for years to find a great bread textbook, one that I can use to learn formulas rather than recipes. I’ve found success in various forms in different books, but I still haven’t been able to make THE baguette yet. I am determined to get it right, and soon. Those hazelnut squares look fab, though…
SFBI is an active dream of mine. Those croissants and the multigrain sourdough are the exact reason I would love to spend some time with the good folks at SFBI.
The book looks great, would love it!
My husband and I experiment with bread making as often as we can and would enjoy this book! I’d love to learn how to make baguettes.
In my next life I’m going to have time to bake everything. Until then I need to zero in on the good stuff. 😉
(Discovered your blog last week while looking for sourdough ideas.)
I would love to win this. I have some no knead dough rising right now.
I am hoping to schedule a class with SFBI in the near future. Bread baking is such a relaxing and productive way to spend a weekend…and my neighbors all love me!!!
Sniff, no Canadians allowed.
I might have to move to the States to participate in all these amazing give-aways!
I would probably start with baguettes, to ease my sorrow..
I’ve recently resurrected (okay, just flat-out started over) my sourdough starter, Spongebob. After taking a 2-year hiatus from weekly baking with my starter, I’m intensely curious to see what the variation in taste is (if any) between the wild yeasts in my old home in the SF bay area and Los Angeles, where I now live. And I would LOVE to get my hands on that book (added to my amazon wish list, regardless).
Susan, you’re the most talented, beautiful, funny, intelligent,generous person I know.. I love you!
Can I have the book, please…
lol
Ooh, Ooh, pick me! My husband and I are relatively novice breadbakers, having begun out of necessity (high cost/ low quality of bought bread) but are quickly learning. Your site has been a huge boon for us, particularly in learning how to keep a sourdough starter. We’d started out with the Joy of Cooking instructions, but were confused and frustrated, found your site, and are much happier now. Thanks!
This book looks fabulous! I am reviving my bread making skills and this would be a definite help. Your blog is wonderful!
Though I already bought a copy of the book, I would love to take a class there even if I took FCI’s bread course about ten years back. The loaves look so awesome, you inspire at every post!
I could use all the help I can get! I mostly make sourdough, but it’s because I’m never satisfied with the flavor of my homemade non-sourdough breads. Maybe this book will give me much-needed advice and instruction!
The breads look yummy…. I have been making your bread since Christmas, what a treat! So little effort for such a great result. Even my son is making bread!
Thanks!!!!!
I would love to know how to make croissants! Bread making and I have yet to become close friends but soon my love!
Wish i lived in the area to attend a class or two. I am too far away but not in spirit. I would love to make, and eat the beautiful buckwheat pear bread. By the way i love your site and find so many wonderful things to make. Thank you
Wow, those breads all look really awesome! I think I’d most like to make that pear-buckwheat bread, and the caramelized hazelnut squares look pretty delicious too. 🙂
Oh what a wonderful giveaway! I would love to be able to achieve baguettes as beautiful as yours!!
Ooh, the pressure to be interesting. Sorry, I never feel that I can live up to that!
But, I would most like to make the croissants. Bolstered by confidence in learning to bake from your site, I tried to make croissants for Christmas breakfast. Edible? yes. Enjoyable? Not so much.
On a more positive note, I modified your extra-sour sourdough to be roughly 50% whole wheat and I made that bread every week. I absolutely love it – it was the bread that I aspired to in my tiny heart. I am, of course, quite proud to make good bread and so very very grateful to you for sharing your art!
My those hazelnut loaves look delicious. I hope I can win the book so I can make them.
The SFBI sounds like a wonderful resource! For my birthday my husband bought me a culinary class from the local vocational school that travels to the various markets of Cleveland. He thought I was too advanced for their bread making class. A book on how to make bread like a bread student would be perfect for rural people like me!
And although your multigrain sourdough looks beautiful, I was thinking of trying the flax seed current bread next. I’ve been eyeing it for a while. (and now that I have a super peel, I am feeling a little more confident about wet dough!)
“Something Interesting!”
Just kidding. 🙂
As to your question, either the multigrain sourdough or the croissants. And now I really want a baguette… Wish I lived close enough to take the class.
BUCKWHEAT PEAR BREAD!!!
Please! Please! Please!!!!
Those breads broke my heart!
Alla
Oh my goodness that sounds like a fantastic book! I love bread, I love making bread! At the moment I’m trying out the Artisan bread in 5 minute method and debating if it can taste better than the NY no-knead bread. Love your blog…I’ve been lurking for some time.
Thanks
The breads look so yummy!!! I would love to take all these classes to bake so fantastic bread like yours!!!
Croissants.. yum. Thanks!
I would be very excited to try some of these recipes out. Help me not be an amateur anymore… with this book. 🙂
I will have to look into the classes now that I live in the SF bay area.
I want to go to the SFBI. How much fun is that?! I would definitely want to make the buckwheat pear bread. It looks delicious.
I already have the book and it’s worth the price. I just want to put my vote in for waiving the rules for Natashya. Just look at that cute doggie face! The picture not Natashya, I’ve never seen the human.
Dave
I just started baking bread this year (except for a few attempts 40 years ago!) and I love it. I live alone so I am making new friends by baking and then finding people to eat my bounty!
I am learning the bread making process and am fascinated. Next step build a starter.
I’m jealous you’re close enough to the school to take classes there!
I’m most interested in the baguette, of course. I’m in process of procuring some T55 flour when a friend comes back from France, so… yeah.
Here’s my interesting (to me) story (short version): I’m in calculus today, and before class a bunch of us were trying to figure out this amazingly difficult problem (that even my boyfriend, who’s 4 or 5 classes ahead of me couldn’t do), without success. Class starts and we ask the instructor about the question. He asked if there were volunteers to solve it on the board for us (this is standard procedure) and one guy goes forward. His “explanation” was copied directly from the solutions manual, including leaving out the same steps they skipped! When we asked him how he got from one step to another (bypassing the ones we needed to understand it), he was unable to tell us, and effectively busted himself for using the manual instead of his own work!
i guess if i win, i will probably never leave the house again. and if by some odd reason i did venture into the sunlight i shall mistakenly be cast out as a vampire due to the head to toe flour.
i love your breads…the yeast spotting is great…
i would love to take the Whole Grains and Specialty Flours class…
thanks
Wow, those look fantastic! When I read the name of the breads I had to do a double take because they sound so much like the name of a dessert.
Interestingly enough (to me, I suppose, but I hope you find it of note) I actually live close enough to enroll in SFBI, but I’ve just never had the time/means to try. 🙁
I’ve always wanted to, however, but in the meantime I’m just baking at home. *Jealousy* You should post about your classes there – I’m sure we’d all love to read about them…
As an engineer and a bread maker, I would love to tackle some of the challenging but assuredly delectable breads in this book. I know my coworkers would love them as well considering they have gleefully devoured everything else that I have brought in. It is amazing how much food engineers will eat when it is free.
I am obsessed with Sour Dough bread. If I have it in the house I can eat an entire loaf at once. I convinced my husband to stop in San Francisco for 2 nights on our way to our honeymoon in Hawaii just so I could eat Sour Dough bread! I’ve been dying to take a bread making class in NYC just so I can learn Sough Dough.
Hot Dog! I just love to bake, the day that I made that dutch no kneed bread and pulled it out of the oven and heard the crust crack snap and pop, I thought I was in heaven, even more so when I bit into it. Such flavor could only be put into a bread of so minimal workings
Alas! If only I didn’t live on the other side of the country. I’m working on getting to the west coast for graduate school though…
As for the breads above, while they all look lovely, I would love to learn more about the Multigrain Sourdough. I have yet to bake one that I am sufficiently pleased with.
Thanks!
Oh! Please let it be mine, mine, mine! I am so wanting to learn all I can about baking bread. I have some books and just ordered some dvd’s, but this book would be awesome.My husband is in the process of building a wood fired oven. It is a dream of mine to go to the sfbi and take some bread classes. Your blog is my favorite bread blog. I learn so much from you!
Bonnie
If this book would help me make loaves as beautiful as the ones above, I would love to have it! Your blog is so inspiring in my ongoing love affair with bread baking. Thank you!
Les Paul fashioned the first known harmonica holder out of a wire coat hanger.
The multigrain sourdough looks amazing.
I’d love to learn how to learn how to make multigrain sourdoughs. Even back when I tried making sourdough breads a while ago, I never could get them to reliably rise without adding commercial yeast.
HM, I wonder what I can do to get Mr Chiots to take me to San Fransisco so I can take a bread class.
I love the photo on the front of the cookbook. Stunning!
I used to live 5 minutes from SFBI and just found out about it last week. Now i live in LA. grrrreat. the bread looks great.
Beautiful, beautiful bread!
I’ve been experimenting with Multigrain Sourdough so that’s the one I’m most interested in because I haven’t made one I love yet.
A Model T has three pedals: High/Neutral/Low, Reverse, and Brake. The throttle is control by a lever on the steering column.
Thank you for the continued inspiration. I’ve made a number of the recipes you talk about. However, I also often wander off from Yeast Spotting and make something.
I just started making bread for the first time and love it. I can’t believe I didn’t do this before. I would love to learn more.
If I could have one wish in the world(except world peace) It would be to bake a multigrain sour as pretty as the one pictured above.
I would love to be able to make an incredible Multigrain sourdough. I have been working on my Chef/Levain from “Bread Alone” book. I would love to see what the Institute has to say.
Oooooh, that buckwheat pear bread sounds divine!
I’ve been experimenting with fruit yeast waters and having interesting levels of pseudo-success. This is like a starter, but made simply with water and fruits. You can see some of my results on my blog.
I think I need different flour, or else a more temperature-controlled environment. I’m working on growing a traditional flour starter and trying that. If I can’t improve my texture issues using a starter, then I’ll have to figure out the problem some other way.
Anyhow, this poor student and writer and waitress would LOVE a copy of this book to learn from! I learn well from books anyway…
Jenna
Damn!
You do this now, one day AFTER my copy arrived in the mail?!
But I can tell you, this book is worth its weight in gold… or fresh bread. And it’s really, really heavy.
Some complain of their breads not rising in cold kitchens, mine is a hellishly hot one that undoes my sourdough breads. 8 compromised loaves later, I’m still figuring my way around, changing one variable at a time to nail it. I love all breads and make, or try to, make them, but I’m sold on sourdough, the taste is unbeatable. So while I contemplate whether to lug the dough to work (where the arctic temperature will serve some good — for once – but what will the boss think?!?), fit it into a thermos pot filled with cold water (where to find one?), or buy a small fridge (gasp!!) just to raise the thing, I am mightily grateful to blogs like yours that inspire, dispense great advice, generate debate and if nothing else, frustrate daily with photos of gorgeous loaves.
Book or no book, it’s time I guess to write in to say what a wonderful thing this blogging business can be. I’ve learnt much.
But if you want to know, I can imagine the family’s faces if I pull a beauty like that pear-shaped bread out of the oven…
I’d prefer the buckwheat pear bread – it’d be perfect to pack in my backpack and take along on a long long hike in the mountains. Then on a gourgeous vista point – take it out, break it up and put some mild goat cheese or baba ganoush onto it…… mmmmhhhhhhmmmmmmmmm……
hi
I wish i could get that copy because im from Israel and right now im serving in the army, so i wont have a any chance to take the SFBI curse in the few next years to come.
so at least ill have the book.
I love to bake!!!
Tal
Hi
I bake lots of sourdough bread, mostly seeded sourdough, and love it. I’m down with the flu this week but I’m going to try to make sandwich bread with my new pain de mie pan.
My fav. pix is the sourdough multigrain. Would love to have the recipe _and book!) Stephanie
Susan, these hazelnut squares are stunning. They must be delicious too. What a great bread to make for a party.
I am just back from 2 weeks at SFBI and I loved every minute of it. I am going back in April for the Whole Grains workshop with Didier Rosada. I took a peek at the curriculum and saw that we will make the pear/buckwheat bread on the very first day. As you said I would, I learned a lot from Artisan I but my favorite workshop was Artisan II because I mostly bake with starters. I lived at one of my sons’ house while attending the workshops and I enjoyed bringing home everyday the baguettes and other breads I made . Family, friends and neighbors would line up around 6 PM and get their loaves for dinner. They would stay a while and chat. It was great fun… Don’t include me in the drawing for the book as I already have it. It is an amazing resource and the winner will indeed be very lucky.
I’m a beginning home baker and have been devouring books about baking, just bread for now, and love websites like this too.
I’ve had to make some adjustments in my caloric intake of other foods to maintain a balance and keep my not so youthful figure stable. It’s worth it! I enjoy working with and learning about dough and the experience has been powerful enough to make it easy to make changes that used to be seemingly impossible.
I am a church musician, so every Sunday for the past 26+ years, my husband has taken over the kitchen on Sunday mornings to prepare dinner for all of us after my last Mass. He just started getting into breads, I’d love to win this for him. His salmon encrusted with a spice mix from Williams-Sonoma is absolutely to die for.
That is indeed a great book. I had it out from the library for awhile.
If (anyone of) you have tried the no-knead method, and as a result have discovered the joys of home baked bread, then it is time to move on to breads that actually have some work involved. Kneaded (or folded) dough breads are more flavorful and better textured than their no-knead equivalents. Moreover, one of the other great joys of breadmaking is found in getting your hands in the dough and working with it up close and personal. Once you develop a tactile working relationship to your dough, I promise you’ll never look back.
Hi Susan…
As I mentioned the first of the year, I hope to be baking more bread in the upcoming months. This book would be greatly appreciated 😛
Being a cold, wet EARLY Friday morning, I’d love to try the lucious croissants -they look devine!
What a treat to be able to bake recipes from this book! Thanks.
If bread is an essential of life
and this book covers the essentials of creating bread,
then Advanced Bread and Pastry is essential for life.
Save my life. Send me the book!
Seriously, I teach my 12 year-old daughter baking and would love for her to read this with me.
Why when I have to say something interesting my mind goes blank?
Very unfair.
I would LOVE to have the book, though, would even commit myself to trying every single recipe from it!
I loooove cookbooks … so much that I’ve had to put a moratorium on buying them, because I have so many on my shelves, and so few I use regularly. I go to BJs and they often have good cookbooks there at a reduced price — Mark Bittman’s books, King Arthur books, Barefoot Contessa books — I look at them and drool over them and sigh and walk away. The Advanced Bread and Pastry Book looks just as drool worthy. Now I never will turn away a cookbook that’s a gift or that I WON … so one can hope…
I’m a new bread baker and have been getting piles of baking books from the library. I’d love to win this book! Thanks for your great site.
Do you suppose the low-carb craze is just a Puritanical reflection of American desire (“thou shalt not have what thou desirest most”)?
I started baking bread when I was nine years old, and had to stand on a stool to knead and could only handle half of the dough. My Mom and I would each take half and knead together. It was so much fun! By the time I was about twelve, I was doing most of the baking for our family of seven. Now I am learning about artisan baking, and especially love sourdough breads. I learn a lot from your blog!
I entered my sourdough into the local county fair and took 2nd place….the comment on my bread was I needed more hydration. I have spent the last 5 months working on “more hydration”. I used your sourdough recipe and have had great success. I would love to win a bread book as I now have great desire to take 1st place (every year) at the fair.
My favorite bread is still Ciabatta made by our local bakery, On The Rise. But, a bread from Fort Collins, CO, is a close second. I have been able to recreate their Guinness and Smoked Gouda bread to my satisfaction. I still have not attempted ciabatta bread though.
I teach high school students culinary skills every day. Their favorite thing has always been baking. Maybe its the smell of the yeast, and the chewy interior of their loaves. If I didn’t live on the east coast, I’d try to get a few of them scholarships at sfbi. We have nothing close over here.
Hi Susan,
I am brand new to baking, specifically sourdough right now. I got started after I received for Christmas my very own blob of sourdough starter that was started by my grandfather in the 1970’s. It has been maintained in my family every since and I was just honor to received it and at the same time inspired by my family’s past with bread making to learn more about it. I would love to be able to attend SFBI but that just isn’t in the cards right now. Instead I have been reading (and borrowing) bread books and pouring over bread blogs. I recently make my best loaf yet and it is such a fulfilling thing to watch people enjoy something that I spent my time and effort on. I assure you this book would we well used at my house! Thanks for such a great blog!
As a student who spends her weekends making breads for the week ahead and who tries to be somewhat concerned about her intake of whole grains, I’d love to make the multigrain sourdough. Yum!
I’m not at all advanced, but I’d like to be! I’m intrigued by the buckwheat pear bread!
From the 1961 edition Larousse Gastranomique:
Brioche: …The name of this cake according to some entymologists, is derived from two words bris (break) and hocher (stir) which put together have resulted in the word brioche. This entymological explanation, which appears to be a little whimsical, is today generally accepted. Some authors maintain, however, that the word comes from Brie, the name of a district in France famous for the manufacture of an excellent cheese, where it is said this cake was invented. According to these authors, the brioche pastry was originally made out of Brie cheese.
Wow! I really want this book. Bread is my life . . . I recently got (as a gift) Peter Reinhart’s book on whole grain breads and am experimenting with his method.
Since I began baking my own bread a few years ago, I have not bought any grocery store bread. I would bake every day if I had the time and the ability to eat that much!
That book looks awesome. I’m a big fan of The Bread Bible right now, but could use some new info. Since I’m a relatively new baker, I need all the help I can get. The hazelnut bread sounds divine.
Another weeping Canadian here… This post got me all excited twice, and twice disappointed: first, seeing the bread (but no recipe) and then reading about the giveaway (but must be in the US). Oh well, I’ll have to settle for whatever wonderful bread you’ll blog about next!
I’ve got to win this! I cannot possibly live another day without making that bread! It’s so beautiful, I can nearly taste it.
We’d LOVE to go there. I come from a family of professional bakers and was one myself, but I did sweets, not breads. My better half is the real bread baker, though he does not have many books. We drool over your blog all the time. This morning he made crumpets for breakfast. How awesome is he?
I love your blog. You inspire me to try things that I had thought were beyond my abilities. Thanks for all the photos and tips. I would love to try and put the book to good use.
Rebecca
Bread…mmmm…I have such a weakness for carbs. So good. Thanks for the opportunity!
I’m new at baking bread, but that book looks like a lot of fun! Hopefully that was interesting enough to get in the running because my brain is fried from lab.
This looks delicious. Since I never win contests, I guess I will have to break down and order it. It’s expensive but it looks like it is worth the cost.
I love your blog and always enjoy the yeast spotting portions. Thanks for all your time and efort!
I think my uncle is secretly a samurai.
I have been thinking about getting this book for a while, but I haven’t purchased it yet. I probably won’t win it anyway, but I think nowadays there are a ton of good baking books out there. You never can have enough.
It’s a great time having those quality books available!
People : bake! Yeah!