Feel Like A Little Focaccia?

Focaccia: Easy To Make, Impressive to Look At, & Delicious of Course!

I recently shared a recipe for Lamb Burgers with Garlic, Shallots, & Feta that were served up on homemade rosemary focaccia. I promised that the focaccia recipe would be up soon over on A Year in Bread, and it is!

Wondering what A Year in Bread is? In the spring of 2007, two bread baking buddies and I started a fun year-long project where we chose a monthly theme and then each shared a different recipe for that type of that bread. We started with pizza dough (because it's less intimidating than making loaves of full-fledged yeast bread) and went on from there. Our search system and site navigation are severely lacking right now, but there are links to all the monthly archives in the left sidebar of the ayearinbread.com homepage.

We slacked off a little toward the end of the year, never got to the highly anticipated sourdough section as planned (though Beth has some great starter-making photos), and due to other commitments (you know, like lambing season) have sadly ignored the site for much of the past several months.

And while Kevin has moved on to bigger and better things (including becoming the Guide for Cooking for Two on About.com), Beth and I have big (though slightly less formal) plans for another Year in Bread—just as soon as she finishes putting the final touches on the text and photos for her wonderful upcoming cookbook (which includes a couple of my recipes!), Picture Yourself Cooking with Your Kids.

In the meantime, you can check out our roundup of all the sandwich bread recipes we've shared so far on A Year in Bread. The weather is finally cooling down, which means it's time to pull out the flour and crank up the oven. Ready, breadie? Then come bake bread with us!

© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where lately we've flipped over focaccia, including a scrumptious yet simple stuffed version filled with roasted cherry tomatoes and fresh mozzarella that will hopefully be posted soon (like while tomatoes are still in season).

Local Breads Does GoodAnd We're Giving Away Two Signed Copies!

Parisian Daily Bread from Local Breads: A Four Hour Baguette

It seems I'm not the only baker willing to crank up the oven in midsummer in the name of fabulous homemade bread. My new favorite bread book, Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers, by Daniel Leader (world renowned baker, owner of Bread Alone Bakery in New York's Catskill Mountains, and author of my previously favorite bread book, Bread Alone), is receiving rave reviews and selling like crazy. A big thanks to Karen at the Union of Concerned Scientists (check out their wonderful new Green Cuisine feature here) for letting me know that Daniel Leader was the guest on last week's edition of "The Food Chain" radio program on Metrofarm. I really enjoyed it. You can listen to a recording of the show (#554) here.

Do you have a bread question for Daniel? I'll be interviewing him in the next week or two and invite you to email me your questions: farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com.


No Canvas Needed

So far I've made the Parisian Daily Bread, the Italian Black Olive Cheeks, and the Rosemary Filone from Local Breads. All were easy to make and tasted wonderful, though the filone wasn't full of those nice big airholes like in the mouthwatering photo. Advanced bread bakers are going to glom onto this book, but beginning bakers definitely shouldn't shy away from it. The first 60 pages are packed with detailed information on equipment, ingredients, and techniques, all of it clearly written and easy to understand. The book also contains dozens of frequently asked bread baking questions and simple yet invaluable tips, such as how to fashion a couche out of a piece of parchment paper, as shown above (brilliant!).

I can't wait to try out more of the 80 recipes over the next couple of months, including some of the authentic German sourdough ryes. Part travelogue, part bread making class, and part gastronomic history lesson, if the gorgeous photos in Local Breads don't have you running to the store in search of stoneground organic flours, the descriptions--or even simply the names--of these European Old World breads, many of which have never been shared before, most certainly will.

Of the Soulful German Farmhouse Rye, Daniel says:
Rye breads this deep, dark, and sour can be found only in places like Oberseifersdorf, Germany, where Gert Kolbe, a fifth-generation baker, has his shop. Canals still flow through the town, and a waterwheel works the mill where Gert gets his coarse whole rye flour. The grain is grown in the surrounding fields. The rolled rye flakes Gert uses as a topping make his loaves resemble the local thatched-roof houses. This hearty traditional bread in particular is why I made the trip to the bakery; I left not only with the recipe but with a long-keeping loaf that I snacked on with smoked sausages and spicy mustard on the five-hour drive back to Wiesbaden.

I'm hoping some of you will bake along with me as I delve further into Local Breads. I'll let you know in the next couple of weeks which breads I'll be baking, so you can get your sourdough(s) mixed up in plenty of time. For years I've been baking beautiful sourdough breads using two starters I made following the simple instructions in Bread Alone, a French levain and a rye sourdough. After the successes I've had with these, I'm really looking forward to branching out and experimenting with some new sourdoughs.

Meanwhile, over at A Year In Bread, we're giving away two signed copies of Local Breads. You'll find all the details here. Wondering what A Year In Bread is all about? Read more about this joint blog project between myself and two other passionate bread bakers here.

More links for bread lovers:
Parisian Daily Bread from Local Breads
Small Scale Marketing & Italian Black Olive Cheeks from Local Breads
Grape Harvest Focaccia from Local Breads
Rosemary Filone from Local Breads
My Ten Tips For Better Breads
My Oatmeal Toasting Bread
My Italiano No-Knead Bread
The Pita Project & My Best Pita Bread Recipe
My Favorite Straightforward Pizza Dough Recipe

© 2007 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares photos & stories of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres.

Farm Photo 5/10/07: Ultimate Grilled Cheese Sandwich On Italiano No-Knead Bread

Mozzarella & Romano Grilled Cheese On Italiano No-Knead Bread
(Click here for the recipe)

Attention bread bakers and bread lovers! We're just finishing up month number two over at A Year In Bread. The three of us decided several months ago that we couldn't do this project without discussing the no-knead bread recipe that appeared last fall in the New York Times and created such a worldwide phenomenon. (Wondering what A Year In Bread is? Click here to learn more about this tasty and yeasty new project.)

With over 82,000 Google hits for "no-knead bread," there are no doubt thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of people who overcame their fear of yeast, baked their first loaf of bread, and were thrilled with what they created. How cool is that?

But once we decided to include it, we had to figure out what to do with a loaf that's had pretty much anything you can think of already done to it. Beth ended up turning hers into a nutty oatmeal cinnamon swirl toasting bread. Kevin used his dough to make English muffins--and learned a lot in the process. I took my version of the basic recipe I've been making and gave it an Italiano twist. Then I sliced it up and made one of the best grilled cheese sandwiches I've ever eaten.

If you haven't yet heard about this no-knead bread, you're in for a simple, scrumptious surprise. If you'd like to start with my basic version (click here to see a photo), just follow the Italiano recipe but omit the herbs and spices. If you're one of the zillions of people besides me who fell head over heels for this loaf and wrote about it on your blog, leave us a link to your post in a comment at A Year In Bread, and/or post a photo at the A Year In Bread flickr group. I'm Farmgirl Susan on flickr if you'd like to add me as one of your contacts.

Just joining in? The first bread we tackled at A Year In Bread was pizza dough. You'll find my recipe here, Beth's here, and Kevin's here. And today's post is full of some of our favorite bread baking tips. So what are you waiting for? If you're ready, breadie, then come bake bread with us!

© Copyright 2007 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares photos and stories of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres - and everything's better with homemade bread.

Farm Photo: 4/8/07

Homemade Pizza With Red Onion, Pecorino Romano, & Fresh Sage From The Greenhouse (recipe here)

A Year In Bread has begun, and the pizzas are done! Click here to read more about A Year In Bread, the new project Beth, Kevin, and I started a few weeks ago. It's 3 bakers, 12 months, 36 original recipes--and more fun than should probably be allowed in the kitchen. We're definitely having lots of fun, and the pizzas so far have been fantastic.

Click here to read my pizza dough recipe post and see how the pizza above turned out after it spent a little while on a hot baking stone in a 500 degree oven. I also hope to have a separate article about pizza toppings up soon. Meanwhile, Beth and Kevin have already written about their favorite pizza dough recipes, and the all the comments sections are filled with dozens of questions, answers, and helpful tips (along with plenty of kidding around of course).

We've also created A Year In Bread flickr group, where you're invited to share up to three of your homemade bread and pizza photos a week. I'm just getting the hang of flickr, but I'm Farmgirl Susan if you'd like to add me as one of your contacts.

Ready, breadie? Then head over to AYearInBread.com and come bake bread with us!

A Year In Bread Has Begun!

Homemade Pesto On Homemade Pizza

The baking stones are nice and hot, and scrumptious homemade pizzas have been flying in and out of ovens around the world. Beth, Kevin, and I are thrilled and amazed by the enthusiastic response to our new project we're calling A Year In Bread. It's 3 bakers, 12 months, 36 original recipes, and more fun than should probably be allowed in the kitchen.

The first bread we're tackling is pizza. Kevin and Beth have already posted their fantastic looking pizza dough recipes. Part of the project calls for us to test each others' recipes, and I can't wait to try these. Although I've been noticeably absent on the site, my pizza post will hopefully be up next Thursday, April 5th. I haven't started writing it yet, as things have been kind of crazy around here (I warned Kevin and Beth that lambing season was going to coincide with the launch of A Year In Bread), though last night I did manage to bake six different pizzas, including the one you see above.

Click here to read more about A Year In Bread. And click here if you're ready to jump in and start baking. Just remember--the site is a blog, so each new post is 'stacked' on top of the previous one. To begin at the beginning, you'll need to scroll down to the bottom of the page. And don't miss the comments sections--they're packed with all sorts of questions and answers, as well as helpful tips (yeah, yeah, none from me yet of course).

We've also created A Year In Bread flickr group, where you're invited to share up to three of your bread photos a week. I'm just getting the hang of flickr (and it really doesn't like dealing with dial-up), but I'm Farmgirl Susan if you'd like to add me as one of your contacts.

Ready, breadie? Then come bake bread with us!