A Baker's Year: Twelve Months of Baking and Living the Simple Life at the Smoke Signals Bakery

by Tara Jensen

A year in the life of Instagram bread-baking sensation Tara Jensen as she teaches readers how to bake bread and pies, build the perfect fire to cook with, and live a simple, satisfying life.

Why do so many people make pilgrimages to Tara Jensen’s North Carolina Smoke Signals Bakery? Why do over a 100,000 people follow her Instagram feed @bakerhands? It’s because Tara bakes the most exquisite bread in the US, using a wood-fired oven that she tends with her own two hands. It could also be to learn how she makes her bubbly, deep-dish fruit pies or to see the crisp pizzas that are sometimes covered with fresh flowers. It could be something deeper: Tara Jensen has learned to live a simple life, close to the land that feeds her oven. In her first book, she shares her philosophy of simple living and her trove of recipes with others.

A Baker’s Year takes readers month-by-month through the seasons at Smoke Signals for porridge and waffles in winter, crusty bread in spring, pies and pizza in the summer, and celebration cakes for end-of-the-year holidays. Along the way, Tara writes about how to live in a more peaceful world, shares stories from her own life, mourns romances lost, and celebrates the promise of a new relationship.

Illustrated throughout with Tara's photographs and drawings, A Baker’s Year is a true American original destined to be a classic of cookbook shelves.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Nonfiction, Cooking, Memoir, Food Writing, Foodie

208 pages, Hardcover

Published February 13, 2018

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. Well I just didn't love this book. I hated the feel of the paper. I hated the black and white pictures. I understand it will print in color, and possibly on different paper. That solves that problem. While the book was interesting enough, filled with personal musings and journal entries, it just didn't do it for me. While I do love to grow my own food whenever possible, I can't relate to her style of baking. No, I will never mill my own flour. Nor will I ever use a wood burning oven. Unless I hit the lottery and get one built in my mansion's back yard. My ingredients will most likely be foraged from the supermarket instead of the woods. This book just didn't inspire me to create something, and for me, that's the whole point of a cookbook. But perhaps I'm the wrong audience. Perhaps this book is for people interested in living off the land, foraging for pawpaws (whatever that is) and creating rustic baked goods according to the cycles of the moon.

[The Sassy Bookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was OK. The journal entries were a little odd and random (IMO), but it had some good information about different flours. Milling your own grains. Sourcing ingredients etc. It was well laid out with some yummy photos and cool graphics. Most of the recipes were relatively straightforward and easy to follow. That said, a lot of them had ingredients that most people don't have on hand and/or would find difficult to get their hands on.



I feel like this book is aimed more towards a granola homesteading type of family (no judgment) than your everyday working outside the home family with kids and afterschool activities. And like I said, no judgment at all if that is how you roll. I just think it's important to let potential readers/purchasers know that this book isn't really geared towards the average home baker.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I won a free ARC of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

This is one of those cases where I think I missed out on the full experience by reading the ARC. There are many photographs of delicious looking food in this book. Due to its being an advance copy, they are all in black and white. Good as they look, I'm sure they look even more tasty and delicious in full color. All I’m saying is, if you rate this book more highly than I did and wonder why, that may be at least part of the answer.

This book resists easy pigeonholing. Yes, it contains recipes, but it's not just a cookbook. Yes, Jensen tells some personal stories about her life, but it's not just an autobiography. And yes, there are elements of philosophy and self help, but it doesn't fall neatly into either of those genres either. Call it self autophilocookery or something, I guess. Whatever it is, it's good.

One thing is clear: Tara Jensen knows how to bake, and I would dearly love to try, well, everything in this book, really. More than just recipes, though, this book also gives you techniques and the philosophy behind the food. My baking skills are passable, but I’m thinking I’d probably need to make several attempts at at least most of these before I got results I’d be happy with. It's not that they're complex or anything so much that they're so unadorned that there's not a large margin for error. I may just be overthinking it.

Anyway, this is one of the better cookbook/autobiography/philosophy hybrids that I’ve ever read. Recommended!

[The Candid Cover (Olivia & Lori)]

DNF at 25%

While the eARC that I have has some very beautiful images, this book is not what I had expected. The journal entries are very random, and don't make a lot of sense to someone unfamiliar with the author's personal life. I was hoping to try out some recipes from this one, but the formatting of the book, the odd measurements and hard to find ingredients make it next to impossible for me. I suspect that this book will appeal to Jensen's customers who already have some insight to her thought processes and techniques.

[Kim Lund · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very excited to win this book from Goodreads. I enjoyed the antidotes sprinkled throughout the chapters. I have not baked any of the recipes, and I don’t think I will. I want to love this book, but I can’t. I want to bake loaves of crusty brown bread and gooey sweet pies from more conventional, easy to follow recipes, with ingredients I have in my pantry.

[Jackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The good - most of the recipes include photos of the finished product. Although my advanced copy is in black and white, it indicates the final version will be in color. This is always a must for me in cookbooks, as it's helpful to see the completed recipe.

Some also may enjoy this author's style of writing (if you are into the healing power of crystals, this book will likely appeal to you) and she seems to want the baker to take time to think about what they are doing and breathe.

The not so good-
I am a very experienced home baker, and I love cookbooks. I have a huge collection of them, and I typically enjoy cookbooks that combine recipes with the creators background or history.

For me this cookbook didn't do that well.

Instead of giving the reader an understanding of why she loves to bake, or what inspired certain recipes, we are given a twee look into the author's life. We read about her relationship struggles, the joy of a sunbeam on her face, and delve into the spiritual aspects of baking. It's not to my particular taste for reading. The relationship stuff seems self-indulgent, the author seems to be bringing the reader into her personal drama, and the book feels a bit pretensions. I want a cookbook, not a means of the author venting her relationship trauma.

This is a cookbook though, and the extra stuff shouldn't matter if the recipes are good. This really isn't the case for me. Many of the recipes call for ingredients most average bakers would struggle to find (where does one get freshly milled flour in a variety of flavors? What is pawpaw?). The recipes themselves didn't seem to stand out to me, there's nothing here that I feel like is new, innovative, or a classic with her own twist. I did make one of the cakes listed "Groomsman Cake" and it was okay. It was a yellow cake with bourbon, but not something I feel the need to make again. Nothing else caught my attention.

Overall, I give this 2.5 stars. It's a very pretty book, there are a lot of good photos, and a decent variety of recipes. The writing, and inaccessibility of some of the ingredients were a turn off for me.

I received an ARC of this cookbook for free. All opinions are my own.

[Kathy Heare Watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book of baking. It does have pictures which are all black and white. The one thing the book is lacking and really could have made it better would have been an Index with recipes listed.

I won a copy of this book during a Goodreads giveaway and I am under no obligation to write a review and do so voluntarily.

[Vishal Katariya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading about Tara Jensen's journey. This book is not a recipe book. It's a way-of-being book, and I was/am enamored by Jensen's commitment to living in a now-unorthodox way, in tune with the land and one's hands and one's craft. The way she talks about her romance life and two partners is so tantalizing and intimate, yet aloof.

[Christopher Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, simple, elegant and touching, Tara Jensen has put a part of herself into each page and each recipe of this book. I have to get my start going again, and then bake my way through this, one page turn at a time.

[Marjorie Elwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dreamlike text with gorgeous photos, this intimate and somewhat melodramatic memoir meanders through the author's love life while describing appealing recipes that I'm unlikely to try because of their complexity and use of grains that are not readily available.

[Katy]

I received my copy free through Goodreads Giveaway
Donated to the local library

[Rachael Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part memoir. Beautiful photographs.

[Daron Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

In "A Baker's Year" Tara takes us through a year in her life at Smoke Signals, her bakery in the (stunningly gorgeous) North Carolina mountains near Asheville. The book functions as a masterclass in grains, flours, baking and living an authentic life-- weaving Tara's personal essays with recipes for sourdough pancakes, einkhorn waffles and pawpaw pie. I expected to find heaps of recipes to try, and did. But I was floored by Tara's stories. Her meditations on living a singular life, her dedication to her craft and her community are a total joy.

[Thelma Fountain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book in a goodreads giveaway. This is a very unique cookbook! There are some really great recipes included but what I found more interesting was the information about grains and flours. I did not realize all the bleaches and preservatives included in our store bought flours. I learned quite a bit from this book and Tara Jensen's website.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won an advanced readers copy of this book off Goodreads. There are a mix of solid fallback recipes and more adventurous takes on classic baked goods in this book. It presents interesting information on the differences between various ingredient options and offers some good pointers on technique. For those willing to adapt the recipes within to their own ovens, this cookbook this is a fairly solid addition to your shelf.

That said, while I want to love this book I simply can't. A fair portion of the book is devoted to musings and personal stories by the author, someone is apparently convinced that society will collapse, modern life is bad, and that living in isolation is the best solution to a bad relationship. What was clearly an effort to convey a meditative and mindful approach to baking crosses far too often into untreated depression and anxiety.

[Bakertyl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book through a Goodreads contest, and my review will ignore some obvious problems with printing; several paragraphs were repeated in the wrong chapter, some pictures did not match the text, etc. I know these will be fixed before final printing.

Maybe I'm not the target audience for this book, but I felt it was so ephemeral and hard to follow. I actually really liked the prose, poetic and well-written, but it was too hard to follow the narrative. I understand the basic story, she lost her lover and got a new one and etc, but trying to keep track of the story took away from the great language.

The recipes are, I'm sorry, not going to happen. I'm sure they taste great when someone else mills their own cornmeal, but if I have three children and a full time job. I bake with my kids, I enjoy it, but I don't have the caring to keep my own yeast starter or a pile of other things a "real" baker must do. Active dry yeast FTW!

The other thing I didn't like about this book was the number of pages in some ¿Wiccan? chapter... there are seriously something like nine recipes for "moon" cakes, which should only be baked after baking the "full moon" cake at least three times, successfully. Then light a candle, write your worries down, blow out the candle, keep the paper with your worries under your pillow for three nights, then burn them in the same candle... I dunno, I just can't tell.
The section on mindfulness seems legitimate, I do something similar without the mantra, but seriously, why does this book have nine moon cakes, but no brownies or cookies? The bread recipes sound great, I'll order one from someone.

I would like a whole book of the writing, it was good reading. I think having to break up the story with recipes takes away from the storytelling and the prose.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cookbook but more of a spiritual journey shared through baking and lots of personal disclosures, kind of like a cookbook and diary. I don’t know the cooking background of the author except that she apparently runs a bakery in NC.
The book is organized around month, with a long personal introduction for each chapter. This is a bit limiting for the cold months where, apparently, there isn’t a lot of baking, so the recipes are cereals (Jan) or bread culture (feb). Each month has about 3-5 recipes, though they are often all of one type, like March is pancakes. Unfortunately, recipes don’t give you information about what you are making, so, for example, in full moon cake, there is no way of knowing what kind of cake it will make. One cake has 1/3 cup cake flour for a buddy cake pan, which just doesn’t seem accurate. But if the author could explain the type of cake, maybe it would make sense?
The book starts with an introduction to different kinds of flours from spelt to rye. Recipes are simple (oddly, there is one for popcorn, which doesn’t seem a part of baking?), well organized and emphasize natural wholesome ingredients like sorghum syrup and freshly milled soft red wheat. Some recipes need to be cooked in a fire (though you can adapt).
If you really want to get involved in the process of turning something from the earth into food even if it takes days, this cookbook may appeal. I love to bake, but I like to do it without spending days. Even the pie crust in this book needs to be started the day before. Maybe it’s flakier than anything I’ve ever made, but maybe I can’t tell the difference. The pie and cake recipes feel the most accessible to the average home cook

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is this book one you would expect from a system of serial cookbooks that borderline have no distinction besides the celebrities on their covers? No, and Jensen makes that statement bold and clear. To bake (and produce and craft food) in her way is an anticapitalist stand and a return to the communality of food, to a respect for those who produce in what would be viewed as micro quantities as compared to grocery store-held chains. Are all of the ingredients as Jensen mentions them immediately at one's fingertips? Perhaps, perhaps not, depending on your circumstances. But Jensen's entries instruct and motivate to start seeing food and cooking differently, a push back against immediacy and watered-down corporate standardization.

Jensen's view on baking is that it is not a separate milieu from the everyday life. Their journal entries, to me, were not superfluous addenda. Rather they highlighted the ways that cooking is extraordinarily intimate in its practicality and as a platform for the experiences we harbor, that to enter a kitchen (or campsite or barn) is to work through one's excitement, difficulty, pain, and admiration on a plane not separate from our 9-to-5s and our families but one and the same. This book was an homage to food and what food can do--as a healing art and an empowering process--for us, us alone and us with others.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a very feel-y journal/baking book, and that will appeal to more sensitive, millennial readers I think. It's very brave to write a cookbook, braver still to incorporate your own journal thoughts in said cookbook, and for that I applaud Tara's little book. My Goodreads ARC was in near newsprint, black and white, and honestly I thought that was the intention! It lends a recycle/"waste not" tone to the book! I can't see this in a glossy color version, but I'm sure it will be delightful just the same.

The recipes are interesting, to say the least, and I think that I can modify some of them to use at home this winter. Living in a VERY rural area, I don't have access to the "freshly milled" or specialty flours, so that's a bit of a hindrance. That being said, there are some good explanations of technique that are useful no matter what you're baking.

For the idealist, the purist, those wishing to bake in a wood fired oven, this cookbook will be one they reach for again and again. For the everyday home baker, it's an interesting read but will not be as useful.

Thanks for the Goodreads giveaway! It was fun to read and review this one!

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tara Jensen pulled together photos, recipes and a few stories from her own life to make this cookbook that flows from one month to the next. There are several things that really appealed to me: one of the things is that I appreciated reading all the information about grains and flours. I feel this will be very helpful in any baking I do, and it encourages me to try some new, healthier products than I already use. I also liked that she very carefully explains how to start a culture and keep it going; I’m definitely going to have to do that when I have a bit more time. Moreover, I liked that the recipes followed the year.


The recipes use a large variety of different kinds of flour, which I think will be fun to try. But it isn’t just bread. The book has recipes for pizza, tips for edible flowers (there aren’t recipes for using them—just tips if you’d like to) , pies and cakes. I don’t think the ingredients would be all that difficult to find. Grocery stores have expanded their product lines so you can buy more than white, bleached flour.

If you are looking for some new ideas for baking, this might be a good choice.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a beautiful cookbook with lots of photographs and drawings, but it didn't seem to be geared toward the beginner baker. As another Goodreads reviewer said it seemed to be more geared toward a "granola homesteading type of family," and I agree. Tara Jensen is single and has simplified her life to be able to live by her baking and teaching alone - she isn't working another job and doesn't have responsibilities for any other humans. I'm not knocking her or what she's doing, but that's not everyone's lifestyle. I did like that each chapter focuses on what's going on with her bakery month by month. I liked her journal entry-type writings at the beginning of each chapter, but it did kind of leave you hanging at the end (even though that's not the focus of this book, I did want more of her story). Maybe later she'll write a memoir or something too. I would LOVE to bake my own bread, but right now I just don't have the time to devote to really learning or doing it every day/week/whatever. But, if you just want to dream of a life spent baking bread outside Asheville, this cookbook is beautiful.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from the Goodreads Firstreads giveaway program. Thank you author/publisher for the opportunity to read and review A Baker's Year: Twelve Months of Baking and Living the Simple Life at the Smoke Signals Bakery!

Three stars!

I had never heard of Tara Jensen. I looked her up online and found her Instagram. She has many followers. I entered this giveaway because I had an interest at the time at the time about wood-burning ovens, bread, cultures, and pizza!

Tara does cover the items that I was looking for in this cookbook. It is put into a monthly format which I did like, items that were available in those months and seasons. There were tidbits about her life and bakery during that time.

Unfortunately I received this as an ARC so the pictures were not near what I'm sure they are in the actual cookbook. Disappointment. I also found that her recipes included so many ingredients that I would never have in my cupboards.

I did learn a few things from this cookbook. I would definitely recommend this to a more advanced baker than myself.

Enjoyed!

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I also received this book in a Goodreads giveaway, and I echo the sentiments of many of those who have already reviewed the ARC. It's tough to judge an incomplete cookbook, but even as it was, I did not find myself drawn to the recipes or the writing. I won't rehash all of the criticism - I will just say that, despite being an avid baker, I don't expect to reach for this cookbook much, if at all.

I will add one note that bothered me and that bakers should be aware of before buying this book (*this may change in the final product but I doubt it). Only the bread recipes include ingredient weights - leaving out weights is not too uncommon for a cookbook but it's an unfortunate decision by someone who seems to value precision. Worse, the weights given in the bread recipes are given in decimals (3.71 oz, 14.9 oz, etc.) like you would find on a postage scale, instead of fractions (3 1/2 oz, 14 7/8 oz, etc.) as you would find on a kitchen scale. I suspect many bakers will find this to be a frustrating, if not impossible, hurdle to jump.

[Sil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book from goodreads giveaways.

I love bread and like to make it, although more in a bread machine than actually kneading the dough. I had some expectations about this book: I thought I would learn more about making breads and actually do it more. The breads the author gives recipes to sound delicious, and I'm sure the ones she bakes are, but the recipes are just not for the regular home baker. Who can actually mill their own flour?!
Now, the cakes and the pies do have some recipes that I might be able to do, but since in the advanced copy I received there's no table of contents it is going to be difficult to find the recipe for the flour mix, then the actual cake/pie recipe. It got complicated and I hope they will make it all easier for the final version of the book.
Finally, in the end, I personally wasn't satisfied. It neither gave me recipes that I'm going to be using nor it gave me enough of the details of her simple life at the bakery to really make me care much.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book on a Goodreads Giveaway, excited to find a new inspiration for baking. Sadly, I was distracted and disappointed by the black and white newsprint paper, knowing that it might be a different experience when the final product is printed on better quality paper with color pictures. Overlooking the paper quality, I ventured through the book realizing that this book will not be for everyone. Maybe if I were a more 'rustic' person, who enjoyed baking in the wild, or one wanting to live through someone else's adventures, this would've had more appeal. But I am a home cook type baker, who prefers to bake in the comfort of her own kitchen with modern appliances. Even the pie recipes could not pull me into a frame of mind to try any recipe from this book. This book was just not for me.

[Leeza Robertson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Normally I would not post a 2-star review, I would just mark the book off as read and be done with it. But I want to clarify why this book was problematic for me because it really did affect my reading experience. I got this as a digital ebook through NetGalley and the formatting was HORRIBLE. It made it almost impossible to read and everything was out of order, which made making sense of the book as a whole frustrating. Half the time I could not make out if this was meant to be a cookbook or an artsy retelling of one's journey into baking. Either way, the whole experience was bizarre from beginning to end. And I want to clarify it was because of the formatting of the e-book.

However, that said, I reckon this book might actually be lovely in its hardback form and more of a joy to read and I am looking forward to seeing its true book form.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book a couple months ago as a Giveaway and here's my honest opinion. On signing up for this Giveaway, I was searching for a book that would help me (a novice) get into baking bread. This is not that book. This is a book geared towards more experienced bakers who are interested in experimenting with new kinds of flours and ingredients. I was disappointed that the recipes were more of an afterthought to the writer's stories. Too much filler, not enough substance. I hated how the book was organized, I felt like I couldn't find anything as it was separated by months (?) rather than types of baked goods.
In all honestly, I did not try any of these recipes. Perhaps I should have before reviewing, but honestly, I was too put off to even try. Two stars as this was not the right book for a novice, but this is more my issue than theirs.

[Sugarrr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read this book as an ARC, first off I found it to be a very personal ' cook book' with very personal stories, I really liked that , it gave the book some character and made it a bit original for me , BUT the recipes were not so good and that's the only reason I give it only 3 stars, it's just too much work, too many things called for I never use, if the recipes would be a bit more easier to do with things everybody has in their kitchen I would give it 5 stars.....I hope she writes another book and this time includes very easy to make recipes!! I really loved the set up of the book with the chapters and pictures , just the recipes were a let down for me , but this is a cook book and not just a memoir .

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway. I like to read about other people's lives, and that part of the book was interesting. As far as the recipes, I don't think they're practical for the typical home cook. There are far too many unfamiliar ingredients. I don't want to make my own yeast culture or attempt to mill my own flour. I missed the description of the low moisture flour that is called for in many of the recipes. Since the ARC had no index, I still don't know what it is. While the recipes include directions for oven temperatures, the author uses a wood fired oven and I wonder if the recipes would turn out the same when baked in a conventional oven. I did think the inclusion of a list of necessary tools for each recipe was a good idea.

[Shelby Pine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway and I was impressed. The illustrations and personal stories make this way more then a cook book. I felt like she was bringing me with her journeys and teaching me as she learned. The recipes are plain delicious and very easy to follow. I always get so annoyed when recipes don't put the degrees the oven needs to be set to until in the middle of the recipe so it was great to see she put that right away. The pictures are very pleasant and pertain to each section they are in. All and all a great cookbook to have in your inventory. The only thing negative ,that I'm sure will be different in the final edition of the book, is that I would have liked to see the pictures in color.