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Breaking Bread: A Baker's Journey Home in 75 Recipes
Grand Prize Winner of the 2017 New England Book Festival
"I bake because it connects my soul to my hands, and my heart to my mouth."—Martin Philip
A brilliant, moving meditation on craft and love, and an intimate portrait of baking and our communion with food—complete with seventy-five original recipes and illustrated with dozens of photographs and original hand-drawn illustrations—from the head bread baker of King Arthur Flour.
Yearning for creative connection, Martin Philip traded his finance career in New York City for an entry-level baker position at King Arthur Flour in rural Vermont. A true Renaissance man, the opera singer, banjo player, and passionate amateur baker worked his way up, eventually becoming head bread baker. But Philip is not just a talented craftsman; he is a bread shaman. Being a baker isn’t just mastering the chemistry of flour, salt, water, and yeast; it is being an alchemist—perfecting the transformation of simple ingredients into an elegant expression of the soul.
Breaking Bread is an intimate tour of Philip’s kitchen, mind, and heart. Through seventy-five original recipes and life stories told with incandescent prose, he shares not only the secrets to creating loaves of unparalleled beauty and flavor but the secrets to a good life. From the butter biscuits, pecan pie, and whiskey bread pudding of his childhood in the Ozarks to French baguettes and focaccias, bagels and muffins, cinnamon buns and ginger scones, Breaking Bread is a guide to wholeheartedly embracing the staff of life.
Philip gently guides novice bakers and offers recipes and techniques for the most advanced levels. He also includes a substantial technical section covering the bread-making process, tools, and ingredients. As he illuminates an artisan’s odyssey and a life lived passionately, he reveals how the act of baking offers spiritual connection to our pasts, our families, our culture and communities, and, ultimately, ourselves. Exquisite, sensuous, and delectable, Breaking Bread inspires us to take risks, make bolder choices, live more fully, and bake bread and break it with those we love.
"I bake because it connects my soul to my hands, and my heart to my mouth."—Martin Philip
A brilliant, moving meditation on craft and love, and an intimate portrait of baking and our communion with food—complete with seventy-five original recipes and illustrated with dozens of photographs and original hand-drawn illustrations—from the head bread baker of King Arthur Flour.
Yearning for creative connection, Martin Philip traded his finance career in New York City for an entry-level baker position at King Arthur Flour in rural Vermont. A true Renaissance man, the opera singer, banjo player, and passionate amateur baker worked his way up, eventually becoming head bread baker. But Philip is not just a talented craftsman; he is a bread shaman. Being a baker isn’t just mastering the chemistry of flour, salt, water, and yeast; it is being an alchemist—perfecting the transformation of simple ingredients into an elegant expression of the soul.
Breaking Bread is an intimate tour of Philip’s kitchen, mind, and heart. Through seventy-five original recipes and life stories told with incandescent prose, he shares not only the secrets to creating loaves of unparalleled beauty and flavor but the secrets to a good life. From the butter biscuits, pecan pie, and whiskey bread pudding of his childhood in the Ozarks to French baguettes and focaccias, bagels and muffins, cinnamon buns and ginger scones, Breaking Bread is a guide to wholeheartedly embracing the staff of life.
Philip gently guides novice bakers and offers recipes and techniques for the most advanced levels. He also includes a substantial technical section covering the bread-making process, tools, and ingredients. As he illuminates an artisan’s odyssey and a life lived passionately, he reveals how the act of baking offers spiritual connection to our pasts, our families, our culture and communities, and, ultimately, ourselves. Exquisite, sensuous, and delectable, Breaking Bread inspires us to take risks, make bolder choices, live more fully, and bake bread and break it with those we love.
391 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2017
577 people are currently reading
307 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
February 21, 2020
Martin Philip tells the story of his journey into baking through seventy-five recipes.
November 13, 2017
Rare is the cookbook that can be read cover to cover! This memoir, meditation on life, and bread bible is filled with prose that is a delight to read. Enjoy Martin’s personal journey, and then make his recipes!
October 4, 2022
I checked this out from the library and read it cover to cover. I loved Martin’s story and I love his approach to baking—and life. I love the recipes, all the ones I’ve tried have been delicious. I learned so much!
June 12, 2020
This is lovely memoire as well as being most informative.
One of the reasons I read this book was to learn more about wild yeast. It was heartening to see the following:
But then Philip outlined his method of creating his levain. This is clearly a recipe devised by someone who has easy access to flour (and lots of it), as well as someone who is making zillions of loaves every day, rather than one or two a week. On his first day, he starts with 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of water. Twenty four hours later, he advocates discarding all but 100 grams of the mixture and adding 50grams each of flour water - twice a day for 3 to 5 days!!
Then, after all that effort, in one of the bread recipes with "sourdough" in its title, Philip calls for adding commercial yeast! Several of the bread recipes call for adding sourdough culture and commercial yeast. Now, I do understand why bakeries may do this. Their business is to sell bread and they can't afford to be waiting if the sourdough culture causes the proofing to be so exceedingly slow that there is no bread to sell. But, for the home baker, the length of time for proofing isn't quite as crucial. While I haven't tried them yet, I suspect that every single one of his bread recipes that call for both sourdough culture and commercial yeast will work turn out just fine if the commercial yeast is omitted.
But these are small(ish) points - there are still so many great ideas and tips about bread-making to garner.
And while there are many things we are in agreement about, Martin Philip and I clearly have a different idea of what a muffin is, as well as what may be the appropriate accompaniment for "organic baby food".
Philip's chocolate orange "muffins" call for not quite 2 cups flour and - wait for it - a cup of sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, and "coarse sugar, for sprinkling on the muffins"! His banana pecan "muffins" call for 5 ripe bananas, 2/3 cup of sugar, 2+1/4 cups whole wheat flour, and a sweet brown sugar streusel topping.
Those aren't muffins; they're cupcakes!
The bread recipes, however, look quite wonderful, even though they are a bit confusing, with total ingredients listed first, followed by levain/final. Reading the recipes on the library website is impossible in two page form - the ingredients lists are in charts that overlap onto the following text. But for the brioche recipe, switching to single page format on the library website, the right side of the chart is cut off.
Mercifully, the e-book is completely easy to read and decipher using Adobe Digital Editions. But it's not so easy to sit down in a nice comfy chair when hampered by an unwieldy computer (particularly a desktop computer). But, at least the ingredients charts are not cut off entirely on the right hand side on ADE, as they are when reading the recipes on the library website. The complete charts can be seen on my kobo glo e-reader, but only if the font is reduced to its smallest, can I just get the whole table in view. But without a really good magnifying glass, it's impossible to make anything out.
It's not just the charts that present difficulties. Reading the recipes on my e-reader was insane. Philip's drawings - showing different patterns for scoring, or tips for shaping or proofing various breads - cannot be enlarged on my Kobo Glo - they are indecipherable.
Still, the whole section in part 2 clearly outlining Martin Philip's method and process (including details about ingredients, measuring, fermentation, optimal temperatures, shaping techniques, scoring, and troubleshooting), together with the often lyrical reminiscences and reflections make this more than just another bread cookbook. Reading these sections more than makes up for the inadequacies of the e-version of the book.
This is definitely a book that belongs on any serious bread baker's shelves - but do spring for the hard cover rather than the kindle or e-book.
At King Arthur Flour the bakery building is divided into separate clusters for bread and pastry work. [...] For bread the main tools include a steam-injected masonry oven [...] There are also mixers designed for artisan dough and wooden benches where hand shaping is done. And hands, experienced hands, the most flexible, versatile, and valuable tools in the world. [Vermont]
One of the reasons I read this book was to learn more about wild yeast. It was heartening to see the following:
[M]any roads will lead to the land of "naturally leavened," also known as "sourdough" or "levain" bread making. Even among professional bakers, these terms, which essentially refer to bread made with a leavening culture, can be a source of confusion. [...] The terms naturally leavened (meaning no commercial yeast) and levain are also used to refer to sourdough culture. Naturally leavened is misleading as bread made with commercially produced yeast isn't necessarily unnatural. Levain is the French word for "leaven." The point of all this is that bread made with a leavening culture is more flavorful. [...] You do not need to wave the open container about, hoping to "catch" anything; you do not need to add exotic juice or grapes or sugar or yeast or get any fancier than the product of these two ingredients plus time. [Method | Sourdough Culture]
But then Philip outlined his method of creating his levain. This is clearly a recipe devised by someone who has easy access to flour (and lots of it), as well as someone who is making zillions of loaves every day, rather than one or two a week. On his first day, he starts with 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of water. Twenty four hours later, he advocates discarding all but 100 grams of the mixture and adding 50grams each of flour water - twice a day for 3 to 5 days!!
Then, after all that effort, in one of the bread recipes with "sourdough" in its title, Philip calls for adding commercial yeast! Several of the bread recipes call for adding sourdough culture and commercial yeast. Now, I do understand why bakeries may do this. Their business is to sell bread and they can't afford to be waiting if the sourdough culture causes the proofing to be so exceedingly slow that there is no bread to sell. But, for the home baker, the length of time for proofing isn't quite as crucial. While I haven't tried them yet, I suspect that every single one of his bread recipes that call for both sourdough culture and commercial yeast will work turn out just fine if the commercial yeast is omitted.
But these are small(ish) points - there are still so many great ideas and tips about bread-making to garner.
And while there are many things we are in agreement about, Martin Philip and I clearly have a different idea of what a muffin is, as well as what may be the appropriate accompaniment for "organic baby food".
It's OK to laugh at young parents; we are asking for it. As I think of the things we did for our first and juxtapose it with the treatment our third has received . . . it's appropriate to chuckle. With the first we set records for attentiveness, catering to every micro-need. Is that organic, is it natural, is it BPA-free? And what soap did you use to wash those bananas (before peeling them)? And on and on. But then, things slip with the second child. An exception here, an allowance for junk food there . . . and, if a third child arrives well, we're over the cliff now. "I'm hungry"can be fixed at a gas station. But before things relaxed we made quite a few delicious muffins for our baby girl—something to feed her amid spoon-fed meals of organic baby food. [Introduction to chocolate orange muffins and banana pecan muffins]
Philip's chocolate orange "muffins" call for not quite 2 cups flour and - wait for it - a cup of sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, and "coarse sugar, for sprinkling on the muffins"! His banana pecan "muffins" call for 5 ripe bananas, 2/3 cup of sugar, 2+1/4 cups whole wheat flour, and a sweet brown sugar streusel topping.
Those aren't muffins; they're cupcakes!
The bread recipes, however, look quite wonderful, even though they are a bit confusing, with total ingredients listed first, followed by levain/final. Reading the recipes on the library website is impossible in two page form - the ingredients lists are in charts that overlap onto the following text. But for the brioche recipe, switching to single page format on the library website, the right side of the chart is cut off.
Mercifully, the e-book is completely easy to read and decipher using Adobe Digital Editions. But it's not so easy to sit down in a nice comfy chair when hampered by an unwieldy computer (particularly a desktop computer). But, at least the ingredients charts are not cut off entirely on the right hand side on ADE, as they are when reading the recipes on the library website. The complete charts can be seen on my kobo glo e-reader, but only if the font is reduced to its smallest, can I just get the whole table in view. But without a really good magnifying glass, it's impossible to make anything out.
It's not just the charts that present difficulties. Reading the recipes on my e-reader was insane. Philip's drawings - showing different patterns for scoring, or tips for shaping or proofing various breads - cannot be enlarged on my Kobo Glo - they are indecipherable.
Still, the whole section in part 2 clearly outlining Martin Philip's method and process (including details about ingredients, measuring, fermentation, optimal temperatures, shaping techniques, scoring, and troubleshooting), together with the often lyrical reminiscences and reflections make this more than just another bread cookbook. Reading these sections more than makes up for the inadequacies of the e-version of the book.
The details of this story are mine but they are not unique. We all have tales, lives with beginnings, heartache, happiness, movement, and endings. I hope that you find yourself inspired to bake your own narrative, to connect the lines of your experience to your own environment, your family, and those around you, for baking and giving are truly acts of love. [author's note]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
At our house, bread making was a ritual, reliable and grounding in its weekend occurrence, something to be repeated, revisited, and awaited. [...] What does bread baking smell like in heaven? It smells like bread baking.
[...]
[W]hile this bread sustained us at home, it was shameful in the school lunch box. Sitting at the lunchroom table, surrounded by classmates and their blue or red milk choices, I would have given a kidney for that 1970s staple: crustless Wonder bread with Skippy and Smucker's grape jelly glue. I would have gladly sported an orange mouth ring of Cheetos crumbs and devoured a frosted Hostess cake in order that their chemicals could swirl kaleidoscopic in my gut. [...] [W]hile I may have decried that bread, even hidden it, years later I have turned things around. I've headed back to this form, which is entirely more delicious and healthy than plump factory loaves pumped with chemicals ranging from azodicarbonamide (also used in floor mats) to potassium bromate (known carcinogen). Supermarket aisles are proof that if you add enough high-fructose corn syrup, preservatives, and stabilizers, people will still eat the packaged stuff months after it is produced. [Part 1 | Recipes and Stories: Mama's Bread]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Before Food Network, before "EVOO" and "Bam!" entered the stockpot of our lexicon, and well before the cult of celebrity replaced the cult of capability, there was a series on PBS called Great Chefs. [...] [T]he shows were the best thing before food TV and have remained the greatest thing since. Episodes were built around cities and their great foods, focusing tightly on technique, flavor, and craftspeople. They were a gateway drug that led me to Baking with Julia, Jacques Pépin, and beyond. It is no exaggeration to say that I received my informal culinary education in thirty-minute chunks. [Part 1 | Leaving: Basic French dough]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The hill towns of Italy, rising from verdant plains, are built on rocks holding stacked fortress walls constructed of stones from underfoot a millennium earlier. These layers of earth, stone, and home are honest and resonate as fully and naturally as tones of a chord align and ring. The imagined world of Italy, which we'd lived between the flat covers of Puccini opera scores, was vibrant and breathing before our eyes in a way we could eat. The simplicity, and the sense of it all, changed me; there was no going back; there was only going closer. [Part 1 | Leaving: Pane Genzano]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Defining "home" is best done in retrospect—standing within four walls of our current existence doesn't allow the space or frame of time and place to provide the long view. As I watch my children grow I wonder what, of all this, will they long for or remember? What will be their "home" of memory? Will it be smells, a baking tradition, the music of voices and instruments, an overserious father? Memories are laid like bedrock, deep, under our very feet, invisible in the forming but ever active. There are things that I hope will remain as family memories—small weekly rituals, meals, seasonal recurrences, and holiday events. I may be wrong, but some of these might be keepers, and if strung together may fill their scrapbooks of home. [Home]
This is definitely a book that belongs on any serious bread baker's shelves - but do spring for the hard cover rather than the kindle or e-book.
May 1, 2022
This is 90% a recipe and techniques book with a some story telling mixed in by the author. The recipes are intertwined well with the author Martins story of his life and career in making bread. The story itself is well written and nice to follow along.
As for the recipes, I only got around to about 5 of them before returning but enjoyed each one and am considering purchasing for myself.
The only two things that I did not like were that at times the descriptions on some complex parts such as the folding could have been explained better for a novice. Second was that the hardcover version was very difficult to keep open to a page most household items wouldn’t work so bad to get creative.
As for the recipes, I only got around to about 5 of them before returning but enjoyed each one and am considering purchasing for myself.
The only two things that I did not like were that at times the descriptions on some complex parts such as the folding could have been explained better for a novice. Second was that the hardcover version was very difficult to keep open to a page most household items wouldn’t work so bad to get creative.
February 3, 2019
This cookbook is primarily about baking bread with some other simple recipes thrown in to go with the bread. I read his story interspersed with the recipes which is essentially about how working really hard at something you have a passion for will lead you to greatness. I've made a few of the simpler breads, which came out delish, and plan to work my way to some of the more difficult, but there are recipes in here I know I will never make due to the time and complexity. But it's fun to look at the pictures and imagine that you'll do it one day!
February 13, 2018
This book will have you making REAL French bread in the first attempt! The techniques section give detailed instructions for the important processes of bread making, and I think that makes a difference in my final product.
I have made two of the non-yeast recipes (scones and muffins), and I like the results.
As I try more recipes, I am reading more of the personal stories the author includes. He has found his vocation and writes about his journey gracefully.
I have made two of the non-yeast recipes (scones and muffins), and I like the results.
As I try more recipes, I am reading more of the personal stories the author includes. He has found his vocation and writes about his journey gracefully.
June 4, 2018
The recipes were more involved than I was looking for but the life story was wonderful. I enjoyed the book for the story more than for the recipes. Because of this book, we are taking a trip to King Arthur Flour in Vermont this summer to take a breadmaking class. Great story of getting back to one's roots.
February 20, 2026
Book Extracts: Kindle: Breaking Bread: A baker’s journey home
I love bread: Especially fresh bread and the smell of freshly baked bread. These days, I have to go easy on eating as I've discovered that it's a great way to gain unwanted weight fast. This book by Martin Phillip, is part autobiography; part a paean to bread; and part recipe book. It has the lot. Normally, I think that this would be a mess but somehow, Martin manages to bring it off. I thoroughly enjoyed the book...though, as I was reading I totally skipped the recipes.....well I looked at the pictures and sometimes looked at the recipes when i wondered how he had achieved some effect.
I found it fascinating that he and his wife had actually both trained as singers and bread-making was initially something like a hobby ...even if it was pursued with unremitting passion. I enjoyed his autobiographical bits. Otherwise there was nothing in the book for me apart from recipes and I can't really see myself getting organised to bake. ...especially when there are so many great bakeries in easy reach of home.
I guess the main target group for this book would be aspiring home bakers and maybe a few professional bakers.....because Martin has taken his work to the top level in international baking competitions; apparently not quite the gold medal champion but very close within the USA.
Despite its slightly quirky mixture of genres, I liked it and happy to give it five stars.
Here's a few extracts that appealed to me:
"We graduated from Oberlin and decided without discussion that we would stick together. We had auditioned for graduate programs, but rather than take different paths, we loaded our car beyond capacity and drove west to the Bay Area of California—a new life, a new coast; new voice teachers, taquerias, wine country, sunshine, and the endless cold ocean. We could sing in many languages; we had learned stagecraft and diction, Renaissance dance and European art song traditions, but what, of all of this, related to our roots?
The summer after we landed in California we scraped together money for plane tickets to Europe to spend an extended shoestring-budget summer in Italy, bathing full body in culture, language, and music.....//Every few months we returned to California for voice lessons and sun, and we made a special trip in 2001 to sing a benefit concert for an AIDS charity, lodging with retired benefactors who hot-tubbed every morning in the nude and carried nightcaps to bed. These were our people; they probably existed in New York . . . but not in our walk-up. Their Berkeley breakfast consisted of citrus from their trees, dark espresso, and homemade bagels......Somehow, these Berkeley bagels blew the lid off our standards. They had the flavour of wheat and a slightly open crumb, a sign that they were hand-shaped rather than machine-made. The crust was shiny from a bath in boiling water and malt syrup, deep mahogany from the oven, and it tugged against my teeth when bitten. Just before being baked on a hot masonry stone, they were garnished with coarse sea salt, dried onion, or sesame seeds. We ate them with rich cream cheese, lox, and fresh avocado.
On that same trip, Peter the bagel maker showed me a book that pictured large, dark French loaves, thick-crusted and dusty, ripping open where they had been cut with a razor before being baked in massive wood-fired ovens. I was drawn in by the images, I couldn’t look away—it was as though they connected with something in a life I had lived previously. I saw stories with lines deeper than the bread’s colour and form. There is much in that combination of flour, water, salt, sourdough culture, and hot oven. A form rises to tell a tale that began in Mesopotamia when nomads collected grains from cereal grasses. Those grains, which were saved and resown—the ancestors of modern wheat—enabled humans to settle and form societies.
I started by reading everything I could find on artisan baking. Baby steps and early questions . . . what the heck is the difference between a baguette and a bâtard?....I joined the largest bread trade organization in the United States, the Bread Bakers Guild of America, and found coursework in New York where I could supplement my reading. And I baked and I baked and I baked, keeping meticulous notes and eating the mistakes.
When I look back at it, my work was leagues from being artisan. I was dejected. It may sound silly, but hope had been bound up in those loaves—I was searching for something and hoping I could find it there.
But then, as the oven cooled and the smell of my melting cabinets dissipated, something happened.........An aroma perfumed the apartment, infusing everything. It was a dark, roasted smell; sniffing it, one could go on a sensory tour from bold coffee to toasting nuts,
The loaves were ugly as hell but they were delicious and they were from my own damn hands.
New York is a city of almost as many bakeries as ethnicities—the sheer scope and number are enough to send carb-haters into kicking meltdowns. From Mexican conchas to Moroccan m’semen, Italian taralli to the steamed buns of Asia......Over time I developed favourites: a crispy baguette singing and cracking as pieces are twisted off with glassy crust and yellow crumb; a large pain de seigle dusted with rye flour.....A couple of blocks south of where I worked in New York there was a Pain Quotidien, which, for the first few years I visited it, had a visible in-store bakery. I could lurk at the glass window and inhale the scene—There were loaves rising in giant wicker baskets, sacks of flour stacked to the ceiling, and a man working in baker’s whites, scoring loaves, almost dancing through the movements of his day at the mixer, bench, and oven.
One of my favourites was a rye......Pain de seigle, literally “bread of rye” in French, describes a loaf that has a majority portion of whole rye flour. Rye berries have the most beautiful colour, at once light gray, sea green, and silver. When milled, rye flour ferments extremely well, releasing a sweet grassy aroma with the freshness of a bitter green. During baking, flavours intensify and the crust happily progresses toward deep darkness and intensity......In time our lives in the city took shape. I found steady work, we learned how to take a crosstown bus, and everyone in our apartment building became accustomed to loud singing.
The loss of a child is a slap wake-up, impossible to anticipate. Among the many sadnesses, the worst for me lay in the fact that I would never know who he would be, how he would grow and talk, run, or jump. And for all the tears I shed, Julie’s were double...Six weeks after our loss, all of Manhattan, the boroughs, the state, and our country were brought to the same shattered place as planes hit the southern end of our island home and points beyond and all went upside down.....The small Catholic church in our neighbourhood lost dozens of members; our upstairs neighbour lost her son, a firefighter; and we had lost Huck.
A week before the one-year anniversary of 9/ 11 we had a baby girl, Clementine....In the blink of a sleepless eye, Clementine was soon able to crawl, stand, walk, and talk, and it wasn’t long before she wanted in on what I was doing in the kitchen. She would toddle into the room, knowing that something in that bowl, hidden from little eyes, needed helping. Mixing sourdough cultures is perfect for little hands, eager with muck-lust for flour, batter, paste. She became a solid partner in the kitchen before she was even three.
I was inspired by the wonderful breads at Balthazar Bakery in New York and, in particular, its signature loaf, which included dark beer in addition to water for hydration. Bread and beer have been in cahoots since the earliest days of bread making. Excavations at Egyptian sites clearly link beer, bread, and antiquity.
In the city I took classes at the Institute for Culinary Education and the Artisan Baking Center in Long Island City. Then I began to look further afield to study and found King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vermont, and a treasure trove of year-round professional bread and pastry classes. I signed up for a multiday class, Survey of French Breads.....There were two instructors. One was the chef and baker James McGuire, who translated and adapted one of the most important books on artisan baking ever written, Taste of Bread, by the French master Raymond Calvel. And co-teaching was a guy I had never heard of, Jeffrey Hamelman, the director of the King Arthur Flour Bakery....Watching Jeffrey shape blew a fuse in me. Involuntarily, I stepped backward and leaned forward at the waist as my jaw dropped. . . . I cannot say others noticed, but I will never forget it. I saw the mastery. I saw passion, work, experience, and craft........In this life that is all I hope to be: passionate, capable, and earnest. With practice and hopefully fewer than ten thousand repetitions you may make a beautiful pain au levain bâtard as well. Do not be discouraged if you throw skyward and hit the ceiling. Mastery takes time. This is how we learn.
The brioche that Jeffrey taught became a steadfast favourite in our apartment building as neighbours learned my baking schedule.
In 2005, was working as a manager on the operational side of an investment bank—a stressful job with the expected perks, which allowed Julie to be at home with our children.
Workweeks took me away to worry and concern, and weekends delivered me home to sweet family, baking, and giving “Martin bread” to the neighbourhood.,,One evening the fog of sleep deprivation broke for a moment and aligned with lightly sleeping children and we had a discussion at the end of which we said, “Let’s do it.” Let’s jump, let’s run. Let’s leave this life as we know it and start over.
I applied for an opening for a baker at King Arthur Flour. It was more than a long shot—
A few days later Jeffrey called and offered me the job. I accepted immediately and, in doing so, made what was on paper the most foolish choice of my life. What idiot with a wife and two kids and a comfortable life in Manhattan would accept a job in food service in rural Vermont?....If my heart had been wounded, if worry was my steady companion, and if my chest ached not with passion but with stress, in the days between my work in the city and my new profession a lightness returned.
As it turns out, baking is a nighttime trade. I like to pretend that work begins in the early morning but will acknowledge that we commute under stars well before the coldest hours of night arrive. I have my first coffee just after 3:00 a.m. while you snore; and I eat pizza for “lunch” while your breakfast scramble sizzles.
With shaping there is no hiding. Either one makes something beautiful, smooth, even, and symmetrical—or not. A piece of dough is a blank canvas that the hands transform.
Skills are either apparent or not—there is no faking or copying.
For the baguette, a slightly less sticky dough we call “French dough” was a good place to start. French dough (which I use for the Poolish Baguette) is an all-purpose recipe that can be used for a dozen unique products, from boules and baguettes to rolls, sandwich loaves, and even pizza or focaccia. It is a backbone, a daily catechism that forced me to practice the same three foundational shapes over and over: the boule, a round form meaning “ball” and the basis of the French word for baker and bakery (boulanger and boulangerie,
Refrigeration can be a great tool for slowing activity just enough to allow the oven to recover, or for holding shaped loaves for several hours or even overnight in some instances.
By 7: 00 a.m. the bâtards, French loaves, and other early breads are out of the oven, cooled, and packaged in paper bags, and the baguettes are shaped. The dark breads have finished baking and the bread-packing station, right next to the oven, begins to overflow with racks and stacks upon stacks and baskets of bread, all queuing for a temporary home at a restaurant, market, or bakery counter before heading to your hand and mouth.
We push the oven temperature even higher in preparation for baguettes. Their open interior, toasty, cracker-crisp crust, and oven-kissed cuts must bake just long enough to color but not so long that they dry out.
Slowly these tasks became natural, my skills improved, and I began to recognize landmarks on our daily route. I was a crappy baker, no doubt. I could barely shape and hadn’t even made my way to mixing or doing oven work, but I could tell good stories about my children,
I lay awake one night in the throes of a panic attack, terrified that the decision to move was going to bankrupt us. But Julie began teaching voice and made enough to buy our food and we did everything we could to rid ourselves of extra expenses.
At the bakery the word got out that although I was a novice baker I could run spreadsheets like a boss, and I became a fixture at financial and operational meetings.....After a decade of doing this work I have yet to complete a bake day and take off my apron satisfied. I have come close,
Within the community of bakers, upholding our values is something we treasure as highly as our baked goods. We are a friendly bunch, open to sharing recipes, techniques, and tips, with little proprietary concern. We know that recipes are a good starting point, as they provide the syntax and words for our work, but the poetry—our unique combination and contribution—comes from beyond the written lines.
We want fresh flatbreads, too. They are ridiculously easy—so easy, in fact, that our children, with a gram scale, rolling pin, hot griddle, and open flame, can have them buttered and on the table in less than an hour. And this process does more than bring the children to the table for sustenance; it brings them the nourishment of handcraft. It fills them with confidence and empowers them to transform the inedible to the edible.
Seeded Crackers: I thought crackers were hard. From the outside they seem fussy—requiring a full dose of attention to detail, improved with a side of precision. As it turns out, they are damn easy and foolproof and can be made in the cracks of a day. Once prepared, they will hold for longer than it will take you to eat them.
In our small house the woodstove is enough to heat us. Fires begin in late September and burn without breaks until sometime in May or even June
[I was working my way around the Mediterranean breads to learn] a corner of the landscape before working in my own backyard. When I did begin to do my own design work, I found it helped to think of bread in the abstract; a loaf was like a house to be built or a theatre production to be mounted. I considered the elements, balancing them as if on a design board with the requisite cohesion and contrast.
Durum wheat—appropriately named, meaning “hard” in Latin (think “durable”)—is primarily grown in North Dakota and is used in making pasta. It is so hard that it resists pressure to become flour, and when crushed during milling, initially only shatters into small sandy pieces that many know as semolina, literally, “half-milled.” But if pressed further with stones, rollers, or hammers it will eventually yield, producing a flour with the yellow hue of butter and wildflowers. I wanted to make a bread that celebrated this colour—
A friend of mine, Michael Rhodes, was the team captain for a small group of bakers chosen to represent the United States in the SIGEP Cup competition in Italy. Michael called the bakery one day and asked if I would be a late addition to the team.
After we developed and practiced our individual items at our respective bakeries, the small four-person team gathered for intensive sessions in the snowy dead of January at New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vermont, where Michael was chair of the baking and pastry department.
A few years after I joined the bakers at King Arthur, Jeffrey encouraged me to try out for Team USA, which would compete at the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie. The Coupe, as we call it, is the world cup of bread and truly the highest summit in competitive baking.
Dubbed the “bread Olympics” by my kids, the Coupe occurs every four years in Paris.
I was accepted and scheduled for a slot at the semifinals in Providence, Rhode Island.
successful bid. I headed to Providence after an ice age of preparation
If the pace of preparation and focus had been intense before, I turned the dial on the amplifier up to eleven. I needed a new lineup of more innovative, more beautiful shapes, with flavor combinations that perfectly harmonized grains, fermentation, and additions; and I needed all of this immediately.......In his Alabama drawl he said, “Martin, the breads were good but you weren’t in them; they weren’t you. You need to add your heritage, your narrative.” And that was it. With his simple reminder and direction I saw everything from a different angle. I now had a guide, something to direct me, a mantra, a road sign.
powerBROT sits at the junction of Momie’s brown bread and German Vollkornbrot. It evolved out of a desire for a hearty, healthy breakfast bread. A high-fiber, stick-to-the-ribs snack with ample seeds and gentle sweetness. Of all the breads I tested and left for our morning bakers to pick over, this is the one (Kvass)t hat consistently had the least remnants.
There were four bread candidates in the finals, and we were split up so that each of us had his own bakery with a spiral mixer, benches, and an oven. The requirements, in broad strokes, were three different “freestyle” breads with rolls as well as loaves (all unique formulas with novel shapes and great flavour) and one “healthy” bread with an emphasis on whole grain. We also needed a pain de mie and many, many baguettes, some decorative, some classically shaped and cut. In addition to evaluations for structure, flavour, and innovation for all loaves, the baguettes also needed to weigh 250 grams baked.
I walked into our office and he s[Jeffrey] tood and, with some formality and a hug, told me that Nicky Giusto, an excellent baker and miller from Northern California, had been chosen. Bummer. I had come to terms with the outcome, whatever it would be, for myself. I would be great with Paris, every aspect of it—the work, the representation of U.S. bakers, everything—and even if I didn’t go on, I could see and feel how much I had grown. I had found a connection to my own self, a way to weave what I am, past and present, into what I make. The bummer was that I had to go home and tell my family. Those proudest, most loving, and cheering loudest were also fervent hopers, wishing for a win.
The recovery process continues".
I love bread: Especially fresh bread and the smell of freshly baked bread. These days, I have to go easy on eating as I've discovered that it's a great way to gain unwanted weight fast. This book by Martin Phillip, is part autobiography; part a paean to bread; and part recipe book. It has the lot. Normally, I think that this would be a mess but somehow, Martin manages to bring it off. I thoroughly enjoyed the book...though, as I was reading I totally skipped the recipes.....well I looked at the pictures and sometimes looked at the recipes when i wondered how he had achieved some effect.
I found it fascinating that he and his wife had actually both trained as singers and bread-making was initially something like a hobby ...even if it was pursued with unremitting passion. I enjoyed his autobiographical bits. Otherwise there was nothing in the book for me apart from recipes and I can't really see myself getting organised to bake. ...especially when there are so many great bakeries in easy reach of home.
I guess the main target group for this book would be aspiring home bakers and maybe a few professional bakers.....because Martin has taken his work to the top level in international baking competitions; apparently not quite the gold medal champion but very close within the USA.
Despite its slightly quirky mixture of genres, I liked it and happy to give it five stars.
Here's a few extracts that appealed to me:
"We graduated from Oberlin and decided without discussion that we would stick together. We had auditioned for graduate programs, but rather than take different paths, we loaded our car beyond capacity and drove west to the Bay Area of California—a new life, a new coast; new voice teachers, taquerias, wine country, sunshine, and the endless cold ocean. We could sing in many languages; we had learned stagecraft and diction, Renaissance dance and European art song traditions, but what, of all of this, related to our roots?
The summer after we landed in California we scraped together money for plane tickets to Europe to spend an extended shoestring-budget summer in Italy, bathing full body in culture, language, and music.....//Every few months we returned to California for voice lessons and sun, and we made a special trip in 2001 to sing a benefit concert for an AIDS charity, lodging with retired benefactors who hot-tubbed every morning in the nude and carried nightcaps to bed. These were our people; they probably existed in New York . . . but not in our walk-up. Their Berkeley breakfast consisted of citrus from their trees, dark espresso, and homemade bagels......Somehow, these Berkeley bagels blew the lid off our standards. They had the flavour of wheat and a slightly open crumb, a sign that they were hand-shaped rather than machine-made. The crust was shiny from a bath in boiling water and malt syrup, deep mahogany from the oven, and it tugged against my teeth when bitten. Just before being baked on a hot masonry stone, they were garnished with coarse sea salt, dried onion, or sesame seeds. We ate them with rich cream cheese, lox, and fresh avocado.
On that same trip, Peter the bagel maker showed me a book that pictured large, dark French loaves, thick-crusted and dusty, ripping open where they had been cut with a razor before being baked in massive wood-fired ovens. I was drawn in by the images, I couldn’t look away—it was as though they connected with something in a life I had lived previously. I saw stories with lines deeper than the bread’s colour and form. There is much in that combination of flour, water, salt, sourdough culture, and hot oven. A form rises to tell a tale that began in Mesopotamia when nomads collected grains from cereal grasses. Those grains, which were saved and resown—the ancestors of modern wheat—enabled humans to settle and form societies.
I started by reading everything I could find on artisan baking. Baby steps and early questions . . . what the heck is the difference between a baguette and a bâtard?....I joined the largest bread trade organization in the United States, the Bread Bakers Guild of America, and found coursework in New York where I could supplement my reading. And I baked and I baked and I baked, keeping meticulous notes and eating the mistakes.
When I look back at it, my work was leagues from being artisan. I was dejected. It may sound silly, but hope had been bound up in those loaves—I was searching for something and hoping I could find it there.
But then, as the oven cooled and the smell of my melting cabinets dissipated, something happened.........An aroma perfumed the apartment, infusing everything. It was a dark, roasted smell; sniffing it, one could go on a sensory tour from bold coffee to toasting nuts,
The loaves were ugly as hell but they were delicious and they were from my own damn hands.
New York is a city of almost as many bakeries as ethnicities—the sheer scope and number are enough to send carb-haters into kicking meltdowns. From Mexican conchas to Moroccan m’semen, Italian taralli to the steamed buns of Asia......Over time I developed favourites: a crispy baguette singing and cracking as pieces are twisted off with glassy crust and yellow crumb; a large pain de seigle dusted with rye flour.....A couple of blocks south of where I worked in New York there was a Pain Quotidien, which, for the first few years I visited it, had a visible in-store bakery. I could lurk at the glass window and inhale the scene—There were loaves rising in giant wicker baskets, sacks of flour stacked to the ceiling, and a man working in baker’s whites, scoring loaves, almost dancing through the movements of his day at the mixer, bench, and oven.
One of my favourites was a rye......Pain de seigle, literally “bread of rye” in French, describes a loaf that has a majority portion of whole rye flour. Rye berries have the most beautiful colour, at once light gray, sea green, and silver. When milled, rye flour ferments extremely well, releasing a sweet grassy aroma with the freshness of a bitter green. During baking, flavours intensify and the crust happily progresses toward deep darkness and intensity......In time our lives in the city took shape. I found steady work, we learned how to take a crosstown bus, and everyone in our apartment building became accustomed to loud singing.
The loss of a child is a slap wake-up, impossible to anticipate. Among the many sadnesses, the worst for me lay in the fact that I would never know who he would be, how he would grow and talk, run, or jump. And for all the tears I shed, Julie’s were double...Six weeks after our loss, all of Manhattan, the boroughs, the state, and our country were brought to the same shattered place as planes hit the southern end of our island home and points beyond and all went upside down.....The small Catholic church in our neighbourhood lost dozens of members; our upstairs neighbour lost her son, a firefighter; and we had lost Huck.
A week before the one-year anniversary of 9/ 11 we had a baby girl, Clementine....In the blink of a sleepless eye, Clementine was soon able to crawl, stand, walk, and talk, and it wasn’t long before she wanted in on what I was doing in the kitchen. She would toddle into the room, knowing that something in that bowl, hidden from little eyes, needed helping. Mixing sourdough cultures is perfect for little hands, eager with muck-lust for flour, batter, paste. She became a solid partner in the kitchen before she was even three.
I was inspired by the wonderful breads at Balthazar Bakery in New York and, in particular, its signature loaf, which included dark beer in addition to water for hydration. Bread and beer have been in cahoots since the earliest days of bread making. Excavations at Egyptian sites clearly link beer, bread, and antiquity.
In the city I took classes at the Institute for Culinary Education and the Artisan Baking Center in Long Island City. Then I began to look further afield to study and found King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vermont, and a treasure trove of year-round professional bread and pastry classes. I signed up for a multiday class, Survey of French Breads.....There were two instructors. One was the chef and baker James McGuire, who translated and adapted one of the most important books on artisan baking ever written, Taste of Bread, by the French master Raymond Calvel. And co-teaching was a guy I had never heard of, Jeffrey Hamelman, the director of the King Arthur Flour Bakery....Watching Jeffrey shape blew a fuse in me. Involuntarily, I stepped backward and leaned forward at the waist as my jaw dropped. . . . I cannot say others noticed, but I will never forget it. I saw the mastery. I saw passion, work, experience, and craft........In this life that is all I hope to be: passionate, capable, and earnest. With practice and hopefully fewer than ten thousand repetitions you may make a beautiful pain au levain bâtard as well. Do not be discouraged if you throw skyward and hit the ceiling. Mastery takes time. This is how we learn.
The brioche that Jeffrey taught became a steadfast favourite in our apartment building as neighbours learned my baking schedule.
In 2005, was working as a manager on the operational side of an investment bank—a stressful job with the expected perks, which allowed Julie to be at home with our children.
Workweeks took me away to worry and concern, and weekends delivered me home to sweet family, baking, and giving “Martin bread” to the neighbourhood.,,One evening the fog of sleep deprivation broke for a moment and aligned with lightly sleeping children and we had a discussion at the end of which we said, “Let’s do it.” Let’s jump, let’s run. Let’s leave this life as we know it and start over.
I applied for an opening for a baker at King Arthur Flour. It was more than a long shot—
A few days later Jeffrey called and offered me the job. I accepted immediately and, in doing so, made what was on paper the most foolish choice of my life. What idiot with a wife and two kids and a comfortable life in Manhattan would accept a job in food service in rural Vermont?....If my heart had been wounded, if worry was my steady companion, and if my chest ached not with passion but with stress, in the days between my work in the city and my new profession a lightness returned.
As it turns out, baking is a nighttime trade. I like to pretend that work begins in the early morning but will acknowledge that we commute under stars well before the coldest hours of night arrive. I have my first coffee just after 3:00 a.m. while you snore; and I eat pizza for “lunch” while your breakfast scramble sizzles.
With shaping there is no hiding. Either one makes something beautiful, smooth, even, and symmetrical—or not. A piece of dough is a blank canvas that the hands transform.
Skills are either apparent or not—there is no faking or copying.
For the baguette, a slightly less sticky dough we call “French dough” was a good place to start. French dough (which I use for the Poolish Baguette) is an all-purpose recipe that can be used for a dozen unique products, from boules and baguettes to rolls, sandwich loaves, and even pizza or focaccia. It is a backbone, a daily catechism that forced me to practice the same three foundational shapes over and over: the boule, a round form meaning “ball” and the basis of the French word for baker and bakery (boulanger and boulangerie,
Refrigeration can be a great tool for slowing activity just enough to allow the oven to recover, or for holding shaped loaves for several hours or even overnight in some instances.
By 7: 00 a.m. the bâtards, French loaves, and other early breads are out of the oven, cooled, and packaged in paper bags, and the baguettes are shaped. The dark breads have finished baking and the bread-packing station, right next to the oven, begins to overflow with racks and stacks upon stacks and baskets of bread, all queuing for a temporary home at a restaurant, market, or bakery counter before heading to your hand and mouth.
We push the oven temperature even higher in preparation for baguettes. Their open interior, toasty, cracker-crisp crust, and oven-kissed cuts must bake just long enough to color but not so long that they dry out.
Slowly these tasks became natural, my skills improved, and I began to recognize landmarks on our daily route. I was a crappy baker, no doubt. I could barely shape and hadn’t even made my way to mixing or doing oven work, but I could tell good stories about my children,
I lay awake one night in the throes of a panic attack, terrified that the decision to move was going to bankrupt us. But Julie began teaching voice and made enough to buy our food and we did everything we could to rid ourselves of extra expenses.
At the bakery the word got out that although I was a novice baker I could run spreadsheets like a boss, and I became a fixture at financial and operational meetings.....After a decade of doing this work I have yet to complete a bake day and take off my apron satisfied. I have come close,
Within the community of bakers, upholding our values is something we treasure as highly as our baked goods. We are a friendly bunch, open to sharing recipes, techniques, and tips, with little proprietary concern. We know that recipes are a good starting point, as they provide the syntax and words for our work, but the poetry—our unique combination and contribution—comes from beyond the written lines.
We want fresh flatbreads, too. They are ridiculously easy—so easy, in fact, that our children, with a gram scale, rolling pin, hot griddle, and open flame, can have them buttered and on the table in less than an hour. And this process does more than bring the children to the table for sustenance; it brings them the nourishment of handcraft. It fills them with confidence and empowers them to transform the inedible to the edible.
Seeded Crackers: I thought crackers were hard. From the outside they seem fussy—requiring a full dose of attention to detail, improved with a side of precision. As it turns out, they are damn easy and foolproof and can be made in the cracks of a day. Once prepared, they will hold for longer than it will take you to eat them.
In our small house the woodstove is enough to heat us. Fires begin in late September and burn without breaks until sometime in May or even June
[I was working my way around the Mediterranean breads to learn] a corner of the landscape before working in my own backyard. When I did begin to do my own design work, I found it helped to think of bread in the abstract; a loaf was like a house to be built or a theatre production to be mounted. I considered the elements, balancing them as if on a design board with the requisite cohesion and contrast.
Durum wheat—appropriately named, meaning “hard” in Latin (think “durable”)—is primarily grown in North Dakota and is used in making pasta. It is so hard that it resists pressure to become flour, and when crushed during milling, initially only shatters into small sandy pieces that many know as semolina, literally, “half-milled.” But if pressed further with stones, rollers, or hammers it will eventually yield, producing a flour with the yellow hue of butter and wildflowers. I wanted to make a bread that celebrated this colour—
A friend of mine, Michael Rhodes, was the team captain for a small group of bakers chosen to represent the United States in the SIGEP Cup competition in Italy. Michael called the bakery one day and asked if I would be a late addition to the team.
After we developed and practiced our individual items at our respective bakeries, the small four-person team gathered for intensive sessions in the snowy dead of January at New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vermont, where Michael was chair of the baking and pastry department.
A few years after I joined the bakers at King Arthur, Jeffrey encouraged me to try out for Team USA, which would compete at the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie. The Coupe, as we call it, is the world cup of bread and truly the highest summit in competitive baking.
Dubbed the “bread Olympics” by my kids, the Coupe occurs every four years in Paris.
I was accepted and scheduled for a slot at the semifinals in Providence, Rhode Island.
successful bid. I headed to Providence after an ice age of preparation
If the pace of preparation and focus had been intense before, I turned the dial on the amplifier up to eleven. I needed a new lineup of more innovative, more beautiful shapes, with flavor combinations that perfectly harmonized grains, fermentation, and additions; and I needed all of this immediately.......In his Alabama drawl he said, “Martin, the breads were good but you weren’t in them; they weren’t you. You need to add your heritage, your narrative.” And that was it. With his simple reminder and direction I saw everything from a different angle. I now had a guide, something to direct me, a mantra, a road sign.
powerBROT sits at the junction of Momie’s brown bread and German Vollkornbrot. It evolved out of a desire for a hearty, healthy breakfast bread. A high-fiber, stick-to-the-ribs snack with ample seeds and gentle sweetness. Of all the breads I tested and left for our morning bakers to pick over, this is the one (Kvass)t hat consistently had the least remnants.
There were four bread candidates in the finals, and we were split up so that each of us had his own bakery with a spiral mixer, benches, and an oven. The requirements, in broad strokes, were three different “freestyle” breads with rolls as well as loaves (all unique formulas with novel shapes and great flavour) and one “healthy” bread with an emphasis on whole grain. We also needed a pain de mie and many, many baguettes, some decorative, some classically shaped and cut. In addition to evaluations for structure, flavour, and innovation for all loaves, the baguettes also needed to weigh 250 grams baked.
I walked into our office and he s[Jeffrey] tood and, with some formality and a hug, told me that Nicky Giusto, an excellent baker and miller from Northern California, had been chosen. Bummer. I had come to terms with the outcome, whatever it would be, for myself. I would be great with Paris, every aspect of it—the work, the representation of U.S. bakers, everything—and even if I didn’t go on, I could see and feel how much I had grown. I had found a connection to my own self, a way to weave what I am, past and present, into what I make. The bummer was that I had to go home and tell my family. Those proudest, most loving, and cheering loudest were also fervent hopers, wishing for a win.
The recovery process continues".
April 16, 2020
Part memoir. Beautiful photographs.
April 17, 2020
Martin Philip is a man of many talents, and this book showcases his journey into one of those, the art of breadmaking. I remember when he visited the library in January of 2018; he was funny, humble, and informative. Considering the current state of affairs across the county with everyone doing their best to adapt to quarantine, courtesy of COVID-19, I felt it was the perfect time to revisit this book. 'Breaking Bread' is a heart-warming mix of memoir, family roots, education, and, of course, bread recipes galore.
With my bread baking experience originating in a local brewery, I have spent many of these days reflecting upon the feel of the dough--its chewiness, its elasticity--and the tantalizing aroma of freshly baked buns, loaves of sour rye, boules of pumpernickel, and honey whole wheat bread bowls, all mingled with the fragrant scent of the brewmaster's latest concoction boiling in the brew kettle. My intoxicating memories have inspired me to bake bread during these times of isolation. I have the main ingredients: flour, salt, yeast, and water, so it feels like a comforting thing to do.
I had yet to make genuine sourdough bread, and the results of home baking often differ from those produced in a professional kitchen, so I had been hesitant to try a sourdough from home. Upon sharing my reluctance with Philip at the book signing in 2018, he offered wisdom and words of encouragement. I remained reluctant until now.
So I have spent much of this morning flipping through the pages of this book, enjoying the pictures, enjoying Philip's reflections, and doing my best to absorb the complexities of formulating a sourdough starter and comprehend the basics of baker's math. There is so much more to learn about the art of bread baking with the guidance of Martin Philip! If all goes well, I will tackle my first batch of sourdough bread before the end of April 2020!
Baker, Book Lover, & Library Assistant
With my bread baking experience originating in a local brewery, I have spent many of these days reflecting upon the feel of the dough--its chewiness, its elasticity--and the tantalizing aroma of freshly baked buns, loaves of sour rye, boules of pumpernickel, and honey whole wheat bread bowls, all mingled with the fragrant scent of the brewmaster's latest concoction boiling in the brew kettle. My intoxicating memories have inspired me to bake bread during these times of isolation. I have the main ingredients: flour, salt, yeast, and water, so it feels like a comforting thing to do.
I had yet to make genuine sourdough bread, and the results of home baking often differ from those produced in a professional kitchen, so I had been hesitant to try a sourdough from home. Upon sharing my reluctance with Philip at the book signing in 2018, he offered wisdom and words of encouragement. I remained reluctant until now.
So I have spent much of this morning flipping through the pages of this book, enjoying the pictures, enjoying Philip's reflections, and doing my best to absorb the complexities of formulating a sourdough starter and comprehend the basics of baker's math. There is so much more to learn about the art of bread baking with the guidance of Martin Philip! If all goes well, I will tackle my first batch of sourdough bread before the end of April 2020!
Baker, Book Lover, & Library Assistant
July 10, 2020
"I would leave intact, for I had brought home with me."
It's hard to strike the right balance in a cookbook between recipes a reader actually wants to/can make and stories that link those recipes together. I think Philip has done a wonderful job with that. This review marks my initial read - reading the narrative and educational pieces, and flagging recipes to try. And I flagged a fair number of recipes - I have 26 sticky notes to work through, after which I will hopefully remember to update this review. And, that number might actually be bigger - on my first pass I mostly ignored the recipes that called for sourdough culture, but the last flag is his instructions on how to make and maintain your own, so if I ultimately decide to try that, I'll have to do another pass.
I also found this one of the most useful explainers on the process of folding and shaping. Philip presented those steps - which seem very intimidating to a home baker - in a clear and concise way. From a storytelling perspective, I also enjoyed the progression from home baker to professional baker, and the way Philip talks about connecting with baking in a more personal way.
It's hard to strike the right balance in a cookbook between recipes a reader actually wants to/can make and stories that link those recipes together. I think Philip has done a wonderful job with that. This review marks my initial read - reading the narrative and educational pieces, and flagging recipes to try. And I flagged a fair number of recipes - I have 26 sticky notes to work through, after which I will hopefully remember to update this review. And, that number might actually be bigger - on my first pass I mostly ignored the recipes that called for sourdough culture, but the last flag is his instructions on how to make and maintain your own, so if I ultimately decide to try that, I'll have to do another pass.
I also found this one of the most useful explainers on the process of folding and shaping. Philip presented those steps - which seem very intimidating to a home baker - in a clear and concise way. From a storytelling perspective, I also enjoyed the progression from home baker to professional baker, and the way Philip talks about connecting with baking in a more personal way.
November 28, 2020
Suffice to say I skipped the memoir parts (the only time that's really worked for me was Michael Twitty's The Cooking Gene, which was more memoir/history than cookbook). And the stuff that got me interested in this book — the technique chapters — was ill served by getting a library ebook (read recipe. Shift to technique details. Shift back. Rinse. Repeat).
Philip is way more demanding about sticking to the recipe than most bread books (I have several). And he advocates for water much cooler than the others I've read; I had doubts it would suit the yeast, but it came out great. The bread recipe I made today turned out great. Not necessarily better than my usual homemade bread, but a lot of my recipes don't rise as much as this. So perhaps I learned something.
I'm not sure what I learned or if I can apply it elsewhere — his water temperature system depends on knowing the right dough temperature for a given recipe and most bread books don't offer that. But I bake a lot of bread so I'll see if I can apply at least some of Philip's ideas.
Philip is way more demanding about sticking to the recipe than most bread books (I have several). And he advocates for water much cooler than the others I've read; I had doubts it would suit the yeast, but it came out great. The bread recipe I made today turned out great. Not necessarily better than my usual homemade bread, but a lot of my recipes don't rise as much as this. So perhaps I learned something.
I'm not sure what I learned or if I can apply it elsewhere — his water temperature system depends on knowing the right dough temperature for a given recipe and most bread books don't offer that. But I bake a lot of bread so I'll see if I can apply at least some of Philip's ideas.
December 15, 2018
An interesting book. It will for sure make you want to bake. I liked how it was a combination story with recipes. The author connected his childhood to certain flavors and went with that.
About halfway through the book the stories kind of stopped, and it moved to be more recipe and technique driven.
The author hasn’t always been a baker, and I think what attracted me to this book was the idea of being inspired by his story. Although I did find a bit of that in this book, it almost seemed like it was cut short. I wanted to hear more about what life in Vermont is like, what working for King Arthur Flour is like, that kind of stuff. It felt that way until about halfway through, and that’s where I kind of lost interest. I read about 90% of the book. I skipped the sections on ingredients, technique, tools, etc... although I enjoy baking, I am neither good at it, nor have the time to devote to really become all that good. Maybe someday.
About halfway through the book the stories kind of stopped, and it moved to be more recipe and technique driven.
The author hasn’t always been a baker, and I think what attracted me to this book was the idea of being inspired by his story. Although I did find a bit of that in this book, it almost seemed like it was cut short. I wanted to hear more about what life in Vermont is like, what working for King Arthur Flour is like, that kind of stuff. It felt that way until about halfway through, and that’s where I kind of lost interest. I read about 90% of the book. I skipped the sections on ingredients, technique, tools, etc... although I enjoy baking, I am neither good at it, nor have the time to devote to really become all that good. Maybe someday.
July 22, 2018
Outstanding combo of technique, process, recipes, and autobiographical info. Good balance. Some knowledge of pre-ferments would make things easier for the reader, but I eventually figured it all out. I truly love this book and this man's story. From opera singer, to ultra marathon runner, to finance guy in the city, and then to baker. He hits it on the nail with my family story when he discusses how, all of us, if you go back just a few generations, used to work with our hands. And that is why doing things with our hands is so healing and also propels us forward, to what comes next. Both sides of my family, just two and three generations back, were ranchers, farmers, and miners. And my great grandmother was a quilter, but I didn't know that until very recently. I can't help but think my heritage is one of the reasons I love what I love so much.
March 21, 2019
This book is well written by a person who obviously is passionate about baking. If you're a beginner, flip to the methods at the back first and the book will be less intimidating. He also admits that you don't have to do all the things he does to get perfect bread, but his instructions will give you the absolute best bread possible. All ingredients are weighed and approximated in cups/tsp so you have the choice.
I can see myself going back to this book when I'm retired and want to take up baking bread as a hobby. Most of the recipes require two days of prep, which is about 1.8 days more than I usually have time for right now.
I can see myself going back to this book when I'm retired and want to take up baking bread as a hobby. Most of the recipes require two days of prep, which is about 1.8 days more than I usually have time for right now.
July 12, 2020
Not just a cookbook, but a great and well told story.
I bought this book after seeing videos of the author baking with his son. Martin Phillip obviously was a great baker but he was also a great and patient teacher for his son Arlo. This book is the story of his journey from being a classical musician to becoming head baker at King Arthur Flour. It is an interesting story with a few recipes along the way. It finishes up with techniques and bread baking tips. It has a good index with most of the recipes under the heading 'breads'. Well worth the purchase and the time spent reading it.
I bought this book after seeing videos of the author baking with his son. Martin Phillip obviously was a great baker but he was also a great and patient teacher for his son Arlo. This book is the story of his journey from being a classical musician to becoming head baker at King Arthur Flour. It is an interesting story with a few recipes along the way. It finishes up with techniques and bread baking tips. It has a good index with most of the recipes under the heading 'breads'. Well worth the purchase and the time spent reading it.
November 26, 2017
I'm not one for cookbooks, but this book is so much more than a collection of recipes. It's a perfect mix of memoir, meditation, and reflection through food. Beautifully written, with a poet's voice and an artist's flair for the craft of baking, and mouth-wateringly photographed, this is the rare book on how to cook that I genuinely wanted to read for the baker's story. There's wisdom in this book that goes beyond food. And I'll have some lovely recipes to try as well.
November 28, 2020
Heartwarming and precise
It's the personal touch that knits the recipes together.
The recipes work, steps are clear. As a hobbyist baker, I recognized the passion behind each chapter.
What I was not expecting, however, was to find threads of literature in this book. Martin Philip writes beautiful prose in between his recipes. While all my bookmarks have gravitated around food, this is an autobiography built around the core of where life happens at home: good food.
It's the personal touch that knits the recipes together.
The recipes work, steps are clear. As a hobbyist baker, I recognized the passion behind each chapter.
What I was not expecting, however, was to find threads of literature in this book. Martin Philip writes beautiful prose in between his recipes. While all my bookmarks have gravitated around food, this is an autobiography built around the core of where life happens at home: good food.
September 25, 2021
Illuminating
I’m a longtime home baker and a fledgling professional baker. This book expanded my awareness of both worlds. As a cookbook, it’s a bit unwieldy, but its recipes are fascinating, an invitation to creativity. As a reference book, it’s excellent. His explanations are both poetic and simple - written with the reader in mind. Best, probably, is the thorough Resources section at the back of the book - it’ll help a baker level up his/her home setup with ease.
I’m a longtime home baker and a fledgling professional baker. This book expanded my awareness of both worlds. As a cookbook, it’s a bit unwieldy, but its recipes are fascinating, an invitation to creativity. As a reference book, it’s excellent. His explanations are both poetic and simple - written with the reader in mind. Best, probably, is the thorough Resources section at the back of the book - it’ll help a baker level up his/her home setup with ease.
May 23, 2024
I loved this more-than-a-cookbook. His stories were so interesting. He has a lot of bread making tips and I can’t wait to try his recipes, bread and non-bread alike. I found out about his book by reading the reviews on the King Arthur website of his recipe “Martin’s Bagels”, which I had just made. Best bagel recipe I’ve tried and I wanted to get some tips for making them better from other bakers who had made them.
January 24, 2025
Thorough
This is a book for anyone interested in producing an impressive and successful tasty loaf of bread. Even with not quite the professional and precise ability to accomplish perfectly and dumping my loaf on its side from the banneton it came out beautifully and scrumptious. I had some experience with making bread but found the instructions so well described to help hone technique for a superior result. Highly recommend.
This is a book for anyone interested in producing an impressive and successful tasty loaf of bread. Even with not quite the professional and precise ability to accomplish perfectly and dumping my loaf on its side from the banneton it came out beautifully and scrumptious. I had some experience with making bread but found the instructions so well described to help hone technique for a superior result. Highly recommend.
June 26, 2020
Beautifully written and informative
Martin Philip is multi-talented in many areas, baking being one of them. If he wasn’t heading the King Arthur bakery, he would make an excellent author. But of all his masterful qualities, his love for his family and his obviously excellent character stands above all else.
His recipes are well written and varied.
Martin Philip is multi-talented in many areas, baking being one of them. If he wasn’t heading the King Arthur bakery, he would make an excellent author. But of all his masterful qualities, his love for his family and his obviously excellent character stands above all else.
His recipes are well written and varied.
August 22, 2020
A good book for more experienced bakers.
I think overall the book is very good. I fear that newer bakers could be a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information provided in bakers' percentages and the like. The vast majority of home bakers just want to know what ingredients are needed and in what quantity then what to do with them.
I think overall the book is very good. I fear that newer bakers could be a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information provided in bakers' percentages and the like. The vast majority of home bakers just want to know what ingredients are needed and in what quantity then what to do with them.
December 21, 2021
Love the Mama bread. It’s a stable.
Martin Philip put his heart into this book. The recipes are excellent and you learn so much. Weekly, I make the Mama’s Bread. After cooling, I splice it and but it in the freezer. When bread is needed, we nuke it or toast it. It always tastes like the first day.
We sticked with the biscuit recipe also.
Martin Philip put his heart into this book. The recipes are excellent and you learn so much. Weekly, I make the Mama’s Bread. After cooling, I splice it and but it in the freezer. When bread is needed, we nuke it or toast it. It always tastes like the first day.
We sticked with the biscuit recipe also.
November 24, 2025
I loved this book! It focuses on the author's journey through bread-baking instead of being a how-to book, and I found myseld glancing over the recipes before eagerly reading the next installment of his life's story. I am looking forward to trying the recipes, but the storytelling is what I loved best.
March 8, 2023
A great book written by a baker at the King Arthur Flour Company.
Lots of stories that add a personal touch to the book.
The recipes are outstanding. Clear directions.
I made the strawberry shortcake.
Lots of stories that add a personal touch to the book.
The recipes are outstanding. Clear directions.
I made the strawberry shortcake.
February 17, 2020
Love this book!!!
Very enjoyable read. Would highly recommend to bakers and non- bakers. It’s so nice to have it conveniently on my kindle when at the grocery store.
Very enjoyable read. Would highly recommend to bakers and non- bakers. It’s so nice to have it conveniently on my kindle when at the grocery store.
May 24, 2020
Loved it!
Come for the bread, stay for the story telling.
I enjoyed his stories just as much if not more than the bread and pastries recipes.
Come for the bread, stay for the story telling.
I enjoyed his stories just as much if not more than the bread and pastries recipes.
August 7, 2020
Fun memoir from King Arthur Flour head baker. If you got caught in the Covid sourdough craze, this is for you! Try the focaccia...
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