Let’s Make Bread! w Ken Forkish. a Sarah Becan. Ten Speed Press. 160pp. $22.
The inherent goodness of breaking bread with another person is something I think we can all agree on. In this age of outrageous polarity, it is those basics of life that will see us through and hold us together. Bread, the staff of life, is the subject of a wonderful new comic book cookbook. In this marvel of a guidebook, you will learn everything you need to run your own little slice of heaven out of your home kitchen.
All of us amateur bakers have a big bag of flour sitting on a shelf. You buy it and then what? It’s so big. Why don’t they ever make smaller bags for just one or two projects? Well, with this new book, you’ll get into an easy to manage baking habit that will see you going back again and again for more and more flour. You will intimately get to know and celebrate the basic ingredients needed for glorious bread treats.
Procrastination is the joy killer of many an unfulfilled impulse to bake. Well, don’t let that happen to you. Have you put off your bread-making dreams out of an idea the whole endeavor is too complicated? Well, fear no more because this is easier than you might think and this book will prove it to you. This book will dazzle you and inspire you through the magic of concise use of words and pictures. Yes, you read that right. It’s been proven time and again that people have a very positive response to highly accessible and appealing presentation. You give someone a fun and crisp comics adaptation of something they’ve been intending to do and that comics version of the very same instructions will be what finally gets that person off the couch and into the kitchen.
People appreciate and respect authority more often than you might think too. That’s why you’ve got a bread expert, Ken Forkish, author of Flour Water Salt Yeast (winner of both a James Beard and IACP award) as your guide. Plus, you have Sarah Becan, an expert in her own right as an illustrator and author of a number of foodie books, and an illustrator featured in such magazines as Saveur and Eater. And keep in mind that when we’re talking bread, we’re also talking pizza. If you’ve ever contemplated making your own pizza dough, here’s your big break. It’s all in the steps you follow, especially how to let the dough settle and rise. I have been searching for these secrets and I’ve found them here. Or maybe the secrets to making bacon bread, raisin-pecan bread, or corn kernel bread, among many more, will grab you. This is an utterly delightful, and useful, book for any skill level, no prior knowledge required. What more could you want in a bread book? This book does far more than scratch the surface. This is your ultimate bread book.
