For prospective bread bakers intimidated by the mysteries of yeast, here's the ultimate empowering book: just look at Josey Baker (his real name!) beaming at his floury hands, then follow his urgings: "All right y'all, let's get started. Don't be a weenie; you have everything you need to do this." Josey Baker Bread is a photo-packed primer collecting wisdom from the author's famed San Francisco bread-baking business.
Josey talks aspiring do-it-yourselfers through basic recipes ("We're calling them lessons") and moves through eight chapters of variations. Each "lesson" opens with two short lists: Foodstuffs, like yeast--"the kind in little packets is just fine"--and Tools. Even a novice is set for success.
Basic bread is followed by sourdough secrets, "Adding Stuff to Bread" (including seeds, cheese and peanut butter cups), mouth-watering entrees like fig-gorgonzola-rosemary pizza, and four seasons of crumbles starring fruit from each quarter. Too busy to bake? Josey thought of that, and includes a chart of "PBBS"--Possible Bread-Baking Schedules--that are difficult to challenge, since they include such options as shaping the dough into a loaf "whenever you want." Tucked among the lessons is enough memoir to confirm Josey's credibility, told with an endearing aw-shucks modesty.
Josey endeavors to prove he really is there for the home cook. If a crumble recipe should fail, he advises, "Quickly discard it and tell everyone the dog ate it. Then write to me personally; I will coach you through it." --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, manager, Book Passage, San Francisco