Babette's Bread

A Globe and Mail Best Cookbook of the Year "This primer on bread from Babette Frances Kourelos is for new bakers and pros alike." —Town and Country Magazine From crusty baguettes to bubbly focaccias and robust sourdoughs, Babette’s Bread is a comprehensive and unpretentious guide to bread-making, with useful advice on how to make fresh homemade bread fit into even the busiest of schedules. For Babette Kourelos, the happenstance baking of a humble cottage loaf completely changed the trajectory of her life, leading her away from a career in law to answer a different calling: bread. Before long she’d begun to fill orders from friends and neighbours. Seeking more comprehensive training, she undertook an apprenticeship with renowned French master baker Gerard Rubaud in the woods of Vermont. Bringing her newfound skills back to her native South Africa she opened a wildly successful bakery in Johannesburg’s Maboneng Precinct, which she operated until moving to Canada in 2020. Babette’s Bread is an accessible primer dedicated to demystifying and simplifying this nourishing staple skill. In her introductory chapter, Babette guides home bakers through each stage of the bread-making process, from sourcing quality ingredients to fermentation, shaping, baking, and storing. She then moves into chapters on straight dough breads, pre-fermented, cold fermented, sourdough, sweet and enriched, rye, whole grain, steamed, and quick breads. With her simple, unpretentious approach, Babette provides newbie and seasoned bakers everything they need to take back this affordable, soulful domestic practice. From a basic white sandwich loaf to, pizza dough, koulouri, challah, hot cross buns, stollen, beer bread, cornbread, pitas, bagels, pretzels, and buttermilk rusks—Babette’s Bread takes inspiration from around the world and offers a range of mouth-watering breads to try. With more than 60 recipes, accompanied by photos of delectable loaves and sun-filled work spaces, and interspersed with anecdotes from Babette’s childhood, her apprenticeship in Vermont, and the day-to-day running of her bakery, this is a complete guide to fitting bread-making into your life.

Babette Kourelos is a baker and teacher currently based in Vancouver, BC. She apprenticed under the late French Master Baker Gerard Rubaud in Vermont and ran an artisan bread bakery and baking studio in Johannesburg (South Africa) for several years before moving to Canada in 2020. She has been a guest speaker at several Women in Business events and a judge at the World Bread Awards USA. You can find her online at babettesbread.com.

- Preface- Introduction- Essential Bead-Baking Tools- Ingredients- Wheat Farming & Milling- Baking Steps- Straight Dough Breads (Direct Method)- Old-Fashioned Cottage Loaf with Spelt- The Government Loaf (Soft White Sandwich Bread) - Brown Sandwich Bread- Rustic Country Loaf- Rustic Flatbreads- Simple Milk Loaf- Pre-Fermented Breads- General Guidelines- Rustic Country Bread with Pâte- Fermentée- Kalamata Olive Breadsticks- Baguette with Poolish- Epi Baguette (Wheat Stalk Baguette or Ear of Wheat Bread) - Ciabatta with Biga- Cold Fermented Breads- Cold Fermented Focaccia- Fougasse- Pizza Dough- Koulouri (Greek Sesame Bread Rings) - Pot Bread (Potbrood) - Welcome to the Wild Yeast . . . Here There Be Microorganisms- Sourdough 101- Beginner’s Sourdough- Everyday Easy Eating Rye- The Apprentice Loaf- Gérard’s Sourdough (Pain au Levain) - Greek Village Bread (Horiatiko Psomi) - Sourdough Sandwich Bread- Sweet & Enriched Breads- Kitke (Challah) - Milk Bread- Hot Cross Buns- Raisin Bread with Cinnamon & Aniseed- Cinnamon Buns- Marzipan Stollen- Rye & Whole-Grain Breads- Simplest Whole-Grain or Rye Bread- Vollkornbrot (Whole-Kernel Bread) - Whole-Grain Seed Loaf- Beer bread (Inspired by Øllebrød) - The 33% Loaf- Oat & Honey Loaf- Rolls, Buns and Wraps- Pita Pockets & Gyro Pita Wraps- Portuguese Rolls (Papo Secos) - Mosbolletjies (Grape Must Buns) - Dinner Rolls, Burger Buns, & Hot Dog Rolls- BBQ Bread (Roosterkoek) - Boiled, Fried, & Steamed Breads- Montreal Bagels- Laugenstangen (Pretzel Rolls) - Dombolo (Traditional African Steamed Bread) - Vetkoek (Fried Bread) - Fried Dough Variations- Dad’s Pancakes (Pannekoek) - Quick Breads- Cornbread (Mieliebrood) - Scones- Wholemeal Soda Bread- Mandy’s Savoury Cheese & Herb Bread- Vegan Banana Bread- Breads for the Pantry- Oumie’s Buttermilk Rusks (Karringmelk Beskuit) - Bread Rusks- Grissini- Guilty Conscience Crackers- Bruna’s Egg Pasta- Old Bread- Skordalia (Greek Garlic & Bread Dip) - Mama Mou’s Garlic Bread- Gérard’s French Toast- BBQ Toasted Sandwiches (Braaibroodjies) - Gogo’s Turkey Stuffing- Breadcrumbs- Follow the Breadcrumbs- Final Thoughts and Recommendations- Acknowledgements- Further Reading- Index- Conversion Chart