Breaking Bread: A Baker's Journey Home in 75 Recipes

"I heat since it interfaces my spirit to my hands, and my heart to my mouth." — Martin Philip

A splendid, moving contemplation on art and love, and a private picture of preparing and our fellowship with food—complete with seventy-five unique plans and represented with many photos and unique hand-drawn representations—from the head bread dough puncher of King Arthur Flour.

Longing for innovative association, Martin Philip exchanged his fund profession in New York City for a passage level pastry specialist position at King Arthur Flour in provincial Vermont. A genuine Renaissance man, the drama artist, banjo player, and energetic novice pastry specialist stirred his way up, in the long run turning out to be head bread cook. Be that as it may, Philip isn't only a capable skilled worker; he is a bread shaman. Being a pastry specialist isn't simply acing the science of flour, salt, water, and yeast; it is being a chemist—idealizing the change of basic fixings into an exquisite articulation of the spirit.

Fellowshipping is a private voyage through Philip's kitchen, psyche, and heart. Through seventy-five unique plans and biographies told with brilliant composition, he shares not just the key to making portions of unmatched magnificence and flavor yet the key to a decent life. From the margarine rolls, walnut pie, and bourbon bread pudding of his youth in the Ozarks to French loaves and focaccias, bagels and biscuits, cinnamon buns and ginger scones, Breaking Bread is a manual for wholeheartedly grasping the staff of life.

Philip tenderly aides fledgling bread cooks and offers plans and methods for the most developed levels. He likewise incorporates a considerable specialized segment covering the bread-production procedure, instruments, and fixings. As he lights up a craftsman's odyssey and an actual existence lived energetically, he uncovers how the demonstration of preparing offers profound association with our pasts, our families, our way of life and networks, and, at last, ourselves. Impeccable, exotic, and luscious, Breaking Bread motivates us to face challenges, settle on bolder decisions, live more completely, and prepare bread and break it with those we love.

I am what they call a "serious" home baker. I have been buying bread books for more than thirty years (Nancy Silverton's Breads of the La Brea Bakery is what got me making my own starter back in the 90’s,) I have taken classes, I have access to hundreds of recipes either on paper or online, I even like developing my own, in other words I need a new bread book as much as a carpenter ant needs a saw. Yet when I learned that Martin was working on one, I knew I would buy it.
I had met Martin at a grain event, I was familiar with parts of his story and curious to hear the rest of it and, most of all, I had seen him bake: I remember his fingers barely touching the bubbly dough in front of him before baguettes emerged fully shaped. I had been awed.
So I got the book and after baking from it for a while, I am giving it five stars. Let me tell you why. I like the weaving together together of people, events and recipes. I come from a French family where food was definitely the glue that held us all together, sometimes the only way we knew how to express love. I read the book as an invitation to retrace my own journey. One star. Right off the bat, looking at the table of contents, I liked how diverse the recipes were. Although bakers might not like to acknowledge it, they don’t live by bread alone. Flowing from the story as it does, each non-bread recipe (for lemon-blackberry jam, for raita, for tapenade, for coconut curry soup, etc.) seems like an organic addition, the opposite of didactic. Two stars. Because I am running out of shelf space, I got the kindle version of the book (which I read on my tablet.) I normally don’t like cooking or baking from an e-book (I find it hugely frustrating) but this one is the exception, maybe because the recipes are so clearly put forward and the formulas so simply presented that there is no risk of confusion or error. The big plus is of course portability. Since I always have my tablet (and my two hands) with me, I can make most of the recipes anywhere, even at our camp in the summer. Three stars. Interesting as the life story is, no one wants to read through it again every time they need to check a piece of information. A thorough recap of the technical stuff has wisely been put in its own separate section in the second half of the book (with the caveat that the section must be read and understood for the recipes to work as intended.) Four stars. The recipes I have made so far are wonderfully reliable. Follow the instructions and you’ll be a happy baker. My first inkling of this came when I made the Poolish Bagels. As former New Yorkers now living on the other coast, we have a natural craving for bagels. Nothing of what passes for bagels in our area comes even close. I made the recipe. To my surprise the hydration is such that the dough is perfectly manageable even without a mixer (development relies mostly on folds) and the bagels are excellent. I had a similar experience with the baguette formulas (although I must admit to my chagrin that no baguette has yet sprung ready-shaped from my hands.) Whatever professional detours Martin Philip took to get to bread, he didn’t come to be head baker at King Arthur Flour bakery by chance. He is a darn good baker and his recipes are excellent. He is also a compelling writer. Five stars!-Marie Claudie

Let me begin by saying that I am a college friend of Martin and his wife, Julie. I haven't seen them in years and only recently learned that he was a professional baker from bits and bobs on Facebook. I pre-ordered this book mainly to support a friend. My old friend has written a beautiful book. I love that Martin begins the book by essentially saying, “I have no idea what I’m doing,” and then he does everything in it so very beautifully. He organizes the book autobiographically around stories he tells. Since I knew Martin as a singer, I never knew that he was such a wonderful writer. So far, I haven't baked much using the recipes. I've mostly enjoyed the stories! On the other hand, my husband is in full on Christmas baking mode, and he has been using it in a very different way, heading right to the sections that are more technical. The book itself is gorgeous, with wonderful photos that make you want to try every recipe. I can't wait until my life slows down a little so I can start experimenting with the recipes in here. Bakers, cookbook junkies, get this book. It was just released, and it’s going to become a classic. I have no doubt. -Abby Nardo

I must say that this book is not what I expected, meaning another bread book. I was enthralled from the first words by the author. His prose is enchanting, bringing me to tears and laughter at the same time. Reading about his family life, the people and forces that shaped him as a baker, was marvelous. I can’t wait to try the recipes, but am currently camping in Germany without an oven. Interesting, charming, lovely, delicious, beautiful all describe the writer and his book. I did not put this book down until I had read the entire thing. You will love your experience with the writer, and I hope you take as much joy from it as I did. Please write more books, your writing style is simply marvelous, and brings in the reader to become part of the story. I want more please!-Nancycat