Recipe Explorer

The foundation loaf. One batch of dough keeps in the fridge and gives you several boules.

Whole-grain, tangy, and rustic — the loaf that tastes most like a bakery sourdough.

No rye at all — caraway and a touch of molasses do the work. Slice thin for sandwiches.

Thin, crackly crust. The perforated pan is what makes slack dough hold a baguette shape.

Sweet-spiced with orange, anise and molasses. Wonderful toasted with butter.

Eggs, butter and honey. Softer crust, tender crumb, glorious egg-wash shine.

Hottest bake in the book. The stone matters more here than anywhere else.

Square shoulders, soft crust, perfect for toast. The everyday loaf.

Rolled with cinnamon sugar and raisins, baked in a loaf pan.

The caraway rye with sweet sautéed onion folded through — deli bread with a jammy edge.

Dark, molasses-and-cocoa loaf with deep flavor and a near-black crust.

Soft, faintly tangy crumb — the most sandwich-friendly of the free-form loaves.

Sharp cheddar melted through the crumb with a crisp cheese-browned crust.

Gluten-free beer replaces some of the water, giving a malty, pub-style loaf.

Coarse cornmeal loaf with a thick, crackly crust and a sweet corn crumb.

Salty feta and squeezed-dry spinach through a tender white crumb.

A whole loaf baked in the slow cooker — soft crust, no oven heat at all.

Straight Mixture #2, nothing added — the nuttiest everyday loaf in the book.

Thin, blistered crust with crushed tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil.

No tomato — just deeply caramelized onion, nutty Manchego and thyme.

A folded, sealed pocket of ricotta, mozzarella and spinach.

Dimpled, oil-soaked sheet bread with rosemary and coarse salt.

Puffed rounds that split into a pocket on a screaming-hot stone.

Yogurt-enriched flatbread, blistered in a cast iron skillet and brushed with butter.

Flat, round loaves scented with anise seed, baked to a pale gold.

Cornmeal flatbread with toasted pine nuts pressed into the top.

Thin, shatteringly crisp sticks rolled in Parmesan.

Paper-thin crackers with thyme and rosemary, snapped into shards.

No boiling required — the book's authors tested boiling gluten-free dough and found it made no difference. Shaped, rested 20 minutes, brushed with water, seeded, and steam-baked at 450°F.

Flat rolls with a well of onion and poppy seed in the center instead of a hole.

No boiling bath — the book brushes on a baking-soda wash, salts, rests 20 minutes, and bakes at 450°F with steam.

Crisp-crusted breakfast rolls, slashed down the middle.

Short baguette sections sized for sandwiches, crackly crust and open crumb.

Rich, shiny, sesame-topped buns that hold together under a burger.

Soft buttery rolls baked shoulder to shoulder in one pan.

Three-strand egg braid, deep gold and faintly sweet.

A single rope coiled into a round crown, studded with raisins.

The butter-and-egg master dough — the base for most pastries in this chapter.

Brioche with reduced cider and diced apple through the crumb.

Day-old brioche slices soaked in syrup, spread with almond cream, baked again.

A brioche round with a molten pocket of dark chocolate ganache.

A mock-braided strip filled with raspberry jam and almond cream.

Soft spirals of cinnamon sugar under a thick cream cheese glaze.

Baked over brown sugar caramel and pecans, then flipped out.

Balls of dough rolled in cinnamon sugar, baked into one pull-apart mound.

A filled brioche ring with lemon curd and blueberries, sliced open on top.

Tall Italian holiday bread full of candied fruit and raisins.

Cardamom Christmas bread with citron and raisins.

Cardamom-scented braid brushed with egg and finished with pearl sugar.

Cocoa-dark enriched loaf loaded with chocolate chips.

A pan loaf that keeps a real crust — square slices, bakery chew.

Honey-sweetened pan loaf packed with toasted sunflower seeds.

Soft whole-grain loaf with rolled oats in the crumb and on top.

A yeasted cornmeal pan loaf shot through with tart dried cranberries.