Cookbook Project: Getting started for real

I had heard good things about The Tassajara Bread Book, so when I found a copy at a secondhand store, I picked it up.

It has one of my go-to sourdough recipes now - one that doesn’t require much work and makes the perfect sandwich bread! I found that and then never ventured any further into the book.

I only had to turn one page in the book to find my next recipe for this project, Country French Bread.

It uses a combination of sourdough and yeast, wheat and white flour. Like the sourdough recipe, it requires very little work - some mixing in the evening, then a long overnight rest and a bit of kneading in the morning.

I know that the recipes in the cookbook were written to be able to feed a crowd at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, but I’m still surprised every time at how much bread they’ll make! This is a half recipe and it still resulted in a huge loaf!

The result: I probably could have kneaded this a bit longer than I did, but I’m still really pleased with how this bread turned out. I’m not sure it’ll replace my go-to sourdough recipe, but I like the balance of sourdough and yeast flavors in it. A lot of my cookbooks are focused on bread and baking, so I’ll be making a lot of different breads this year, but I think this is still one I’ll return to pretty frequently!