Peter Reinhart: Master of Artisan Breads

http://peterreinhart.typepad.com/     http://letsgetcookin.com/


What serendipity to discover that Peter Reinhart was speaking and demonstrating at Let's Get Cooking in Westlake Village just as I began this new chapter in my life!  I have two of his books, The Bread Baker's Apprentice and Artisan Breads Every Day.  His breads are "easy" in that you can make the dough one day, put it in the frig, and bake 1-4 days later.  I love the fact that he continues to perfect his process of slow-fermentation, making minor changes from book to book that he says improve the flavor. 

Let's Get Cooking is an adorable store that sells everything culinary that you can imagine.  In the back of the store is their kitchen--also the site of Westlake Culinary Institute.  Their set up includes a long tables along the work counter so students can observe and take notes.  On this occasion, rows of chairs were placed behind these tables allowing for a fairly good size audience.  In addition, they used a camera and TV screens so the audience could see exactly what he was doing.

It was a delightful evening--like a live taping of a Food Network show.  The day before they had prepared a multi-purpose lean dough and an all-purpose sweet dough so they could ferment overnight and be ready for him to demonstrate and bake for us.  This way he was able to show us both how to make the dough from scratch and also what to do on baking day.  In just a couple of hours he created--and we sampled--his signature artisan lean bread, challah, cinnamon buns and sticky buns (with varied toppings), coffee crumb squares, fruit filled thumbprint rolls, and yes, Chocolate Cinnamon Babka.  He also demonstrated how to create different shapes from baguettes to epis, how to braid, and how to use bannetons.  He was scientific--explaining the chemistry of bread baking.  He was spiritual--speaking of bread as transformational.  And he was sweet--kindly signing my book: "To Debbie, May your crust be crisp and your bread always rise!  Best Wishes, Peter Reinhart."