I did it! I made bread! You would think this should not be a notable achievement for someone who runs a bread blog, but this polenta and rosemary sourdough is the first loaf of bread I’ve made since we brought Maple home more than 7 weeks ago.  Oddly enough, I think it might also be the first […]

While I regrettably have not done much bread baking since we got Maple over one month ago, I know of many others who have.  In the past few weeks I’ve met up with four people in Ann Arbor to share some of my sourdough starter.  Each had been searching for a place in town to […]

When I was in 7th grade we had to complete an assignment where we found out the names of various local and world leaders.  It’s why I still think that Maryland’s senators are Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski (Mikulski is still in office) and why I can tell you that in 2001 Gerhard Schröder was Germany’s Chancellor. […]

I was all set to switch to spring and summer cooking this week but Michigan had other plans.  Over the weekend it cooled back down and even snowed a bit on Saturday.  But that was OK because it gave me an opportunity to make soup and bread to warm up the apartment.  I made tortilla […]

Bialys are a traditional Polish roll filled and topped with diced onions, bread crumbs or sometimes poppy or sesame seeds.  They often seem to just be labeled as ‘bagels without a hole’ but both the dough and baking process are different.  Bialys are never boiled like bagels but instead bake quickly in the span of […]

It snowed almost a foot earlier in the week and the winter weather, something we’ve been lacking this winter, had me in the mood to bake some big hearth-style sourdough loaves this weekend.  But then just as soon as it had inspired me the weather declared it had other plans.  It was 50 degrees on […]

When I was younger one surefire sign that we were at a fancy restaurant was the presence of grissini, or long, thin, and crunchy breadsticks (in contrast to the chewy and doughy kind).  They would be brought to the table in a tall thin glass and I would make a pile of crumbs while snapping […]

The artisan bread wave that has swept the country over the past several years has developed a few particularly active hot spots, mostly on the coasts.  One of those is in northern California, especially around San Francisco.  It’s where you’ll find Chad Robertson and the Tartine Bakery, Josey Baker (yes, that is his real name), […]

Happy New Year!  I hope you enjoyed the long weekend as much as I did.  2015 finished on a high note with Michigan State getting bulldozed by Alabama in the Cotton Bowl.  Then Michigan got the year off to a great start with a 41-7 rout of Florida in the Citrus Bowl behind great performances from Jake […]

I love combing through all the end of the year lists and reviews that come out in December and for the third straight year I’m polluting the internet with my own (see here for the 2013 and 2014 editions)!  2015 was a banner year for Bakers & Best with 109 published posts, a redesign of the […]