Book Review: Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish

About:
Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza by Ken Forkish is a basic book about making artisan bread. Mr. Forkish, a former corporate leader who became a baker and opened up Ken’s Artisan Bakery in Portland, OR.

• 272 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 160774273X

 

My rat­ing for Flour Water Salt Yeast — 5
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Thoughts:
I started baking Challah bread every other weekend for the Sabbath, and discovered the joys of baking bread. Even though it is a lot of carbs, I plan my meals and my breads have no preservatives or chemicals. Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza by Ken Forkish is the first book I bought about baking bread.

This was a great book for me, just someone who wanted to know more about baking to go along with the cooking / smoking skills. The book demystifies baking, makes sense of the nomenclature and really goes step by step throughout the process.

While cooking is an art (add a dash of this, a pinch of that), baking is a science – everything has to be absolutely right in order for the final product to be successful. I knew that, but had no clue into what level of “rightness” bread baking had to be.

It took me about three to four tries to get my challah bread somewhat right (all were delicious, but not quite right), I somewhat knew what were the issues – or so I thought. Mr. Forkish’s most important contribution to my baking education is to make me realize to use time and temperature as ingredients, that they must be as accurate as the amount of salt, water, or flour.

After reading this book, trying a few recipes (including a sourdough which, as it turned out, my family didn’t like despite my three failed efforts and two weeks of caring for a starter), I feel much more comfortable baking breads. I incorporated much of what I learned into my previous baking recipes, and along the way found a few new family favorites.

And the kids are looking forward to homemade pizza night, as do I (and while not a snob, I only eat pizza if it’s excellent, otherwise I’ll skip the experience).

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More Books by Ken Forkish

Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I bought this book
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