Title: Beautiful Bread: Create and Bake Artful Masterpieces for Any
Occasion
Author: Theresa Culletto
Publisher: Rock Point
Pages: 176
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I’ve
wanted to bake focaccia ever since I saw pictures of this beautiful bread on
Pinterest several years ago.
The author has some good advice to offer: Draw pictures of the design beforehand to ensure
ease of re-creation. Keep toppings to less than half of the weight of the
dough.
She
also offers tips on what to look out for when buying and storing fresh
ingredients and the lowdown on essential equipment. The author also helps us with
information on the vegetables to use to get specific design effects. These
vegetables include onions, potatoes, leeks, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc.
She
walks us through techniques like lattice work, braiding and stencilling, which
are a treat to watch. There is a detailed glossary of essential items, especially
verbs I’d never heard of, such as degassing, dimpling and docking, in the
context of baking.
There
are recipes for various kinds of focaccia dough, including Basic White
Focaccia, Basic Whole Wheat Focaccia, Dark Multigrain Focaccia and Sweet
Focaccia.
A
chapter on Flowers teaches us to craft designs of flowers on the focaccia. They
include Sunflowers, Wrapped Bouquet, Spring Tulips, White Irises in a Vase,
Dahlias, Cherry Blossoms and Bouquet of Calla Lilies.
Another
chapter, Artist Inspired, shows us designs inspired by great painters. These include
Vincent Van Gogh’s Irises, Georgia O’Keeffe’s Open Flower, Takashi Murakami’s
Happy Flowers, Pablo Picasso’s Faces, Wassily Kandinsky’s Circles in Squares,
Claude Monet’s Lily Pond and Alma Thomas’s Brushstrokes of Color.
Nature
Inspired, another chapter, shows us designs inspired by Fall Leaves, Under the
Sea, Tree of Life, Wood Grain Charcuterie Board, Sandcastle, Happy Trail Mix,
Solar System and Pomegranate.
Focaccia
for Holidays and Specia Occasions shows designs for Valentine’s Day Roses, St
Patrick’s Day Lucky Clover, Easter Basket, Thanksgiving Cornucopia, Christmas Tree,
Cinnamon Star, Game Day and Celebration Fireworks.
The
chapter on Traditional Recipes shares recipes for Chocolate Hazelnut Filling,
Cinnamon Filling, Sweet Lemon Cream, Evergreen Sauce, Basil Pesto, Sun-dried
Tomato Pesto and Quick Pickled Vegetables.
The
designs are so beautiful, they’re a work of art in themselves. It seems a shame
to have to cut and eat them. Hopefully we’ll just get so good at baking these
that we’ll be able to make many more and allow our own creativity to lead the
way.
These
are details and tips no YouTube videos would share with you. This is a book
that serious and first-time bakers of focaccia will consider a treasure.
(I read this book on NetGalley.
Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)
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