Those who have embarked on the adventure of homemade bread quickly noticed that the reference works produced here, in French, are extremely rare.
On the internet, there are a few easy recipes – mainly for making traditional or instant yeast breads, like the classic No Knead Bread by Jim Lahey, renamed here “lazy bread” – but those who wanted to dive into the sourdough adventure quickly became disillusioned. The best works come to us either from the United States or from France.
“The problem,” says Christina Blais, “is that their flours are completely different from ours. Not only does our wheat contain more protein, because of the hot and dry climate of the Prairies, but in France, for example, we name flours according to the ash content, so people are completely lost…”
I said to myself: there really is a void to fill.
Christina Blais, author of Christina Bread
Exceptional taste
She wrote this book precisely to introduce as many people as possible to the exceptional taste of sourdough bread, for which she had a real crush. A crusty bread with a fresh, honeycombed and elastic crumb, which also keeps longer than instant yeast bread. Its objective was also to explain once and for all how to “start your leaven”. A natural ferment made from flour and water that must be fed on a weekly basis.
Tradition also dictates that we give it a name. His name is Leo. Mine was called Gilles, but he is now resting in peace in sourdough heaven, no doubt with yours…
After reading the Christina Bread, I would bet a wand that you will embark on this adventure again. But be careful, there is no question of writing a book exclusively on sourdough breads. Christina Blais also wanted to include instant yeast bread recipes. Because yes, sometimes we don’t have time to spend a day waiting for our sourdough to double in volume and making flaps every half hour…
PHOTO ARIEL TARR, PROVIDED BY ÉDITIONS CARDINAL
Christina Blais offers some 60 bread-themed recipes, including baguettes.
To write her book, Christina consulted numerous reference works, focusing on those by Ken Forkish (Flour Water Salt Yeast – The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza) and Claus Meyer (Meyer’s Bakery – Bread and baking in the Nordic Kitchen), as well as the websites ThePerfectLoaf.com and FoodGeek.dk. We also suggest the book by Mouni Abdelli, Make your sourdoughwho gave birth to Gilles.
“When writing my book, I had in mind my daughter-in-law Hélène, partner of my eldest son Alexandre. They have four children, they are eco-friendly, they cook a lot, but they lack time. So they need to have options. So yes, I wanted them to have my sourdough bread recipes, but also accessible recipes, like my easy sourdough bread, day or night, where there is only one flapping session, or even instant yeast breads. »
Everything for everyone, but done according to the rules of the art so as not to miss your bread, with a host of advice to solve your problems at each stage. This is what Christina Blais is committed to with these approximately 60 bread recipes.
Christina’s bread
Cardinal Editions
272 pages