Local Breads: Italian Ricotta Bread

“You have bread envy.”

Michael said that to me a couple months ago, and I had to admit he was right. For years I’ve been drooling over photos of artisan breads, wanting to make my own, but it always seemed out of reach due to time constraints, equipment, lack of knowledge. I bought books about making bread and poured over the pages, trying to take it all in. I regularly lurk at good bread sites (Farmgirl Fare, Wild Yeast, The Sour Dough, A Year in Bread), all the while excitedly babbling to Michael about yeast, starters, shaping, and baking stones. I tried some artisan recipes infrequently with mixed success, though I kept plugging away at it.

It was time to turn my bread envy into something productive. Last summer I acquired a copy of Daniel Leader’s Local Breads after reading about it at Farmgirl Fare, and I spent a couple months just reading it, enjoying Leader’s descriptions of the European breads, his “apprenticeship” in Paris and travels around Europe while he studied various techniques, and the gorgeous photos. By December I knew I was ready and decided to start simply with the Parisian Daily Bread Susan had so highly recommended, which did not require a starter and could be made in about four hours. We enjoyed the bread so much that I showed my mother how to make it when we visited them over Christmas. The loaves are wonderfully crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, and the three loaves don’t last very long at our house. Read more