Wordloaf (Newsletter)

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Jim Franks' 'Existential Bread'

1 week ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

I have to say that when I first read Jim Franks' new book Existential Bread, my heart sank a little. At that point, I'd been working on my own manual of bread baking for more than two years, one that was maybe a hundred pages over budget, with no clear end in sight. And here was a slim book—written entirely in verse, by the way—that could be digested in a single afternoon, providing all the information one might need for a lifetime of successful bread baking.
Irina Georgescu's 'Danube'

2 weeks ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

A few years back, I shared an excerpt and a recipe from Irina Georgescu's book of Romanian desserts, Tava:Irina Georgescu’s ‘Tava’An excerpt and a recipeIrina has just released a new book, Danube, which follows the river through Romania, with an emphasis on the foodways that flow through and from it. The Danube is the second-longest river in Europe, meandering from Germany to the Black Sea, passing through ten countries along the way.
Recipe: Vinete cu Scordolea (Fried Aubergines With Garlic Bread Sauce)

2 weeks ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

A scordolea is a bold accompaniment to fish and vegetables, usually made with soaked bread, walnuts or hazelnuts, and a lot of garlic. Skorda means ‘garlic’ in Greek, and their version is made with potatoes. It comes in many variations depending on what is used to thicken the garlic sauce, and is popular not only in Romania but also in the Balkans.
Recipe: Pâine la Țest (Oltenian Ash Bread)

2 weeks ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

This recipe hails from Oltenia where the bread is made under an earthenware cloche called a țest (tzest). It has a direct lineage to ancient Rome, where baking was done under a testu or clibanus and placed into a wood-burning hearth. The cloche’s sides and top were covered with hot embers to ensure good heat distribution. In Romania, it was traditional to place the țest on the bare ground, but in more modern times we’ve used flat, stone or brick surfaces.
Sourdough shokupain de mie

3 weeks ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

Okay, so here it is, as promised, the sourdough shokupain de mie recipe from Breaducation, one of the first finalized recipes I've shared here or anywhere. If you haven't yet, please read last week's post about baking with liquid sweet starters:A Sweet Starter User GuideMay 2025 editionIf you have experience with yeasted enriched breads and lean sourdoughs, a very active starter, and loads of time on your hands, you should be fine.
A Sweet Starter User Guide

1 month ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

Awhile back I spoke to Ian Lowe about his invention and the use of the stiff sweet starter process for sourdough enriched breads:Starting the Sweet StarterAn interview with Ian LoweWith it, I shared a practical guide to using his process, based upon my understanding of at the time. In the interim I have learned a lot more about how to make it work best, so I thought it would be a good idea to update that guide.
Enriched breads with the liquid sweet starter

1 month ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

In my interview with Ian Lowe about his (stiff) sweet starter methods, he mentioned two bakers who were using a variation on it, the liquid sweet starter:One variation on the liquid sweet starter, created and used quite successfully in a real-world bakery production, is a young sweet starter. This permutation still uses 25% sugar to total flour weight. It was first discovered and refined by Maaryasha Werdiger of Zelda Bakery in Melbourne, Australia, and used to leaven her awesome babka.
Ash Wednesday

1 month ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

One of the things I have struggled with while working on Breaducation is the choice of flours to use in my doughs. The book is meant to be both an introduction to bread baking of all kinds and an overview of how I make breads at home myself. As a result, I've had to strike a balance between what I'd do and use, and what is easily done or accessible to anyone.
On pH and sourdough breads

1 month ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

[This is yet another section from the book that might need to get axed, so here it goes for now.]pH is one of those metrics which many bakers never think about, because measuring the pH of doughs and levains requires specialized equipment. But nowadays reasonably-inexpensive bread dough-specific pH meters are available, which makes peeking under the hood pH-wise easier than it used to be.
Flow States

1 month ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

Well I am back from my exile in the flour mines to shape up the front matter for Breaducation. While I haven't quite finished it yet, I've made significant progress: I've tightened it up considerably, shaving off more than 20k words while still retaining most of the content (and even adding some sections that I'd yet to write before now).