The Hungry Ghost Bread Book - by Jonathan Stevens (Paperback)

About the Book

"For the adventurous home baker and small-scale commercial baker alike, The Hungry Ghost Bread Book is a delicious guide and a pious devotional to the wonderful, awe-inspiring world of sourdough. What does it mean to take on the practice of bread? Jonathan Stevens, co-owner of Hungry Ghost Bread in Northampton, Massachusetts, has pondered this question over thirty years of baking sourdough bread. Baking is a ritual that demands attention, physical proximity, close observation, and continual adjustment. It begets sustenance, fosters community, and connects us with a 10,000-year-old craft. The Hungry Ghost Bread Book is a window onto one baker's artisan approach to sourdough bread-the culmination of his time in the tide of dough. Sourdough, declares Stevens, is not a style of bread. It is bread. The sourdough starter-the microbial community used to inoculate bread dough-transforms flour into something truly digestible by humans, unlocking the nutrients that are otherwise inaccessible. Stevens's unique approach to working with sourdough can be summed up by three tenets, each of which begins with "more." More hydration, more fermentation, and more heat in the oven. Inside these pages, you'll find tools, techniques, insights, short-cuts, ingredients, warnings, and a handful of haikus. You'll find instructions for creating and nurturing your own sourdough starter, as well as formulas for a variety of loaves, flatbreads, crackers, folds, scones, bagels, and more, including: -Eight-Grain Bread -Fig & Sage Bread -Potato-Thyme Fougasse -Sesame-Spelt Crackers -Rosemary Walnut Scones The results are quite fantastic: bread that bites back, heels worth chewing on, and scraps worth toasting. A return to real Wonder"--

Book Synopsis

2024 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist for Cooking

Longlisted for the André Simon Award for Food Books for 2024

"A beautifully written book by a true artisan. . . . Easy to read and likely to inspire, this book will take your bread-making to the next level."--Sandor Ellix Katz, fermentation revivalist; author of The Art of Fermentation and other fermentation bestsellers

"It's impossible to read through the recipes in The Hungry Ghost Bread Book without being inspired to scoop out some sourdough starter and get mixing."--Maurizio Leo, author of James Beard Award-winning The Perfect Loaf

For the adventurous home baker and small-scale commercial baker alike, The Hungry Ghost Bread Book is a delicious guide and a pious devotional to the wonderful, awe-inspiring world of sourdough.

What does it mean to take on the practice of bread? Jonathan Stevens, co-owner of Hungry Ghost Bread in Northampton, Massachusetts, has pondered this question over thirty years of baking sourdough bread. Baking is a ritual that demands attention, physical proximity, close observation, and continual adjustment. It begets sustenance, fosters community, and connects us with a 10,000-year-old craft.

The Hungry Ghost Bread Book is a window onto one baker's artisan approach to sourdough bread--the culmination of his time in the tide of dough.

Sourdough, declares Stevens, is not a style of bread. It is bread. The sourdough starter--the microbial community used to inoculate bread dough--transforms flour into something truly digestible by humans, unlocking the nutrients that are otherwise inaccessible. Stevens's unique approach to working with sourdough can be summed up by three tenets, each of which begins with "more." More hydration, more fermentation, and more heat in the oven.

Inside these pages, you'll find tools, techniques, insights, short-cuts, ingredients, warnings, and a handful of haikus. You'll find instructions for creating and nurturing your own sourdough starter, as well as formulas for a variety of loaves, flatbreads, crackers, folds, scones, bagels, and more, including:

• Eight-Grain Bread
• Fig & Sage Bread
• Potato-Thyme Fougasse
• Sesame-Spelt Crackers
• Rosemary Walnut Scones

The results are quite fantastic: bread that bites back, heels worth chewing on, and scraps worth toasting. A return to real Wonder.

"The Hungry Ghost feeds more than spirits with its spectacular breads."--Saveur (naming Hungry Ghost Bread a "Great American Bread Bakery")

Review Quotes

"More than any baker I know, Jonathan embraces the unpredictability of bread-making. Indeed, as revealed in the pages of this book, he makes these challenges into a kind of poetic partnership. The dirty little secret is that we professional bakers are in constant dance and strife with uncooperative grains, reluctant ovens, and either stilted or exuberant fermentation. Our victory is that we manage, by hook or by crook, to have things looking mostly right when the bakery door is unlocked. This beautiful book will serve as both guidance and reassurance to the aspiring baker that we are all aspiring bakers."--Barak Olins, James Beard Award-winning baker, ZU Bakery

"Through story, poems, and recipes, Jonathan Stevens reminds us why we bake and offers us the tools to become better bakers along the way: MORE HYDRATION, MORE FERMENTATION, MORE HEAT IN THE OVEN! Beautifully written, with profound ruminations on baking as an act of (Neolithic) revolution. Brilliant!"--Jennifer Lapidus, founder, Carolina Ground; author of Southern Ground

"Bread is a fun, vast topic whose technical side can intimidate. In The Hungry Ghost Bread Book, Jonathan Stevens finds so much pleasure in bread and makes baking so wholly approachable that you might never realize how grounded the recipes are in the ways that a professional makes bread really delicious."--Edward Behr, editor, The Art of Eating

"This is a beautifully written book by a true artisan. Jonathan Stevens has been refining his techniques and recipes for decades at Hungry Ghost Bread in Northampton, Massachusetts. He opens the book with a riveting account of the rhythms and textures of the bakery's daily grind, then breaks down the different breads with clear and concise recipes for making them at home and even suggestions of alternative uses for overproofed dough. Easy to read and likely to inspire, this book will take your bread-making to the next level."--Sandor Ellix Katz, fermentation revivalist; author of The Art of Fermentation and other fermentation bestsellers

"It's impossible to read through the recipes in The Hungry Ghost Bread Book without being inspired to scoop out some sourdough starter and get mixing. And while you may open this book initially for the recipes--of which there are plenty of great ones--you'll leave with a mind full of sound processes, techniques, and a new set of baker's sensibilities."--Maurizio Leo, author of James Beard Award-winning The Perfect Loaf

"The Hungry Ghost Bread Book is a throwback to the classics that inspired me to become a baker. This book is far more than its many excellent recipes. It's about caring about your ingredients, caring about the craft, and most of all, making the good stuff and feeding the people. I am inspired to bake all over again."--Mark Dyck, host, Rise Up! The Baker Podcast; founder, Bakers4Bakers.org

"Reader, this book is one of a kind; the most original work I've ever read on crafting sourdough bread. Even if you're not sure whether you're up to wrestling with the stuff (and honestly, it's not for everyone), you should read this book just for the exhilarating high you'll be floating in when you set it down. The author knows his stuff, but he's not just teaching--he's doing. He's wrapping his arm around you and slipping you into his bread-woven life. I truly think he's something of a witch (the fermentation he conjures definitely has the aura of enchantment). Go put a handful of unbleached flour into a bowl and wet it with a good splash of well water--and see who comes calling . . ."--John Thorne, food writer; author of James Beard Award-winning Pot on the Fire

"Artisan bread pioneers Cheryl Maffie and Jonathan Stevens have been indoctrinating countless other bakers and bread lovers into the Church of Gluten with their breads for over twenty years. The Hungry Ghost Bread Book offers a unique look into the philosophy and methods behind their beloved breads. Theirs has long been one of my favorite bakeries anywhere, and now the joys of Hungry Ghost are accessible far beyond the Pioneer Valley."--Andrew Janjigian, head baker, Wordloaf; author of Breaducation

"Jonathan's enthusiasm for sourdough bread jumps off every page! You might not be able to get to his world-class Hungry Ghost Bread bakery, but you can make these recipes, which are simple enough for beginners yet will inspire even die-hard bread-heads. Just reading this marvelous cookbook is half the fun, because Jonathan leavens his recipes with decades of hard-earned knowledge, from sourdough science to eccentric lore, puns, and poetry: 'even a bad day baking/beats merely making dough.' Amen!"--Andrew Coe, award-winning food historian; bread fanatic

"Jonathan Stevens leads you into his head and his work, escorting you with stories and poems through Hungry Ghost Bread's great recipes. The crackers are spectacular! As you learn how to make good naturally leavened bread--and what to do when the bread dough goes awry--you'll learn how this lively baker and bakery came to be, too."--Amy Halloran, regional grain advocate; author of The New Bread Basket

"I struggled to write a blurb for this book--and not because I didn't like it. It's just that every time I tried to write a few words, I discovered they were already written by Jonathan. I kept coming back to the three 'mores' of bread baking: more hydration, more fermentation, more heat! This book is enjoyable and inspiring to read, with attention not only to the bread, but to family and community, too."--Thomas Leonard, author of The Bread Book

"Stevens flavors [this] book with unique phrases, wit, and a sprinkle of philosophy . . . As enticing as warm, buttered bread straight from the oven, The Hungry Ghost Bread Book is an alluring and playful invitation to get started on some sourdough."--Foreword Reviews

About the Author

Jonathan Stevens is co-owner of Hungry Ghost Bread in Northampton, MA, nominated six times for the James Beard Awards. His bread has been featured in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Saveur, and Taste, among other publications. He has taught baking workshops throughout New England and is ready to sit on your kitchen countertop. He's also a poet, songwriter, and inveterate cyclist. Previous jobs have included: window washing, rough carpentry, housing advocacy, traditional Inuit medicine research, and merchant marine deckhand in the Gulf of Mexico. His songs can be found on Spotify, and the poems are slipped into bread bags at work. He lives on the edge of Conway State Forest with his partner, Cheryl Maffie, and a sharp bread knife.