Fall Is a Time of Bread Baking, But Where to Start?

Many of us may still soaking up warm weather and prime [tomato] time at the market, but cooler days are on their way. As the seasons start to change, Food52er Trena Heinrich is gearing up for baking more bread throughout the fall and winter.

She already has a favorite boule bread recipe that she bakes all the time (it’s similar to this one, s​o Trena turned to the Hotline for new bread recipes to incorporate into her baking repertoire.

As usual, the community rose to the occasion with a number of suggestions:

• Nora says, "I am a Southerner married to a Massachusetts Yankee, so I know a bit about the flavors y'all lean toward, so I say anadama bread."​

• Susan W suggests 5-Minute Artisan Bread, saying: “I really love the way this bread turned out. I made a rather large loaf to serve with steamed clams and then for the next three days, I just pinched off enough dough to make enough bread for two.”

• Cv opens with “Disclaimer: I am not a bread baker (apart from the occasional pizza),” but were that not the case, cv would work on mastering Pain Poilane, unsalted Tuscan breads, pretzels, buttermilk biscuits, and bagels.

• Trampledbygeese’s favorite is sourdough, she makes a variation of Nigella Lawson's recipe in Domestic Goddess, leaving out the commercial yeast and letting it rise longer. She adds, “Another great thing about it is that if cooled properly, it stays good on the counter for about two weeks (starting to get stale at about 10 days, moldy sometime after day 14). All it contains is flour, water and salt (plus more flour and water for the starter).”​

• ​Two of Nancy’s favorites are James Beard’s Refrigerator Potato Bread and Molly Yeh’s Rye Challah. (Editor’s note: The link from Molly’s website to her rye challah recipe isn’t currently working; try one of her other challah recipes below.)

Tell us: What bread do you bake to ease into fall? Continue the conversation on the Hotline post or tell us in the comments below!