The Hungry Ghost Bread Book: An Offbeat Bakery’s Guide to Crafting Sourdough Loaves, Flatbreads, Crackers, Scones, and More

Thirty years baking bread and 20 years as co-owner of Hungry Ghost Bread in Northhampton, MA, have honed Stevens’s philosophy of bread. To wit, sourdough is the be-all and end-all of bread baking. Opening with a detailed account of his life in bread baking and what exactly goes into a normal day at Hungry Ghost Bread, Stevens steps readers through the tools and ingredients needed to succeed, before detailing how to create a sourdough starter (or what Stevens refers to as “ghost farts”) from scratch. A boilerplate bread formula then becomes the launching point for Steven’s method of making bread, which is all about more hydration, more fermentation, and more heat. Recipes, all of which are written in a comfortably quirky tone and illustrated with line drawings, for 16 different variations of bread ranging from French batard to wheat-germ theory bread follow. A smattering of recipes for bread-adjacent items, such as scones, muffins, and crackers, are also included.