Melissa Forti is the Italian Baker. In her tea room in an idyllic medieval town near Tuscany, she bakes beautiful cakes that combine Italian traditions with her own modern twists. This book is a collection of Melissa's favourite tarts, celebration cakes, loaves, biscuits and coffee-time treats borne out of her unique style of baking. Every recipe is a treat, taking in deliciously popular Italian ingredients like olive oil, mascarpone, almonds and stunning fresh fruit. Melissa gives perennial favourites like carrot cake, brownies, chocolate cake and cheesecake a fresh, Italian makeover, as well as sharing traditional Italian recipes and others handed down through her family. Every cake and cookie tells a story, reflecting Melissa's travels, her passion for good food and the love of her Italian heritage.

Italian Baking Secrets is Father Orsini's sixth cookbook, and once again the reader gets not only wonderful recipes from the great tasting cuisine of Italy, but the "retired" priest's entertaining comments. Father Orsini knows how to make good food great, and his directions come with the bonus of his wide knowledge. The book begins with what to most of us is an amazing story: how the use of grain developed as long ago as---or possibly even prior to---the Neolithic period. Orsini tells us about the grains that were raised---and eaten---more than eight thousand years ago. Through charming and fascinating anecdotes, he lets us see the way bread has evolved, from flat loaves baked on hot stones to the myriad breads that have evolved in Italy alone---making our mouths water to hear about them. But don't let the author's charming storytelling keep you from his recipes; if you do, you will miss some delicious and easy-to-make dishes you might otherwise never taste---and once tasted, you will want to make them again and again.

Bake like an Italian with this latest Silver Spoon treasure - a culinary inspiration and go-to kitchen companion The Silver Spoon is known throughout the world as the authoritative voice on Italian cuisine and the leading Italian culinary resource. The Italian Bakery is the first volume in the Silver Spoon library to focus on dolci - the Italian term for all sweet treats. Dishes found in bakeries throughout Italy's diverse regions come to life in 140 accessible classic and contemporary patisserie recipes, including a library of 50 core recipes for basic baking building blocks, each illustrated with step-by-step photography, geared toward novices and experienced bakers alike. Filled with cakes, pastries, pies, cookies, sweets and chocolates, and frozen puddings, the collection showcases a wide range of delectable desserts suitable for everyday indulgences and special-occasion celebrations - the Italian way.

The renowned baking instructor distills professional techniques down to the basics, delivering artisan bread recipes that anyone with flour and a fridge can bake with ease. Reinhart begins with the simplest French bread, then moves on to familiar classics such as ciabatta, pizza dough, and soft sandwich loaves, and concludes with fresh specialty items like pretzels, crackers, croissants, and bagels. Each recipe is broken into "Do Ahead" and "On Baking Day" sections, making every step—from preparation through pulling pans from the oven—a breeze, whether you bought your loaf pan yesterday or decades ago. These doughs are engineered to work flawlessly for busy home bakers: most require only a straightforward mixing and overnight fermentation. The result is reliably superior flavor and texture on par with loaves from world-class artisan bakeries, all with little hands-on time. America's favorite baking instructor and innovator Peter Reinhart offers time-saving techniques accompanied by full-color, step-by-step photos throughout so that in no time you'll be producing fresh batches of Sourdough Baguettes, 50% and 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaves, Soft and Crusty Cheese Bread, English Muffins, Cinnamon Buns, Panettone, Hoagie Rolls, Chocolate Cinnamon Babka, Fruit-Filled Thumbprint Rolls, Danish, and Best-Ever Biscuits. Best of all, these high-caliber doughs improve with a longer stay in the fridge, so you can mix once, then portion, proof, and bake whenever you feel like enjoying a piping hot treat.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner may mark the beginning, middle, and end of the day, but for centuries Italians have eaten two small informal meals that come in between. Italy in Small Bites is the first-ever collection of recipes for these bite-size treats, known as spuntini and merende, the soul food of Italy. Spuntini, the midmorning snack, can be as simple as a sublime walnut-and-raisin-studded coffee cake, while merende, which are enjoyed midafternoon, might be a wedge of onion frittata or artichoke tart, a crunchy pillow of fried dough served with figs or prosciutto, a purée of fava beans, or sweet peppers mounded on a slice of rustic country bread. The best-known merende in America are pizza and focaccia, but there's an entire universe of appealing food revealed in this book. Though the recipes are tied to centuries of tradition that go back to a time when merende reinvigorated laborers in the fields, they're singularly perfect for contemporary eating in America and are as versatile as they are delicious. Merende make perfect impromptu meals because they are stunningly simple foods meant to make life easy. Some -- bruschetta with various toppings, frittate, vegetable tarts, polenta crostini -- may be familiar, while others are welcome new discoveries. Served individually or in combination, they can become a meal -- any meal -- and they are healthy, inexpensive, and casual, perfect for the way we live.

A James Beard Award nominee: “This year’s best bread book . . . produces fantastic results! . . . It should be a mandatory purchase for its pizza dough alone” (Salon). Acclaimed professional baker Suzanne Dunaway reveals her truly revolutionary technique for baking unforgettable breads that require no fuss and no special equipment. The crusts are lighter, chewier, and the crumb is moist, stays fresh longer, and has more intense flavor than most breads. Her ingredients are simply flour, water, yeast, salt—and passion. She uses no preservatives or additives of any kind. The recipes are her own creations, developed over years of trial and error. You will find focaccia, ciabatta, pane rustico, and pizza as well as breads from around the world such as baguette, sourdough flapjacks, blini, muffins, corn bread, brioche, African Spiced bread, kulich, and kolaches. In addition many of the basic bread doughs are fat-free, sugar-free, and dairy-free making then perfect for people on strict dietary or allergy regimes. There are also dozens of recipes for dishes you can make with bread: soufflés, soups, salads, and even desserts such as chocolate bread pudding. Plus, fun recipes to make with children. Suzanne Dunaway was the owner and head baker of Buona Forchetta Handmade Breads in Los Angeles, hailed as one of the seven best bakeries in the world by W Magazine. Gourmet called her breads “addictive.” “If kneading makes you need a sit down and need a rest, then this book will encourage you back into the kitchen. A great bread making class for all of us lazy bread makers.” —Foodepedia “Fabulous.” —The Telegraph

An authentic guide to the festive, mouthwatering sweets of Southern Italy, including regional specialties that are virtually unknown in the US, as well as variations on more popular desserts such as cannoli, biscotti, and gelato. As a follow-up to her acclaimed My Calabria, Rosetta Costantino collects 75 favorite desserts from her Southern Italian homeland, including the regions of Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Puglia, and Sicily. These areas have a history of rich traditions and tasty, beautiful desserts, many of them tied to holidays and festivals. For example, in the Cosenza region of Calabria, Christmas means plates piled with grispelle (warm fritters drizzled with local honey) and pitta 'mpigliata (pastries filled with walnuts, raisins, and cinnamon). For the feast of Carnevale, Southern Italians celebrate with bugie ("liars"), sweet fried dough dusted in powdered sugar, meant to tattle on those who sneak off with them by leaving a wispy trail of sugar. With fail-proof recipes and information on the desserts' cultural origins and context, Costantino illuminates the previously unexplored confectionary traditions of this enchanting region.

'Master the art of sourdough with Vanessa and you will learn how to look after your own gut microbes and health.' - Tim Spector, author of The Diet Myth At her renowned Sourdough School, Vanessa has taught countless students the secrets of this healthy, more easily digestible bread, and now she has compiled her teachings for the home baker. From creating your own starter from scratch, you'll then move on to basic breadmaking techniques, before progressing to using sprouted grains and experimenting with flavours to produce Fig and Earl Grey and Cherry Plum loaves. With step-by-step photography, detailed instructions, specialist advice and Vanessa's indispensable encouragement, The Sourdough School celebrates the timeless craft of artisan baking.

In this charming and practical cookbook, Master Baker Lionel Vatinet shares his knowledge and passion for baking irresistible bread. A Passion for Bread brings a Master Baker's encyclopedic knowledge of bread, passed on from a long line of French artisan bakers, to the American home, with detailed instructions and dozens of step-by-step photographs. It covers everyday loaves like baguettes, ciabatta, and whole grain breads, as well as loaves for special occasions, including Beaujolais Bread, Jalapev±o Cheddar Bread, and Lionel Vatinet's celebrated sourdough boule. A chapter of delectable soup and sandwich recipes will inspire you to create the perfect accompaniments. The book offers a detailed introduction to bread baking, 65 recipes, and 350 full-color photographs.

Bread is one of the most fundamental parts of our diet, yet so many of us rely on bland grocery-store offerings when flavorsome breads can easily be made at home. Della Fattoria Bread teaches readers to make the popular breads of this award-winning bakery. More than an instructional guide, the book takes the fear out of bread baking,and encourages bakers to draw on their senses, experiences, and instincts. Weber’s teachings are homespun and based on passed-down wisdom, not on finicky science or dull kitchen textbooks. The book is filled with invaluable bread-baking secrets, including starters and proper techniques, and features recipes for all levels of bakers. Beginners can learn to bake yeasted breads using pans. Advanced bakers can jump right into making free-form loaves of naturally leavened breads in all shapes and flavors. Other chapters include recipes for enriched breads like brioche and challah; pre-fermented breads, including baguettes; and crackers, breadsticks, naan, and more. The book includes recipes that incorporate the breads, too, such as Tomato Bread Soup and Della Fattoria’s famous Tuna Melt Piadina, along with the stories of the bakery and the unique family that has run it for nearly 20 years.