France

The galette has an excellent effort-reward ratio. The fancy French name aside, they’re incredibly easy to make and look reasonably impressive if executed well. These quantities make a galette that serves four generously....

This idea comes from the superb YouTube channel Boulangerie Pas à pas. It’s a great way to use what would otherwise get wasted when you need to refresh your levain but don’t have the need to bake anything....

This is a “liquid” levain, which is to say that you’re aiming for a roughly 1:1 ratio of water to flour on each refresh of the culture. If you’re not planning to bake every day — I certainly don’t — it’s easy enough to stash this in the refrigerator and give a quick warm up to room temperature before using....

These come from the excellent Mokonuts in Paris. Everything they do is delicious, these as much or more than everything else. It can be a little difficult to find black sesame seeds....

A vinaigrette (as well as the mayonnaise and the aïoli) is an emulsion. That is, a mixture of two liquids that are otherwise difficult to combine. In this case, that’s the vinegar, which is mostly water, with the oil....

This is the dough to make viennoiserie, risen buttery concoctions like croissants and pains au chocolat. It’s incredibly fiddly to say the least. One essential step: get the best — by which I mean highest fat content — butter you can find....

While there is some pleasure to be had in baking my own bread, I’d honestly be a lot happier if I could pop into a bakery in the morning and pick up a great loaf of professionally-baked bread every day....