Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads wins James Beard Award

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Congrats to Peter Reinhart, who won the James Beard book award for his latest book, Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. I believe this is his second third or fourth. The Bread Baker's Apprentice and Crust & Crumb also won the James Beard awards. In case you missed it, Peter was kind enough to do a question and answer session with Fresh Loaf community members when his book came out. He had some interesting things to say, so if you missed it, check it out. Peter's blog has more about the awards night. And I'm probably the only one who cares about this, but I can see that the James Beard Foundation website is running on Drupal too. :)

My congratulations to Mr. Reinhart. His books were a great help when I was starting out, and I still enjoy them greatly.

Mike

I owe him for sooooo much.  The BBA is open as I speak...er, type.:)

No question about it, Mr. Reinhart is a major influence and his award is much deserved.  It was his BBA that first got me interested in serious baking and started me down the path. 

Howard - St. Augustine, FL

A huge influence on this site! Read the blog, very humorous..I never knew humidity could wreck such havoc on tux trousers..or slips..and I grew up in the humid summers of New England!
From his appearance in the photo, I'd say he has not been jaded by his habitual wins of this award. He looks like one happy baker. Peter's lucid and engaging writing style has made his books appealing and accessible to "the masses." That his formulas make really good bread doesn't hurt a bit, either.
David

drupal: that's cool

it's actually kinda neat when you start floating around the web and see nice software in use :)

 i wonder if i should get this book too...

Hi, I was actually referring to the Whole Grain Breads, sorry for not making it clearer in the previous post :) And I'm particularly interested in sourdough so I hope there are more recipes with sourdough :)  

In Whole Grains,  most of the recipes call for commercial yeast, and quite a bit, on the day of baking, but there are some that use just sourdough, though it took me some reading to see it, since much of the book is focused on the epoxy method. Generally speaking, you mix half of the final dough with some of the salt, and let that sit either on the counter for a half day, or in the fridge, and then the other half gets mixed with some sourdough, and sits in the fridge for a while. On the morning of baking, you mix both parts, then add some salt and a large amount of yeast.

Mmm ok, I think I get the idea. Too bad, I prefer using only sourdough so I think this book is not for me. Do you (or anyone) know a book where I can get some info on how to manage 100% whole wheat dough with sourdough? Almost all of the recipes, techniques, articles ecc I find in general are referred to the white dough (or with some percentage of wholewheat) so I have to adapt since I'm using only 100% wholewheat while baking. Giving I don't have much experience with baking I often end-up with over-fermented and flat dough. Thanks in advance

Paneski, I am not aware of any book that focuses on sourdough, or 100% whole wheat with sourdough.  My local library has some older books that deal with sourdough, but I have not read them yet.  This site has probably the best info on sourdough and home milled whole wheat that you can find, though it is not set out as a book.  If you want to start, here is one place.  It gives precise timing and temperatures for the process.  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/33735/home-bread-fighting-gravity  

I have Emmanuel Hadjiandreou's "How to Make Sourdough". It's all sourdough recipes and a lot of them are whole grains (some really interesting ones, like buckwheat too!).