Book excerpt: An introduction to the French art of baking bread—including ingredient selection, levain cultivation, and bread-making techniques—with more than one hundred illustrated recipes. The humble baguette is the quintessential staple of French cuisine, but the country has a vast and diverse bread-baking tradition. With an introduction to the history of French bread, guidelines to help the home baker select the right ingredients — grain and flour varieties, water, salt, and levain—this book details the step-by-step techniques and fundamentals of bread making : from feeding the levain, kneading and preparing the dough, and baking, to more than 100 recipes. Eighteen expert bakers and pastry chefs share the sweet and savory recipes that have forged the French bakery’s enviable reputation—from rounds of rustic pain de campagne or loaves of olive and oregano bread to regional favorites like fougasse or the Basque taloas tortillas. A new generation of bakers has expanded the classic French repertoire to include original creations—such as charcoal-sesame baguettes; matcha swirl bread ; buckwheat and seaweed rolls; and fig, hazelnut, and honey rye bread. In their French style, they also reinterpret heritage breads from across the world—including pita, focaccia, bagels, cheesy Georgian khachapuri, Swedish crispbread, and Indian chapati. Additional bread-based recipes include “surprise bread” finger sandwiches, croque monsieur, onion soup with cheese croutons, and desserts such as French toast and kouign-amann. For each recipe, pictograms indicate the level of difficulty, time and material required, and whether a recipe is gluten-free. This is the ultimate reference book for baking homemade bread the French way.