A book: "Richard Hart Bread"

I am in love with this book.

Thanks for reading Şemsa's food per se, a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Subscribe for free to receive my monthly newsletter on the last day of the each month.

If you like what you read here, are curious for more and want to support my writing please go paid to receive weekly posts every Tuesday and have full access to my archive.

---

There is a new book that excites me immensely: Richard Hart's Bread.

It's incredibly thrilling! It's been years since any book, particularly a cookbook, has inspired me this much. I don’t feel there is much new to say in the world of cookbooks, though I love them, a platform like Substack satisfies my sweet tooth for well written words about food. Then suddenly, this book appears and reignites the spark.

I believe in cookbooks. How can I not? They guide you into unknown territories, open your mind to possibilities, and yes, there can be poetry in food writing. There are some food writers whose written verse can inspire you to be a better cook, a better person, a better version of yourself. Those writers have the ability to raise your standards. They are transforming.

Also cookbooks can teach you. Really.

Years ago, I learned to bake bread from a book: Tartine Bread.

Tartine Bakery as you might already know started as a tiny bakery opened by

Chad Robertson

and

Liz Prueitt

in San Francisco in the early 2000s. It might easily be the reason behind the bread-making craze we experience worldwide today. The bread he made blew people's minds, sparking a craze and becoming the standard everyone aspired to. The book they published in 2010 was about how anyone could make this bread. It was and still is an incredible book, and yes, I learned to bake bread from it. It's a book I've read repeatedly, underlining and studying diligently. It explains certain topics with photos, providing detailed cause-and-effect relationships, and if you are determined, it makes it possible for you to succeed.

That was 2010; now let's fast forward to 2025. Since then, no bread book has been as exciting as the new Richard Hart Bread. Richard Hart is a baker, a bread master, and the founder of Hart Bageri in Copenhagen, considered one of the best bakeries in the world today. He fell in love with bread while advancing as a chef and has never looked back. During this journey, he also worked at Tartine for seven years, serving as the head baker. He acknowledges Chad Robertson as one of the persons who changed his world. After Tartine he continued to carve his own path while simultaneously learning.

frying the fresh bread in butter as Richard Hart suggests… crispy caramelised outside with a creamy soft interior.

When I got my hands on his book, I couldn't put it down and lost myself in it. I loved how he narrated his journey and expressed gratitude to those who contributed to his development. But what truly made the book special for me were the new ideas it contained. These aren't just recipes. He presented the "how" and “why” in a different way and wrote these techniques in a very simple and understandable manner. It's exciting!

There are a few things he does which intrigues me into trying his method. The first one would be his usage of levain/starter. He mixes his starter and puts it to use only 45 minutes afterwards. I myself am not a believer in the ‘starter at its peak or a slight tad after’ method. After learning with “Tartine Bread” and many many trials on my own I stick to my preference of the young levain. At the restaurant and bakery we were feeding our levain 3 times a day at regular 8 hour intervals and after using whatever was calculated to be needed we would keep a small bit to start the new day’s operation. In 3 feedings it would reach again the required amount.

A young levain for me is 2-3 hours into the last feeding, the moment it starts to float, I go forward. But now, there is a ‘45 minutes’ claim in Richard’s book.

The second is his temperature control. I obviously know that temp control means time control. He keeps his internal dough temperature around 30 C throughout bulk fermentation which is much shorter because of it. 4-6 hours. Personally I favour a longer really retarded bulk around 24 hours and then a relatively shorter (9 hours) final proof. That was my way at our restaurant and bakery. I found the depth of flavour with these times suited the choice of flour I had. Maybe if you read this earlier post, you might know that I was working with the the original emmer wheat, possibly 8,000 years old, from Kars in the region of Upper Mesopotamia—the Fertile Crescent. This ancient wheat variety I mixed with other flours to make the bread for my restaurant and later bakery. But that was then. Now I am using other flours and I am adapting myself. So I am willing to give this ‘higher dough temp-shorter bulk’ a go.

The third is he is not folding like crazy. You know the craze about folding. All the social media is bursting with images of sensuous folding. I understand this because it simply feels so good in your hands, the sensation is addictive. And through foldings you not only sense but see the transformation of the dough. No here is a baker who claims twice is enough and that’s only for hand mixing. If you are doing it with a machine then no folding necessary. Intriguing.

And the third-and-a-half thing is his shaping. It is like a clasp that’s being demonstrated on Instagram but even simpler. And very well explained.

So.

I wanted to try these out and see the results for myself. And I did.

the surface bubbles

The first one is definetely working, the dough wobbled.

The second is also definitely working. But I still prefer a deeper flavour so I will go for a ‘cooler dough temp-longer bulk’. Not the extensive 24 hours but I will work with temperatures and hence times to see what suits me with the flour I have.

The third is a marvel. With the machine I did not do any folds and the bread came out marvelous. I am sticking with this. But maybe with higher hydration, I might resort to a few extra foldings.

an organic unbleached stone-ground white flour loaf with %75 hydration done in the method of Richard Hart’s ‘City Loaf’

And the third-and-a-half thing the shaping is so much easier and less time consuming, so I am sticking to it. Oh yea, definitely.

The all-over results are as you can see in the pictures. Pretty good.

So, if you're interested in bread, even if you have prior knowledge or are just starting out, I highly recommend getting the Richard Hart Bread book. Here is a book that explains every crucial step with clarity and what is more important the reasons of why and how.