By Published Oct. 13, 2016.
In Bread Illustrated—our first book devoted to bread—we show that baking a perfect loaf is no mystery: It’s just a matter of breaking recipes down into essential steps that demystify the art and science of this age-old process. After rigorous testing, we have created a roadmap to baking more than 100 foolproof breads, each accompanied by step-by-step photo tutorials.
Bread baking can seem intimidating—even for experienced cooks like our friend Michelle of Hummingbird High. But after perusing our newest release, Bread Illustrated, Michelle was determined to make a kolache that would rival the version she first enjoyed as a high school student living in Texas.
“After graduating from high school, I rarely came back to Houston. Kolaches became a distant memory—they're not as easily available outside of Texas," said Michelle. “And until receiving a copy of America's Test Kitchen's new book, Bread Illustrated, it never occurred to me to try making them at home.”
I've never been much of a bread baker, you see...But the carefully outlined instructions and incredibly detailed step-by-step photos in the book were able to convince me otherwise.
These palm-sized sweet (and sometimes savory) pastries, known as kolaches, were brought to Texas by Czech immigrants. They are heaped with either a cheese or fruit filling, and the dough for these much-beloved buns is enriched with eggs and butter, very much like a brioche dough.
What else did Hummingbird High have to say about our kolaches and Bread Illustrated?
“I've never been much of a bread baker, you see...But the carefully outlined instructions and incredibly detailed step-by-step photos in the book were able to convince me otherwise.”
“And sure enough, after an afternoon of baking and with no loss of any blood, sweat, and tears, I found myself with a batch of kolaches that tasted exactly like the glorious ones I remembered from high school: fluffy and buttery, with a tangy and very faintly lemony cream cheese center.”
