Recipes - Modernist Cuisine

Recipes

Vollkornbrot Recipe

Vollkornbrot is one of the hallmark breads of Germany. It is a type of brick-like bread that has rye integrated into the dough in many forms: a rye levain, cooked rye berries, rye flour, and cracked rye (as a soaker and in the preferment). All that cracked rye goes beyond being simple dough-enhancing inclusions to […]

Everything Bagel

  While ring-shaped wheat breads have long existed in many parts of the world, the bagel has two main distinctions: it’s traditionally boiled and then baked, and it’s often associated with Jewish culture. Bagels have been around for centuries, their origins tracing back to Poland over 400 years ago. What began as a local specialty […]

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Black raisins, cinnamon, and a cinnamon smear are swirled throughout this enriched bread to provide an irresistible and classic flavor combination. This bread is best when sliced and toasted to bring out its aromas and texture. We suggest using an offset spatula to spread the smear evenly and thinly onto the dough before shaping it—that […]

How to Make a Liquid Sourdough Starter

Some might believe you need a cherished heirloom starter passed down from your grandmother to make sourdough, but the truth is, all you need is flour, water, and a bit of patience. Crafting a sourdough starter, also known as a levain, at home is not only easy but also a fun and rewarding process that […]

Second Chance Sourdough

Maintaining a sourdough starter, also known as a levain, involves commitment. You have to remember at the same time each day to remove a portion and add more flour and water. This routine can lead to a lot of waste unless you’re baking every day. Schedules can get in the way. Going on vacation or […]

Direct Farmer’s Bread

The Direct Farmer’s Bread is a great, time-saving recipe for beginner home bakers that can be made in a day. Of the rye bread recipes that can be found in Modernist Cuisine at Home, this one has a lower rye flour percentage. The blend of wheat and rye offers the best of both flours: gluten […]

Caramelized Inclusions with a Pressure Cooker or Instant Pot

It’s no secret that we love pressure cookers and Instant Pots. Most of us have heard gruesome tales of exploding pressure cookers that discouraged would-be users of the device from cooking with one. Older versions of the pressure cooker were simply not as safe as those produced today, which was mainly due to malfunctioning release […]

Classic Deep-Dish Pizza

Classic deep-dish pizza is pretty different from the rest of the pizzas in this book. Although it has a thin crust, the weight of the toppings far exceeds the amounts used on other pizza styles. And while Chicago is famous for its deep-dish pizza, it’s not the only place that has something like it. Both […]

Deep-Dish Pizza Dough

We discuss our deep-dish pizza dough near our thin-crust pizza doughs for a reason. It turns out that the “deep” part of deep-dish pizza consists mostly of the copious toppings, while the dough itself is pretty thin. As with our Thin-Crust Pizza Dough, this dough includes a bit of cornmeal, characteristic of the deep-dish pizzas […]

Paprika-Infused Mozzarella

We contend that it’s fun to make mozzarella; it lets you experience the ingredient on a whole new level. Plus, once you do start making your own cheese, you gain an opportunity to make something that you can’t buy, like our infused mozzarellas, which are not only beautiful but also delicious. We developed a handful […]

Deep-Dish Tomato Sauce

Pizzaioli making deep-dish and Detroit-style pizzas apply the sauce à la minute, just before it is served. Both of these pizzas take a long time to bake, and the sauce can significantly impact that process. That’s because sauce contains a lot of water, and when it covers a thick piece of pizza dough, the heat […]

Mushroom Comté Pizza

The mushroom and comté pizza is hands down one of our absolute favorite recipes from Modernist Pizza. The flavors and textures of the finished pizza are simply the best expressions of mushrooms that we could produce. This pizza is bound to be a hit at your next dinner or pizza party. One of the most […]

Direct Thin Crust Pizza Recipe

We encountered thin-crust pizzas of various stripes throughout our travels, from the U.S. Midwest to São Paulo, Brazil. Admittedly, we really love a good thin-crust pizza. When done right, they’re incredibly satisfying and a nice, light departure from their counterparts with thicker crusts. These pizzas go by different names but share some fundamental traits: thin-crust […]

Detroit-Style Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Pizza and Buffalo chicken wings? How we could not combine two of our favorite things. Based on the classic sports bar or brewery appetizer that is originally made with chicken wings, this pizza is made with boneless chicken thighs instead to make it easier to eat. It is difficult to overcook chicken thighs, allowing you […]

Detroit-Style Pizza Dough

You can’t talk about Detroit-style pizza without talking about cheese. The crust has the light, airy crumb and crispy bottom characteristic of all the bread-like pizza crusts. What differentiates a Detroit-style pizza is that the edge of the dough is bordered with cheese, applied so that it comes right up against the sides of the […]

Candied Fruit Vollkornbrot

In German, vollkornbrot means “whole-grain bread,” and the name is apt. One of the hallmark breads of Germany, vollkornbrot is a no-nonsense rye loaf. The rye is integrated into the dough in many forms: a rye levain, cooked rye berries, rye flour, and cracked rye (as a soaker and in the preferment). Under German rules, […]

Sablée Brioche

Brioche is the granddaddy of sweet enriched breads; it’s rich and tender because it’s laden with butter—we’ve made delicious brioche with as much as 100% butter (in baker’s percentage). Generally speaking, fat can get in the way of gluten-bond formation, so although high-fat dough can take longer to mix, the lubricating quality of fat results […]

Challah

Soft, plaited, and with a shiny crust, challah is an easily recognized loaf that is often prominently displayed on bakery shelves during Jewish holidays and on Fridays for Shabbat. While the bread has a distinctive richness that’s reminiscent of brioche, it is traditionally pareve (it contains no meat or dairy), so it is made with […]

French Lean Bread

You need just four ingredients to make French lean breads: flour, water, salt, and yeast. Simple, right? That’s why we recommend lean breads as a good starting place for new bakers. The baguette is not only a loaf by which many bakers are measured, it is also the quintessential example of French lean bread. Although […]

Portuguese Sweet Bread

Like the Portuguese themselves, this sweet bread has traveled the globe; it has taken hold where larger populations of Portuguese immigrants settled, including Hawaii and New England. And when we say “sweet bread,” we mean sweet! These rolls include much more sugar than many enriched doughs. In Portuguese, this bread is called folar, and it […]