Book Description
Recipes and techniques for baking artisan bread using organic stone-milled flour, organic yeasts, sourdoughs, and more from renowned Danish organic farm and family-owned mill, Skærtoft Mølle-literally translated as "Cut-Road Mill"-situated on Als, an idyllic island in the southeast of Denmark.

Hanne Risgaard offers recipes for unique bread and pastry that bring a Nordic approach to bread baking that feels worlds away from most conventional baking books. At Skærtoft, there is a belief in organic, small-scale-produced whole grains, traditional stone-ground milling techniques, use of wild fermented sourdough, organic yeast, and attention to terroir. Their farm produces some of the highest-quality, nutrient-rich grain available. In fact, Copenhagen's celebrated restaurant NOMA, recently accorded a "World's Best Restaurant" award, uses Skærtoft Mølle products. Indeed, the growing movement of Nordic cuisine centers on its devotion to high-quality regional produce, the creativity of the chef, and a sound awareness of the workings of nature. This set of principles also serves to guide Hanne Risgaard in Home Baked.

Risgaard offers practical information not only on the concepts and processes behind creating delicious Scandinavian breads, but also concise growing and cultivation information about the grains themselves, as well as a guide to basic equipment and kitchen set-up, ingredients, and the history of Skærtoft and their philosophy. At the beginning of each recipe there is a brief story contextualizing where the recipe comes from. Their world comes alive!

Home Baked includes detailed sections on: baking with yeast; sourdoughs; baking without a raising agent (pies, cakes, cookies, crackers); and covers grains such as wheat, spelt, barley, and rye. The breads include unique ingredients like foraged herbs and greens, such as the Cocotte with Ramsons (either put directly in the bread dough or preserved in a syrup of pearls of rye and sea buckthorn berries); as well as other interesting standouts like the Buns for Tilters (with apple and yogurt, prepared for the annual horse games), Green Knots (made with stinging nettle, in honor of the fight to save the nettle in France), Rosemary Sourdough, Elderflower Muffins, and more.

Perfectly timed for the growing interest in Scandinavian, and particularly Danish, cuisine, Home Baked is a must-have for the bread lover's library.
 
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Many books capture the romance of baking, while others convey the nuts and bolts--but rarely does one book hit both chords at the same time. With Home Baked, Hanne Risgaard has written a practical, beautiful, and, most importantly, inspiring bread book for the ages. Every page, every recipe, makes me want to gather the grain with my own hands and transform it into earthy, delicious, and gorgeous loaves of bread."--Peter Reinhart, author of Whole Grain Breads and Artisan Breads Everyday

"When I first became a baker, I made a career-changing visit to an organic wheatfield and mill. As a baker I thought I knew flour, but it wasn't until I stood in a wheatfield that I realized that my passion for bread was part of a larger story. Home Baked is a testament to the craft that I have enjoyed since 1983. Refreshingly told from the perspective of the miller, the recipes are true to their Nordic origins and never step too far away from the fields on which the grain is grown."

--Daniel Leader, author of Bread Alone and Local Breads

"Hanne Risgaard's connection to and understanding of the grains grown and milled on her land at Skaertoft shines through in this beautiful collection of Nordic recipes, drawn from the rich baking heritage of northern Europe. Home Baked is atmospheric and appealing!"--Richard Bertinet, author of Dough: Simple Contemporary Breads

"Home Baked is an absolute treasure! Plus, its timing couldn't be better with more people (myself included) exploring flours other than modern commercial wheat. I think people will like cooking by weight rather than volume-it will do so much to insure success in making Hanne Risgaard's straight forward, mouthwatering, and very promising recipes.--Deborah Madison, author of Local Flavors

About the Author

Skærtoft Mølle-literally translated as "Cut-Road Mill"-is situated on Als, an idyllic island in the southeast of Denmark, and has been in the Bonde family since 1892.

Als is situated in the Baltic Sea, some 30km from the German-Danish border, and was formerly a part of the German Grand Duchy of Schleswig. Because of its history of changing ownership between the two countries, both Danes and Germans continue to feel at home in the area.

In 1991, the decision was taken to run Skærtoft Mølle as a solely organic enterprise, and Hanne and Jørgen continue to oversee all of its endeavors with love, care, and attention.

Besides flour, Skærtoft Mølle produces grains known as "pearls": as in pearl spelt, pearl rye, and pearl barley. They select whole grains of spelt, rye, and barley, and then polish them, removing the woody outer husk to make "pearls." These were a staple food of older times, providing a solid, healthy diet to folk throughout Scandinavia and northern Europe. The New Nordic Cuisine combines health, well-being, and enjoyment with the best of modern gastronomy-and the renaissance of the pearls is proving to have a vital role in this. Copenhagen's celebrated NOMA, which recently received a "World's Best Restaurant" award, uses Skærtoft Mølle products.

Skærtoft Mølle is run by author Hanne Risgaard, her husband Jørgen Bonde, and her daughter, Marie-Louise, who is the translator of this book. Hanne Risgaard and Jørgen took over a previous farming operation in 1983 and converted to entirely organic in 1991. In 2004 they decided to turn their empty buildings into a mill and start producing their own organic, stone-ground flour. Since then, the family-run company has produced a steadily growing range of prize-winning products that both stimulate the senses and follow modern culinary trends. The products from Skærtoft are mainly sold in high-profile supermarkets and restaurants. In 2006, Marie-Louise joined her parents full-time in product development, marketing, and management of the farm and mill. She is also an agronomist specializing in organic agriculture and is a fifth-generation farmer of Skærtoft. She started teaching bread-baking classes at Skærtoft in 2008. In 2010 Skærtoft won the Danish Design Award for the design of their packaging.

Jeffrey Hamelman has been baking professionally for nearly thirty years. For half that time he owned a bakery in Vermont. He has served as a baking and pastry instructor at several culinary schools and has baked and taught in France, Germany, Canada, Ireland, Brazil, and Japan. In 1996, he was selected as captain of Baking Team USA, the three-person team that represented the United States in Paris at the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie-the World Cup of Baking. In 1998, he became the 76th Certified Master Baker in the United States. He is director of the Bakery and Baking Education Center at the King Arthur Flour Company in Norwich, Vermont. In this capacity, he teaches professional baking classes one week each month and bakes for three weeks each month in King Arthur's production bakery.