Cookbook Watch: Great books on bread

If you're a Swedish bread-lover, you're in luck. Two new books just came out and both are really incredibly good! The first one has been talked about quite a lot - it's Surdegsbröd (Sourdough Bread) by Martin Johansson who blogs at Pain de Martin. It's a real blogging success story - he started baking, got into it, blogged about it and eventually got to write a book! I've tried several of his recipes from the blog and they've all turned out nicely. The book has a lot of all sourdough recipes, with no added yeast, and since that's my current obsession (it's just so much fun!) I really look forward to baking my way through this one. And yes, he has a lot of recipes on the blog, but the book is so well structured it's well worth getting.



And then we have Bröd (Bread) by Heléne Johansson. Ah. She runs a bakery called Brunkebergs Bageri that consistently gets great reviews, but I've never managed to go there while they're actually open. After reading through the book, I clearly need to make more of an effort! Everything sounds lovely - and surprisingly approachable. It has great variety - from parmesan crackers to the darkest of sour rye breads - and sourdough as well as yeasted breads. I wish there had been a recipe for their cinnamon buns, which apparently are quite famed, but other than that, it's pretty perfect. In fact, I can't wait to get baking - and that is truly the mark of a great cookbook.