Prairie Home Breads: 150 Splendid Recipes from America's Breadbasket - Hardcover

To create the 150 approachable recipes in Prairie Home Breads, Judith M. Fertig, a nationally recognized authority on regional Midwestern cuisine and author of the popular Prairie Home Cooking, visited artisanal bakeries, farmhouse kitchens, rural church suppers, urban bakeries, and farmers' markets. Her instructions are simple and concise--she includes a helpful rundown of tips and techniques--and the results are truly delectable. With recipes running the gamut from Flatbread with Caramelized Onions and Brie to Pecan Brioche Bread, Prairie Pioneer Corn and Wheat Bread, and Better-Than-Blessed Potato Rolls, this may very well be the only bread book you'll ever need. Fertig includes tantalizing accompaniments like Warm Goat Cheese with Fresh Basil, Balsamic Vinegar, and Wildflower Honey and Strawberry, Rhubarb and Rose Petal Jam. Decadent desserts--like Spiced Persimmon Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce--are sprinkled devilishly throughout, as are Fertig's heartwarming stories of regional culture, culinary traditions, and the people who sustain the rich heritage of bread baking in America's heartland. --Robin Donovan

Judith Fertig is a food writer and cookbook author who specializes in the food of the American Midwest, a regional cuisine that encompasses barbecue, breads and grains, and wild and heirloom fruits and vegetables. Among her accrued accolades are nominations for both the James Beard and IACP Cookbook Awards and inclusion on the Chicago Tribune’s list of the year’s ten best cookbooks.

Trained at the Cordon Bleu in London and at La Varenne École de Cuisine when it was still in Paris, Fertig now teaches cooking classes at institutions such as the Culinary Center of Kansas City and Kitchen Art in Indiana. She has served as president of the Kansas City Chapter of Les Dames D’Escoffier and has been a spokesperson for Cookin’ the American Way and Cutco. She has appeared on national and local television and radio programs nationwide. Fertig’s work has appeared in Saveur, Better Homes & Gardens, Country Home, Cooking Light, the San Francisco Chronicle,The New York Times, and the London Sunday Times. She has a weekly column, “Come Into My Kitchen,” in the Kansas City Star. Fertig lives just outside of Kansas City.