The Hungry Ghost Bread Book: An Offbeat Bakery’s Guide to Crafting Sourdough Loaves, Flatbreads, Crackers, Scones, and More
By Jonathan Stevens
Chelsea Green Publishing
Although Jonathan Steven’s Hungry Ghost Bread bakery in Northampton, Massachusetts has been nominated seven times for a James Beard award, he is prepared to “sit on your kitchen counter” and spill all his hard-won breadmaking secrets. He approaches writing as he does bread, with hyper-focused attention to detail, elegance and dynamic energy, caressing the English language as he does grain and flour, like a smitten lover. As far as Stevens is concerned, sourdough bread is the only real bread. Though learning how to bake with live yeast (sourdough “starter”) might be intimidating at first, he encourages us to dive in and engage in trial and error. “There is no shame in being an amateur: the word means ‘lover of,’” he explains, and most of us are indeed “lovers of” a good loaf of bread. His suggestion is to dedicate a slice of our time to learning how to do it right.
This book might be the catalyst you need to take the plunge into a ball of dough, or, if you have already made a few loaves, to refine your techniques and recipes. The first part gives a general approach to sourdough breadmaking, introducing the basics of measurement, temperature, tools and formulas. Stevens writes in all caps: MORE HYDRATION, MORE FERMENTATION, MORE HEAT IN THE OVEN! He means business. Although he clearly takes breadmaking seriously—after all, his family-run brick-and-mortar bakery is his personal “bread and butter”—he lets us know that he is joyous throughout the process, listening to music, twirling and spinning in the kitchen, feeling like he is part of something grand and even spiritual with every loaf he makes.
The second part gives recipes for loaves sold at Hungry Ghost Bread, such as his Rosemary, Fig and Sage, Rye and Eight-Grain breads. There are also recipes for fougasse, naan, pizza, folds, crackers, scones, bagels, biscuits, muffins, shortbread, challah, matzoh, French toast, stuffings, pasta and more.
Stevens houses his starters in five-gallon buckets. For curious children, he takes off the lid and lets them sniff what is bubbling away. “The whole bakery runs on ghost farts!” he proclaims with glee. He feeds his Hungry Ghost twice a day. He also reverently calls it “Mother,” denoting the respect, love and care due to this special life-giving entity. Other terms include leaven, biga, poolish and chef. The scientific terminology: a symbiotic community of wild yeasts and Lactobacilli maintained in a medium of wheat flour and water, where the yeasts are omnipresent single-celled fungi populating our environment, with specific ones suited to specific areas (gosh, this is getting complex). Whatever you call your starter, make sure you treat it well, as it is the ineffable key to the whole thing.
Stevens didn’t start out planning to become a baker. A poet, songwriter and cyclist, he tried various trades before discovering his passion for making mouth-watering sourdough. His dedication to perfecting the process and an engine-like work ethic have made him into an expert. Luckily, he wants the world to follow in his flour-dusted footsteps, discovering the magic alchemy of milled grain, water, leaven and salt, and feeling what it is to shape a loaf, transform it with heat and consume it with ecstasy.
Hopefully, reading his poetic descriptions will cause you to salivate enough to feel that you, too, could participate in this ancient ritual (if you get it right, your family, friends, neighbors and coworkers will thank you profusely). We can eat substandard, mass-produced, unimpressive, health-sabotaging, so-called “bread” from supermarkets, or we can eat the real thing.
The closing poem lets you know how Stevens feels: “The bread just might make you whole.” Thumbs up for the dedication he brings to his life craft and his generosity in sharing tricks of the trade. Review by Jennifer Grafiada, NTP
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Fall 2025
🖨️ Print post
Leave a Reply