Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe
by Joanna Chang
Flour’s Famous Banana Bread
If you haven’t heard of Joanna Chang, where have you been hiding? Her IG live series saved my sanity in 2020. Since May of 2020, Joanna has posted 25 recipes and demonstrated them live (and free) on her Instagram stories. I fell in love somewhere between Rye Double Chocolate Cookies and Apple Vanilla Pound Cake! If you’re lucky enough to live near one of her bakeries, you could order and pick up kits containing the ingredients for each recipe and follow along during IG live. Please go find and follow her on IG. She’s incredibly intelligent, funny, thoughtful, and radiates kindness!
Flour is just one of four cookbooks that Joanna has published, she has a James Beard Award, and eight locations of Flour Bakery + Cafe plus is co-owner of Myers+Chang an Asian restaurant also in Boston.
I have never loved a cookbook the way I love Flour. If you’re a baker or want to learn to bake - GO BUY THIS BOOK. The subtitle should just say Joanne Chang has created a masterpiece!
The book itself is gorgeous; the photos are beautiful and Joanna includes personal stories for every recipe. When someone makes that connection to food, family, and memories, I know I’ve found a winner. There’s a wide variety of bakery-quality recipes, that showcase a variety of techniques. The book is broken down into breakfast treats, cookies, cakes, pies + tarts, other sweets, and breads. Don’t skip the chapters on techniques, equipment, and ingredients! There’s tons of great information that every home baker should know. I’ve read the entire book cover to cover and have made many of the recipes. I found the recipes in the book to be accessible and easy to follow. If you bake even a little, you probably all ready have most of the ingredients in your pantry and if you don’t they will be at your local grocery store. No hard to find, or special order items in any of these recipes.
It was hard to pick one favorite recipe to showcase but happily settled on Flour’s Famous Banana Bread. I have been stuck in a banana cycle for 25 years, one week I don’t buy enough, the next week, I buy too many; then all those extras wind up in the freezer for smoothies or baked into a recipe because my family will only eat a “just ripe” banana.
The ingredients in this recipe are your standard banana bread ingredients. It’s a technique that Joanna uses that is different than any other quick bread or muffin recipe I’ve made. Instead of starting with the oil and sugar, this recipe starts with sugar and eggs. Then the oil is slowly and I mean s.l.o.w.l.y incorporated into the mixture. Super important that you follow the directions and do this slowly so as not to deflate the air you have just beaten into the batter. The bread bakes consistently every time. It is moist and full of flavor. I love the toasted walnuts in this recipe but have also swapped the nuts out for the same amount of chocolate chips or peanut butter chips. I always make two loaves, the first usually disappears faster than it can cool off, the second I like to slice into thick pieces and individually freeze. They make a quick breakfast on the go or afternoon snack.
Here are a few special recipes from the book I’d encourage you to also try. I don’t think I would have had the patience to attempt croissants if it wasn’t for Joanna’s IG live demo, I watched, paused, watched, paused, then watched again all the way through while making my first batch of croissants. Well worth the time and effort, my boys keep asking when I’m making them again! The Vanilla Cream Filled Donuts, are to die for. I understand why these are a best seller in the bakeries. Good thing my kids sleep in late on the weekends, because even though the initial rise can take place overnight, you still need several hours the next morning after you roll out the dough and cut them for a second rise. As for the Chubby Rocco Cookie? Well, when you have a son named Rocco, you just have to make a cookie named Rocco!
Croissants
Vanilla Cream Filled Donuts
The Chubby Rocco Cookie
This would be a perfect cookbook club book to host a Sunday brunch on a warm spring or summer day! Add a mimosa or a bloody mary bar and it's sure to be a success!
Trust me, you will bake your way through this book and love every calorie in it! I recently received Joanna’s new cookbook, Pastry Love. I’m looking forward to baking and sharing my favorite recipes! Please visit your local library, a small independently owned bookstore, or purchase your copy on Amazon. All of Joanna’s cookbooks are also available on her website!
I hope you’ll enjoy this book and cook along! Send me pictures if you bake something from this amazing book!
