Twenty great American breads
The hand-shaped, wood-fired potato-thyme fougasse from Hungry Ghost Bakery in Northampton, Massachusetts, has a pillowy texture reminiscent of focaccia and a wonderfully herbacous taste. With a moist crumb and pronounced crust, Tartine’s country bread is the gold standard for artisan loaves in San Francisco and beyond. Remarkable. Todd Coleman Iggy’s in Boston makes one of our favorite sandwich breads, the fluffy and pliant pan Francese. Todd Coleman The seeded fougasse at Standard Baking Company in Portland, Maine, tastes like the best everything bagel on earth: chewy, fragrant, great with good butter. Todd Coleman Keith Kouris’s two Long Island Blue Duck bakeries feature a vast range of international breads, but their dense Finnish-style sour rye is our favorite, particularly with a ripe, creamy cheese. Todd Coleman Think of the heavenly, crisp caramelized cheese atop a casserole; that’s what the Asiago-Parmesan bread by Lionel Vatinet at La Farm in Cary, North Carolina, tastes like. Todd Coleman The fragrant rye ficelle Zachary Golper makes at his year-old Brooklyn bakery Bien Cuit is worth the trip to the borough. Todd Coleman Of all the creative loaves at Santa Monica’s Milo + Olive, the cinnamon sugar brioche is our favorite. Think French toast. Todd Coleman The wood-fired, earthy-tasting country blond boule at Ken Forkish’s 11-year-old Portland, Oregon, bakery has the perfect crumb-to-chew ratio. Todd Coleman Edmund and Kathleen Weber bake this rustic air-pocketed pumpkin seed campagna at their Petaluma, California bakery, Della Fattoria. Todd Coleman The moist, briny three-olive batard from Seven Stars in Providence, Rhode Island, is the platonic ideal of this style. Todd Coleman Long fermentation is the key to the fine flavor of this epi baguette, from Pain D’Avignon in New York City. Todd Coleman We’re crazy about Berkshire Mountain Bakery’s Bread and Chocolate, a sourdough boule studded with bittersweet Callebaut chunks. Todd Coleman The amply charred, smoky truccione sare from Sullivan Street Bakery in New York City embodies baker Jim Lahey’s classic-but-creative style. Todd Coleman Acme’s organic walnut levain is our favorite loaf from the seminal bakery in Berkeley, California. Todd Coleman The chewy pain de seigle, a wheat-and-rye sourdough boule from Balthazar in New York City, just might be the perfect table bread. Todd Coleman The chewy, aromatic Russian pumpernickel at 86-year-old Manhattan stalwart Orwasher’s is old-world perfection, and our choice for a pastrami sandwich. (We also love their chardonnay miche, made with grape yeast.) Todd Coleman Gerard Rubaud, a French baker in Vermont, mills the flour for his insanely delicious organic levain. Todd Coleman The slightly tangy, rugged whole wheat sourdough from New York’s Bread Alone makes a stellar PB&J. Todd Coleman The fresh local flour used at Grand Central Bakery in Seattle and Portland is one reason the airy Como loaf (perfect for bruschette) is so insanely delicious. Todd Coleman
