Master baker Stefan Elias has built a solid reputation as an expert on the Franco-Belgian baking tradition. The wingman of legendary Ghent baker Jacques Bloch, Stefan has been on a personal quest to discover authentic, almost forgotten recipes for several years. This book is for home bakers who love artisanal baked goods.

Stefan helps novice and experienced bakers cook up a real feast with over 150 different recipes. The line-up includes such classics as brioche bread, Liège waffles and Belgian truffles, as well as regal bundt cakes with frostings and ganaches, cruffins and a cornucopia of pastries and pies. No baking feast would be complete, however, without savoury dishes such as pizza tartlets, oven cakes and filled chaussons. Everyone at the table can share in the fun thanks to the delicious vegan recipes.

The secret to the art of baking lies in Stefan’s method: he enriches these traditional recipes, which have been handed down from generation to generation, with carefully chosen ingredients and his undeniable passion for his craft.

Historian Greet Draye, who is affiliated with KU Leuven (Centre for Agrarian History), shows why home baking is still going strong with fascinating stories about baking customs and bread culture. Find out how the Egyptians discovered by accident that dough could rise, how cake was strictly a privilege of the nobility in the seventeenth century and, above all, how you too can become part of this rich baking tradition.