Good bread, home-made

Follow easy instructions and produce crusty French baguettes and rosemay-scented pave. Provided to China Daily

The aroma of baking bread is the scent of a cozy home. Donna Mah follows her nose to the best breads in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong

For years, friends in Hong Kong have lamented over the lack of good bread. They complain a short ferry ride to Macao yields fantastic bread at local eateries all over the place, but there are few baguettes in Hong Kong that can claim to be similar.

Perhaps it's time to try making your own. The recently published La Boulangerie by Gregiore Michaud, the head pastry chef at the Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong can show you how to do it all.

The reality in most Hong Kong kitchens is that there is no oven. Some may have a real oven, but most homes have what are known as toaster ovens. But it may be worth investing in the proper equipment so you can reap the harvests from the chef's instructions.

Chef Michaud covers all the ingredients and steps in bread-making: the flour, leavening methods, mixing and kneading, hydration, fermentation, resting, shaping, proofing, scoring and baking.

In the foreword to the book, Xavier Honorin, Champion de Monde de Boulangerie, notes: "If you find that as a result of this book, you inspire other bakers, even just through one recipe, by giving them a hint or a simple idea, you have achieved your goal."

There are 45 bread recipes in the book, each with the chef's tips. For example, if you are making the Pecan and Raisin Boule, the chef suggests soaking the raisins in tea, Armagnac or apple juice to add extra moisture and flavor to the bread.

For French baguettes, he suggests using a poolish (flour and water mixed with a little yeast and proofed for a relatively long time) to produce a more flavorful and crusty bread.

Sometimes the chef adds a personal touch, as he did for the Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread. "I enjoy this bread with salty butter and the great Irish farm cheeses. During my time working in Ireland, I was positively submerged by the variety and quality of Irish cheeses."

The recipes in the book are for home bakers, but the Blue Bar in the Four Seasons also serves a selection of breads from the book at the lunch buffet. For sour dough fans, be sure to check out the sourdough bread at the hotel. The sourdough starter ("mother dough") has been "alive" since the hotel opened in 2005 and is nurtured on a daily basis by the pastry team.