Can you give us an overview of Bread Baking Basics, in your own words?

Bread Baking Basics is an app that describes the fundamentals of baking bread. It automatically calculates ingredient amounts according to how much bread you want to make and gives you techniques for all kinds of breads, from sourdough to rye to multigrain.

What made you decide to develop an app that teaches people how to bake bread? What was your inspiration?

My initial inclination, along with my partner in these products, was to develop a series of cooking apps for the iPad and iPhone, but especially the tablet, which presents images so well. Bread was first because bread baking, completely reliant on ratios, so readily lent itself to tablets and smart phones and what they are capable of doing that books, television and the internet can't do: create recipes designed specifically for each user.

Do you measure in ounces or grams? The app adjusts to your preference. Do you have a stand mixer or are you mixing by hand? The app changes instructions and images based on your equipment. Do you want to make one pizza dough or four? Bread Baking Basics calculates how much flour, water, yeast and salt you will need depending on what you tell it. It also allows us to include many, many images for each recipe step (I'm very lucky to be married to a photographer who can shoot high quality pix).

One of the coolest things about apps is that they're organic -- they can change. I'll be adding a no-knead ratio and a gluten-free ratio soon, which will automatically update to anyone who has already purchased the original app.

Next up, we're planning a sausage making basics app, followed by a pickling app.

Can you tell us a little about the process of developing the app? Was it like developing a cookbook?

For me, it was very much like developing a book. Writing text, taking shots of what the food should really look like in your kitchen, writing and then testing recipes. Will Turnage takes care of all the coding, debugging, beta testing, and uploading to the apple store.

What can a user expect to learn from your Bread Baking Basics app?

Users will learn the primary steps of making satisfying bread, but more, I hope, they will gain the confidence and excitement to engage in this ancient, fundamental, and deeply satisfying craft.

Entitled "Bread Baking Basics," it sounds like the app is geared towards those just starting out baking bread. Will it appeal to intermediate and advanced bakers as well? How so?

If a beginner reads the text and follows the recipes, the app will give them the ability to make good bread at home. For intermediate bakers it will introduce them to different bread doughs, such as multigrains and ryes and wild yeast doughs. The app is not intended for the advanced baker (most of whom could teach me more than I can teach them), but it does provide them a handy bread calculator based on standard bakers percentages. And it's a great resource for professional cooks who may need to come up with some bread recipes on the fly.

Photo credit: Donna Ruhlman

How is Bread Baking Basics different from the bread baking portion of the Ratio app?

That just gives one ratio for a basic bread dough, white bread; the Bread Baking Basics app adds multiple doughs, multiple shapes, a great deal more written information, with lots of images.

If someone wanted to continue their bread baking education after they've made it through all of the recipes and tutorials in your app, what would you recommend as the next step?

Read and practice. Professional bread bakers spend their whole lives focused on the various combinations of just four fundamental ingredients. It's inexhaustible and infinitely complex.

What other bread baking resources, book, etc, would you recommend to readers?

I like thefreshloaf blog, and we give a list of recommended bread books for further reading.

Other related posts you might enjoy on Ruhlman.com:

Update: Bouchon Bakery Cookbook
Veal Stock and Guinness Bread
No-Knead Bread: A Convert’s Story
What makes a great cooking app?

2010 Interview:
Food Blogger Spotlight: Michael Ruhlman

iPad AppsiPad Apps

Baking Bread in the Digital Era with Michael Ruhlman