Looking for True Loaves
By Maureen Sullivan
for MSN City Guides
 Excerpt...
Artisanal bread bakeries are on the rise. Here are eight tips on how to spot a real, handmade loaf.
Read the label: Leader says that you should be able to tell whether a bread is truly artisanal by its ingredients. "Any place that's making parbaked frozen bread either has to use some type of preservatives to help with the freezing process, or they have to use some type of dough conditioners.
So you will see a lot of things that you'll have to grab a dictionary for [on the label]," says Leader. "If you read a Bread Alone label, there isn't anything on that label that you can't in one second know: whole wheat flour, water, sea salt, yeast, sourdough. We don't use any junk." More
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A sandwich with the best of spring flavors
BY RACHEL WHARTON
NYDailyNews.com
Wednesday, April 13th 2008
 Few things capture the essence of the season like smoked salmon, and one of the best ways to serve this omega-3-packed fish is with brown bread and a schmear of garlicky mayo.
For the recipe, follow Bread Alone baker Daniel Leader, whose new book, "Panini Express," puts his famous greenmarket loaves to use.
More
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Profiles, Daniel Leader, Bread Alone
From American Express Profiles
March 26, 2007
 ...Wiry, buzz-cut and impassioned, Leader is holding court in the middle of the expansive bakery that opens out behind the café. Outside are the vans that will ship Leader’s 20-plus lines of Bread Alone organic loaves to his three other cafes in the New York state area, as well as his 150 East Coast wholesale outlets, including New York City’s farmers’ markets, and upscale chains such as Whole Foods and Dean & DeLuca. “My first principle with this place?” he says, as roll-laden trolleys clatter past him. “To make traditional European-style artisanal bread in wood-fired brick ovens. No more, no less.” More  (PDF, 661 KB)
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Rising to the Task, the Producers
From Fresh Living
by Russel Wasserfall
 ...Pick n Pay has brought in Daniel Leader, a baker from the States. He’s here for three weeks to train us on the new ovens. We’ll get straight to work at 7am, starting with the weighing and the mixing. There’s no time for breakfast, but I’ll get something at 10am when everything is in the prover. No stopping to talk to the street vendors about how little sugar there is in their scones this morning.
When I first joined the bread team, I knew only a little. We were doing hamburger, hotdog and garlic rolls then. Now we are developing ‘lifestyle breads’. This is a whole new, exciting way of baking – making loaves of bread with sourdough starters. Daniel is an expert on these kinds of breads and he has taught me so much about the process. More (PDF, 762 KB)
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A Baguette Breakthrough
From A Mighty Appetite blog
by Kim O'Donnel
November 6, 2007
 ...With all the recent back-and-forthing in the blog space, I had lingering bread on the brain, so for a fresh perspective, I paged through "Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers" by Daniel Leader, a new title in bread-making land.
 At first, I'm a bit intimidated by Leader's meticulously written recipes, many of which require a poolish or a biga (aka starter), an extra step I was unprepared (and perhaps unwilling) to tackle. But Leader, known for "Bread Alone," his Woodstock, N.Y. bakery and eponymously named cookbook, has a wonderfully inviting writing style, with a story about each baker he meets, and I'm determined to find a recipe that won't take two days to complete...
Full Blog Entry from washingtonpost.com
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Bread Alone bakery gets a rise from global ovens
 BY LISA AMAND
NYDailyNews.com
Wednesday, September 19th 2007
For bakers, timing is crucial, and "Local Breads," Daniel Leader's second cookbook, comes just as enthusiasm for whole-grain loaves (and fall weather) finally arrives.
When Leader's Bread Alone bakery opened in 1983 near Woodstock, the country's appetite for carbs was soon suppressed by the Atkins "crisis," as Leader calls it.
Then, he was continually being asked if they were going to make low-carb bread. (The answer then and now is an emphatic "no.")
Now, on busy days, Bread Alone bakes 10,000 pounds of fragrant boules or crusty baguettes for Citarella, Zabar's, C-Town, Whole Foods, Fairway and Greenmarkets. Full NYDailyNews.com article
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 Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from
Europe’s Best Artisan Bakers
kirkusreviews.com
September 2007
For 20 years, Daniel Leader’s Woodstock, N.Y. based bakery Bread Alone has been a beacon of sanity in a land with a chronic case of what Leader calls “yeast phobia.” “It’s a product of the modern world,” he says. “A fundamental fear that your breads won’t rise. I remind my students that we’ve been baking bread for more than 2,000 years and 1,900 years of that history without commercial yeast. How hard can it be?” With the help of Leader’s exquisitely illustrated recipes, it’s likely not as hard as one might think...
Full Review from Kirkusreviews.com
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New York baker reaches out to Africa
 Julia Taylor
 WAMC New York News
KINGSTON, NY (2006-11-01) A Hudson Valley bakery-owner has decided to take on a pro-bono project in South Africa. He's starting bakeries there so that HIV-positive single moms can make and have access to affordable whole-grain bread. WAMC's Julia Taylor sat down with Dan Leader to talk about his business plan. Listen (MP3)
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Woodstock
Not living by bread alone
By Andrew Hickey
Ulster County Press
Woodstock, NY (October 25, 2006) – Give a man a loaf of bread and he’ll eat for a day. Teach him how to make the bread with local labor and grains, and help him open his own bakery, and he’ll not only eat forever but he’ll help nourish South African communities struck hard by AIDS. More
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The South African Whole Grain Bread Project
Wins Prize in BiD Challenge 2006
LOCAL ENTREPENEURS WIN IN HOLLAND
First Americans to take home prize in the 2006 BiD Challenge
Woodstock, NY (October 18, 2006) – The South African Whole Grain Bread Project (SAWGBP), a business developed by local entrepreneurs Dan Leader of Bread Alone, retired physician Neil Ratner and his wife, Leann Ratner as a response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa, was one of 16 new businesses awarded prizes last week in the 2006 Business in Development (BiD) Challenge held in Holland. More
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 Daniel Leader: The Bread Philosopher
from The Gilded Fork™ by Jennifer L. Iannolo
When I set out to create this bread issue, the first person who came to mind for "Behind the Toque" was Daniel Leader. His bakery, Bread Alone, has become an icon in the Hudson Valley (and nationwide) for beautiful artisanal breads, and his creations can be found on the tables of many a Manhattan restaurant.
As I dug into my research, I discovered a fascinating story about a passionate, philosophical young chef who was in the midst of Manhattan's culinary glory, but found himself yearning for a simpler, purer existence. More
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Recent articles from Bon Appétit and MSN Lifestyle...
MSN Lifestyle, 10/3/06
The Wine Life, Presented by Hudson Valley Harvest
Bread Alone Bakery
 Sharon Burns-Leader holds a basket of Bread Alone's artisan breads, ready for early-morning delivery to community markets within 100 miles of her bakery.
Bread Alone Bakery & Café's oven-fresh baked goods number among the many thrills of Hudson Valley living. Founded in 1983 by former New York City chef Dan Leader, the string of bakeries offers up European-style hearth-baked breads marketed from several locations, including New York City green markets and restaurants.
 When it comes to bread, Dan and his wife and bakery partner, Sharon Burns-Leader, are perfectionists who went so far as to bring over French specialists to custom-build their company's brick ovens. Several times each year the couple trots the globe looking for ways to improve their bread and pastries even more.
They dream of sending out Alpine-style bread trucks that will carry their sourdough levains and miches, baguettes, croissants, and muffins to the quiet villages and towns of their beloved valley. "We're on the verge of rivaling Napa," Sharon says, gesturing toward the Catskill Mountains surrounding them. "All we need now is our own Alice Waters to champion how great this region is."
To reach Bread Alone in Boiceville, call (845) 657-3328 or log on to www.breadalone.com.
Source: MSN Lifestyle, 10/3/06 - The Wine Life, presented by Hudson Valley Harvest
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