It’s near impossible to find decent bread, compared to EU countries like France/Belgium/Germany. :(
Good bread exists, it’s just not cheap like it is in Europe.
I’ve found though for things like hydration or proofing times your environment is going to have a noticeable impact on that.
King Arthur recipes are written with their products in mind, so if you’re using other flour make sure to check the protein content and that it matches! I’ve made that mistake before when I had consistently bad results and realized the flour I had was quite a bit lower in protein content despite having the same general “all purpose” moniker.
That said, I've used a cheap bleached white AP flour when that's all that's available and had ... quite good results. My preference is bread flours, and generally at least some whole wheat in the mix.
Boston Logan is probably your closest truly useful airport, and the Dartmouth Coach goes direct from there to Hanover.
Haven't spent much time in Belgium, but I was disappointed in the average quality of the bread in small bakeries in France. There was one awesome organic bakery in Paris near the catacombs tour, and one hypermarche (forget where) that somehow had an absolutely incredible rustic baguette. But the little shops in towns, eh. And most of the hypermarches. Germany is also kind of average, the Reve bakeries are reliably on the good side of middling, but nothing that I'd consider incredible.
But, there are local bakeries here and there and many of them seem to make pretty good breads? Maybe I don't know what you're specifically looking for though. I'm in LA at the moment and I can be both frustrated with the average but still find some good stuff.
Oh gee, who’d imagine you’d be able to find a decent baker in in LA?
Always hilarious how people in LA/NYC assume that obviously the experience of living in one of the largest cities in the country applies to the whole of the country.
Even when something is a "9 grain" bread, usually what that actually means is it's wheat bread with other grains in the crust.
Very hard to find a rye bread in the US.
- The quality is highly uniform.
- The quality is highly bland.
As with any mass-produced food, the goals are typically quantity and low cost, though often with a putative appearance of quality or artisanal character. The compromises are largely against a high-quality product, though there are places where this may be found, albeit at far higher prices.
Of you may bake your own.
