Books & Books Presents Miami Native Jennifer Lapidus Discussing Her Acclaimed Baking Book “Southern Ground”

Photo Credit: Erin Adams

Books & Books is proud to present a book signing and talk on Friday, November 26 at 6:30 p.m, by accomplished miller, baker and author Jennifer Lapidus, a Miami native. Her baking book “Southern Ground, Reclaiming Flavor Through Stone-Milled Flour” features a highly curated collection of 80 recipes from 20 acclaimed craft bakeries throughout the South that showcases superior cold stone-milled flour. The book highlights the importance of baking with locally farmed ingredients.

Lapidus will be in conversation with another Miami native, baker Christina Balzebre, who owns Levee Baking Company in New Orleans, one of the bakeries featured in her book. (And of course there will be cookies to taste.)

With deep roots in the community, Lapidus is the granddaughter of the legendary Miami Beach architect, Morris Lapidus. Growing up in South Miami, the smell of fresh (albeit mass produced) bread wafting from the Holsum Bakery (which was razed to make way for a shopping mall) left its imprint. She started baking bread for friends in college at the University of Georgia, and, forgoing law school to the chagrin of her father, Miami attorney Richard Lapidus, she pursued a career as an artisan bread baker. For nearly 15 years, Jennifer milled her own flour as principal of her Natural Bridge Bakery. But it wasn’t until she pivoted to become a miller as the founder of Carolina Ground, that she truly embraced the intense flavors imparted by flour made from grains grown and stone-milled in the heart of the South.

At her Carolina Ground flour mill in Hendersonville, NC, Lapidus is transforming bakery offerings across the southern United States. While delivering extraordinary taste, texture and story, cold stone-milled flour also allows bakers to move away from industrial commodity flours to create sustainable and artisanal products.

Now, in “Southern Ground,” Lapidus celebrates the incredible work of bakers all over the South. In Starksville, Mississippi, Troy DeRego's Portuguese biscuits introduce uncommon flavors and textures to this Southern college town. In Atlanta, the Little Tart Bakeshop elevates the Georgia peanut with stone ground whole grain spelt flour; and in New Orleans, Levee Baking Co. pairs the flavor of Louisiana cane syrup with Southern grown Wren's Abruzzi rye. Serving instruction and insight into how to use and enjoy these flavor-forward flours of geographic distinction, Southern Ground harnesses the wisdom and knowledge that

the baking community has gained. With detailed profiles on the top Southern bakers and more than 75 recipes arranged by grain, this is a love story to Southern baking and a call for the home baker to understand the source and makeup of the most important of ingredients: flour.

About the Author

Jennifer Lapidus is the founder and principal of Carolina Ground Flour Mill. She launched her Natural Bridge Bakery in 1994, where she milled her flours in-house and baked her naturally leavened breads in a wood-fired brick oven. Her bakery was the first of its kind in western North Carolina and was featured in Peter Reinhart's book Whole Grain Breads. Jennifer has also been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Splendid Table, Bon Appétit, Food and Wine, Saveur, Taste of the South and numerous other local publications. Jennifer sits on the board of Carolina Farm Stewardship Association and is co organizer of the Asheville Bread Festival.