Bread Bakers Bookshelf
Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor
I bake from this book extensively. The 100% whole wheat sandwich loaf is a regular in our household. It's great flavor and light crumb is amazing for an all whole wheat bread.
If you're interested in baking all whole grain breads, this book is one of your best resources. If you've struggled to bake whole grain breads that won't be mistaken for the proverbial doorstop, then it's a must.
If you read all the Amazon reader comments, I think you'll get a fair assessment of what you can look forward to.
Other personal favorites are the whole wheat pizza crust, the Oat Bran Broom Bread with toasted sunflower seeds (super high fiber) and the Swedish Rye Bread (Swedish Limpa). All are 100% whole grain. It's so nice to bake healthful breads that also have a great taste and texture.
There's a commonality to most of the recipes, so once you're comfortable making one of the recipes, the others come easily. The sourdough purist may be a little disappointed. While the use of sourdough is a stated option in many of the recipes, almost all of them call for instant yeast. Even the sourdough option includes yeast as well. Until this book came along, I considered myself one of those purists. For these recipes, I have no problem spooning out the SAF instant.
Local Breads, Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers
After perusing the remarkable recipes in Leader's compilation of the best of Europe's artisanal breads, only the most resolutely self-controlled baker will be able to resist marching to the kitchen to reproduce one of these captivating loaves. Leader explains how to create a sourdough from airborne yeasts, and he uses that starter for many of these breads to yield superior, deep flavor and thick, crunchy crusts. Ranging from baguettes to chocolate croissants, from Italian ciabatta to dark Silesian rye, and from Czech country bread to potato pizza, these recipes give access to bread bakers' highest art. For those lacking the courage and patience to ferment a real sourdough starter, Leader offers several different shortcuts to success. Line drawings guide the novice, and full-color photographs render ideals for Leader's students to emulate. Question-and-answer sections throughout the book succinctly clarify potential problem areas. Leader's Auvergnat blue cheese rye rolls alone make this book a must for devotees of the baker's art.
Whole Grain Baking by King Arthur Flour
I would recommend this book even if I weren't biased due to the fact that I love the King Arthur Flour company, employees, products, store and bakery in Vermont, or that my wife won this book as a door prize at a King Arthur baking class in St. Louis. All that aside, the recipes in the book are great, the book is clearly written and a pleasure to read. Whenever I pick it up I can only think that life is too short for all there is to bake and enjoy.
Forget what you know about whole grain baking. Instead, envision light, flaky croissants; airy cakes; moist brownies; dreamy pie crusts; and scrumptious cookies - all made with whole grains. This is what you get in King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, a revolutionary cookbook that breathes new life into breads, cakes, cookies, pastries and more by transforming the dark and dense alchemy of whole grain baking into lively, flavorful, sweet and savory treats of all types.
Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes (Hardcover)
In Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes, award-winning master baker Jeffrey Hamelman presents the definitive, one-stop reference on the art and science of bread baking - a kitchen essential for seasoned home bakers and professionals alike. Hamelman, a professional baker for nearly three decades, was a member of the United States national baking team that won first place in the 1996 Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie, the bread-baking World Cup. Here, he shares this experience, putting world-class artisanal loaves within reach of any serious baker. Opening with a comprehensive overview of the foundations - essential ingredients; hand techniques for kneading, scoring, and shaping; the basic process from mixing through baking - he lucidly guides bakers through all elements of this richly rewarding craft.
Bread contains 118 detailed, step-by-step recipes for an array of breads: versatile sourdough ryes; breads made with pre-ferments; and simple, straight dough loaves. Recipes for brioche, focaccia, pizza dough, flat breads, and other traditional baking staples augment the diverse collection of flavors, tastes, and textures represented within these pages. From the delicate flavor and aroma of classic French baguettes to the mellow smoothness of Roasted Garlic Levain, a bread for every season and every palate is here.
Each recipe clearly outlines the key stages, with easy-to-use charts that list ingredients in both American and metric measures, quantities appropriate for home baking, and baker's percentages. Hundreds of drawings vividly illustrate techniques, and 35 handsome color photographs display finished breads. Sidebars accompany each recipe and section with valuable tips, from the subtle art of tasting and evaluating breads to the perfect fare to complement Vollkornbrot. A complete chapter on decorative breads - with instructions on techniques as well as a wide variety of exquisite patterns - will inspire magnificent display creations.
Laced throughout the book, Hamelman's personal narratives offer a compelling portrait of a lifelong love affair with bread and vividly communicate this passion. For bakers seeking to finesse this time-honored craft or simply to learn the tricks of the trade from a real master, Bread is a resource to be consulted time and time again.
The Bread Baker's Apprentice
From the inside book flap: "Both novice and experienced bakers have cause to celebrate Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Peter’s years of hands-on experience combined with his excellent teaching skills make this book the closest thing to having a master at your side as you bake.” — Lora Brody, author of Basic Baking
In the Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Peter shares his latest bread breakthroughs, arising from his study in several of France’s famed boulangeries and the always-enlightening time spent in the culinary academy kitchen with his students. Peer over Peter’s shoulder as he learns from Paris’s most esteemed bakers, like Lionel Poilane and Phillippe Gosselin, whose pain a l’anceinne has revolutionized the art of baguette making. Then stand alongside his students in the kitchen as Peter teaches the classic twelve stages of building bread, his clear instructions accompanied by over 100 step-by-step photographs.
Crust and Crumb
Predecessor to the Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Peter Reinhart's award winning Crust and Crumb is a very worthwhile addition to your baking library.
The fifty master formulas in this marvelous collection enable bakers to create countless creative variations of foundational breads and yeasted starters, wild yeast sourdoughs, as well as carbon dioxide leavened quick breads, unleavened breads, and rich, decadent biscuits, cakes, and pastries. This book will show you the boundless possibilities of the crust and the crumb, truly bread's heart and soul. The breads range from basic to complex, rustic to sophisticated, and include:
San Francisco Sourdough • Focaccia • German Five-Kern Bread • Mushroom Ciabatta • Chapatis • Naan • Pizza Doughs • Brioche • Kugelhopf • Buttermilk Blitz Biscuits • Cream Scones • Sourdough Pancakes • and much more.
Artisan Baking Across America
Maggie Glezer, the uniquely qualified, totally obsessed certified baker who teaches and writes about bread for both laypeople and professionals, set off across the country in pursuit of the best bread and best bakers in America. And she returned with the goods - impeccable recipes that reproduce the excellence and craft of the best breads being made today, scaled down and written for a home kitchen.
But in addition to the recipes, she offers sumptuous color photography and portraits of the bakers, in words and pictures, that tell the story of America's artisan bread movement, from the wheat breeders in Kansas, to a grist mill in Rhode Island, to specialty bakers from Berkeley, California, to Long Island City, New York.
This is a book to bake from, to learn from, to read for the sheer pleasure of realizing the the devotion and mastery that go into the making of our best daily bread, whether it be a dark rye, a Neapolitan pizza, a baguette, or a bially.
Whether your interest is epicurean, avocational, or vocational, you will be guided by step-by-step instructions detailing the best professional methods. Each recipe is categorized by skill level from beginner to advanced, and there are also helpful mail-order sourced for ingredients and equipment.
Classic Sourdoughs
Classic Sourdoughs is often recommended for beginners. Recipes are fairly simple and straightforward. Ed Wood describes the basics of preparing a sourdough culture, and then moves on to building, shaping and baking these storied loaves. Dr. Wood combines hard science with a profound respect for baking traditions, emphasizing the importance of ingredient selection and paying homage to the baking techniques practiced by the ancient Egyptians.
Featuring over ninety recipes and a chapter on baking authentic sourdoughs in bread machines, this baker's resource also includes new information on Dr. Wood's latest discovery - a culture considered to be the authentic San Francisco sourdough - which will allow you to re-create the world famous taste of San Francisco bread in your own home.
Another aspect of this book a lot of people appreciate is that many of the recipes call for using two cups of sourdough starter. This is considerably more than what you see in most sourdough bread recipes and a great way of using up any excess starter on hand.
Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery
This beautifully illustrated, ultra sophisticated cookbook is also accessible and user friendly. Before the baking even begins, Silverton carefully and lovingly explains the wonder of bread alchemy: how to grow a starter, and how that starter interacts with a bread's other elements to bring about a firm yet light crumb and a crispy, crusty outside.
Then come the recipes, which range from the whimsical (Raisin Brioche, Red Pepper-Scallion Bread, and Fig-Anise Bread) to the practical (Baguettes, Bagels, and Hamburger Buns) to the sublime (Pumpkin Bread, Mushroom Bread, and, perhaps best of all, Chocolate-Sour Cherry Bread). Silverton even creates incomparable pretzels, croissants, onion rings, and dog biscuits).
Designed for the novice and expert baker alike, Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery is a must-have classic - a back-to-basics approach that will delight, inspire, and satisfy bread lovers everywhere.
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The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book
The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book is an ageless classic. The section on 100% whole wheat naturally leavened desem bread alone makes this book indispensable for anyone interested in the health benefits of whole grain baking.
In the years since the publication of Laurel's Kitchen, Laurel Robertson and her friends have consulted with bread scientists and professional bakers. They have studied the history of bread making and, most important, they have baked thousands of loaves themselves.
What they have come up with is a way of baking that yields nutritious, soul satisfying bread every time. Using the best of old-fashioned (pre-white flour) experience, as well as the convenience of modern equipment (the food processor and the dough hook, for example), they have devised a method that consistently gives you the kind of bread you want.
The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book takes you by the hand and leads you through the process so that you can achieve superb results. Equally useful is the treasure of advise. Have you baked a brick? Did your dough refuse to rise? Are you too busy to bake? Are you afraid you don't have the right equipment? Here is all the information you need to make beautiful delicious, healthful bread. You'll learn how to fit baking into your schedule. You'll learn to trust yourself, to know the feel of the living dough, the mystery of the "spring", the warmth of the aroma that will fill your house - as it does Laurel's kitchen.
First published in 1984. With the notable exception of the desem bread recipe, most of the recipes call for commercial yeast.
