Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes

I've been a home baker for many years and have owned ALL of the bread cookbooks that have been touted as 'the definitive' one to have. However, NONE of them ever helped me to achieve the type of perfect artisanal bread that this one did on my first attempt after reading it. My thanks to reviewers like Southern Review who helped me to believe that this one might be the 'holy grail' of bread books, because IT IS! When you get it, sit down and read the first chapters before the recipes and you'll learn so many things that will help to make all your breads SO much better! I've tried sourdough breads off and on for years and was never satisfied with what I achieved with them. The first recipe I tried was the Vermont Sourdough and I just couldn't believe how perfect it was! I'd finally DONE it! Several things that the other cookbooks all stated one must do in handling the doughs turns out to be just flat wrong, just the simple information he gives on folding the dough a few times during the initial rise has given me the sort of beautiful, silky, full of life dough that before I'd only dreamed of! Easy to read and understand, good illustrations on how to shape, score, and bake, I don't think I'll ever use another bread book, but when I do I'll follow the techniques in this book!

THIS is the definitive guide for professional and serious home bakers; it is precisely the caliber of detailed information serious bakers have demanded in order to reach their next plateau of bread baking excellence. This is unmistakably the most comprehensive bread book of its type on the market. I am so delighted with the results it has shown my own baking. As a serious and dedicated cook, I have never experienced such instant gratification and remarkable improvements in my own craft than is evidenced via the advice available from this extraordinary reference. Through dedicated effort, and much trial and effort - in the method of Nancy Silverman - my sourdough eventually met the high goal I set for it; to taste like that of Fisherman's Wharf sourdough. Nevertheless, my ciabatta and country style loaves remained, in my opinion, sub-par. This book's detailed; professional instructions launched my country bread and ciabatta loaves to bakery status within only two passes! I am now able to go beyond my original benchmark and further tweak the percentages in BREAD to achieve what ever I want for this style of bread. It is such a wonderful experience! The first try did not deviate from BREAD's formula. The second pass was formulae - plus - experience, and that was the charm. We are simply blown-away at how something exponentially went from good to excellent in two batches. JEFFREY HAMELMAN, a former bakery owner has been baking professionally for thirty years. In 1998, he became the 76th Certified Master Baker in the United States. Unlike the other author of five bread books, Mr. Hamelman's book, Bread stays on point. He does not have the ungracious, annoying habit of referencing himself as "acclaimed" and famous, nor does he continuously interject references to old James Beard awards. Mr. Hamelman does not patronize the reader and talk down to them, nor does he disingenuously convolute his instructions to make them appear more complicated to elevate his own importance. I bought four of the other author's books in a single optimistic purchase for which I regret. Reinhart's recipes produced baked goods that could double as doorstops and his sourdough starter was a waste of ingredients, both tries were scaled and to the letter! There are 118 detailed formulas. Each formula is charted in four versions: - U.S. Imperial weight - for professional yields (about 22-25 loaves) - Metric weight - for large professional yields - Home - Imperial volume (cups, teaspoons) w/some weights - 2-3 loaves - Bakers Percentages Home artisan bakers can easily scale their ingredients by looking at the professional metric weights and moving the decimal point for home yields. The only math necessary is converting fresh yeast to either active or instant yeasts. OR, if one wishes to customize ingredients, they can combine the baker's percentages as appropriate. Additional information might be as follows: -Ciabatta with Stiff Biga- pre-fermented flour 20% Dough Y

This is absolutely the best of the bread books. However, I'll warn the novice baker that it is also much more technical than many of the other books on the market. If you are looking for a simple recipe book and have no desire to understand the bread-baking process, then skip this book. On the other hand, if you want to produce quality bread and are willing to read the text, you will be delighted with the results. Hamelman's writing is clear and concise; he provides detailed drawings to explain various processes. For example, when giving directions on folding bread, Hamelman actually shows each step. This is in sharp contrast to Peter Reinhart's "Bread Baker's Apprentice" which instructs the baker to fold the dough, but never explains how it should be done. I wish I'd found this book before I bought a number of others. I probably would have purchased those at some point because I like having multiple references, but this book is one to which I would refer.

There are numerous things that put this bread book above the other books about home-bread-baking that I own. Apart from the fact that the breads turned out exceptionally well from loaf No. 1. I have to insist that it is very clearly written and well structured. Side remarks are even in a different color, so you will not get distracted from the recipes. The book discusses these methods for making bread: - Breads made with pre-fermented dough using either a saltless starter, also known as "poolish" or "Biga" (or "Anstellgut" in german) or a starter made with a little salled called "Pâte fermentée" - Breads made with levain (i.e. white sourdough) - Rye sourdough breads - Straight doughs (using no pre-fermented doughs) (- Other assorted breads or baking goods, that didn't fit into the aforementioned categories) Tthe author does a very good job of teaching how you can make a lot of breads out of small amounts of the starter. I finally got around to maintaining a levain and a rye sourdough culture! I didn't know it was that easy. And you only need to take up to two table spoons of any of those starters to have a great bread within 36 hours. The rye sourdoughs may not be as acidic as some of the breads you can buy here in Germany, but they still make very good mild rye sourdough breads. The quality of the breads that I was able to make is astounding. I witnessed oven spring that didn't know was possible in a home oven. I find it very amusing that I had to buy an american baking book in order to learn how to make a genuine "Vollkornbrot" or a good sunflower seed bread - both traditional german breads. And I wished german baking professionals were a bit more forthcoming when it comes to sharing their secrets. To be honest, I don't know one single german bread book that is even remotely as good this one.