Bread Alone: Bold Fresh

I purchased this book because I had tried to bake bread in the past and the results were disapointing. I found this book extemely helpful and it has become my baking "Bible". I know it can sometimes be tedious, but if you try to follow the instructions as close as possible, the results are absolutely delicious! I have even started ordering organic stone ground flour and the flavor and texture of my bread has improved as the author said they would. Buy this book if you are serious about baking delicious bread.

Absolutely sure fire book for baking artisan bread. Each section of the book has a core of recipes that followed will result in wonderful bread. The only thing you need to watch is the amount of flour that a recipe calls out. Depending on density it varies wildly, but to give him credit he does say to weigh it, but you need to experiment with the correct texture and feel. I have probably 10 books on breads, but this is the one I use and the one I can't live without. Also it has an absolutely surefire Pain de levain recipe with about 6 variations of the same recipe, and two of the best baguette recipes I have tried. No other recipe has given the results that this book does. The sourdough starter is sure fire also. If you want to learn how to bake good bread using only flour, water, salt, and starter/yeast this is it.

I have tried for years to replicate the Artisan breads of Baltimore and Washington bakeries in my kitchen oven. Although the breads were fine tasting, they never had the tough, chewy, delicious crust of those breads I favored and bought as often as I could. Daniel Leader, author of Bread Alone, presents the "secret" of Artisan bread making. The first recipe I tried resulted in the crust and crumb I have tried for years to produce! Not only does Mr. Leader show the home baker, through step by step process of making Artisan bread, he laces his recipes with personal stories of his trips to France, learning from the French Boulangers and their sometimes personal stories. Not only is the book well worth it's recipes, it makes for enjoyable reading. This book goes beyond the recipes found in Baking with Julia, a very good book. Bread Alone shows step by step how to build the chef, the poolish and the slow fermentation of the dough to produce that wonderful tastey crust, so elusive in other books.

Okay, I agree with some of the negatives pointed out by the other reviewers. The excruciating detail can become repetitive, we do not all have access to the exact ingredients, nor the patience to deal with the precise temperature requirements. That said, this book allowed me, an amateur, to make some amazing bread. I follow the instructions fairly closely, but use common sense where appropriate. I have not yet used a thermometer, and yet have produced some great regular and sourdough loaves, bagels, pitas, etc. What this book does is tell you the steps you need to follow, techniques to use (particularly kneading), how the dough should look and feel at different stages. This book provides everything you need to learn the basics of bread-making (except patience, of course).

I came across this book in a public library and could not put it down once I started to read it, almost page by page. This is more than a book of recipes - recipes are really not that difficult to find - it is also about the passion of life, which has, without ourselves noticing, quickly but quietly turned into an obsession for quick tempo,profiteering, without a genuine understanding and appreciation of inner qualities. His attention paid to finding the best oven, organic wheats and slow fermention methods all related to bringing back the kind of breads which does not just look good, but which are genuinely good for health. And, for him, as a baker and owner of the shops, this is not just about a way to profiteer, but more to using human techniques and knowledge to turn the simplest and cheapest produce on earth into the best everyday food for the most people, even the not-so-wealthy ones. This is not just about the breads, but about the passion for life, substantial, earthly and without unnecessary sophistication. (the recipes are not that simple though.) This book is thus a sharing of the baker with the readers about his ways of looking at life as a baker, and letting us know also the passions of other bakers, and the persistent efforts putting into the soil by the organic farmers. In short, a book not just to function in the kitchen, but also one whose inspirations and thoughts you can share with the rest of the family.