Beth Hensperger's Bread Made Easy: A Baker's First Bread Book

This book is very simple and has great illustrations. I have been making hand kneaded bread for a few years now and have had good luck with the recipes I made from this book.

The author says it's as good as a class in breadmaking-except for an instructor to talk to she's right! The recipes are easy to follow and arranged in order of difficulty. Plus each chapter starts with a basic recipe and then adds variations to dress it up! Try the Egg bread with cinnamon-my kids love it.

This book exceeded my expectations. It explains everything you need to know to bake all types of bread, including ingredients, supplies, techniques and tips. The author is very knowledgable and takes you through the book from basic to more advanced breads. I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn the art of baking breads!!!

I finally got up the nerve to begin the task of bread baking about six months ago. After some research, I decided on this book because it is for beginners and the book methodically moves from easiest to more difficult. Each master recipe in a chapter is accompanied by variations on the same theme so if you make the master and a variation, then you probably have the skills to move on. The directions are simple, there is a chapter on basic bread knowledge and they the breads taste great. As of this writing, I have baked pretty much all the master recipes and a variant. I have not tried the sweet dough chapters (of which there are 2 or 3 I think). I thought these chapters are more special occasion breads rather than everyday so I skipped them. IMHO, one sweet dough chapter would have been fine and this is why I didnt give it 5 stars. Im sure they are excellent recipes. I have graduated to Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice which is a more serious treatise and also geared to novices. Look for my review on that when I have baked through it a bit. Bread Made Easy is not expensive and I recommend it as a first timer's book. Hope this helps someone.

I am a beginning bread baker. I was attracted to this book because it is targeted to beginning bread bakers and has helped me learn and reinforce the basics, and it introduced me to a handful of basic bread types. I liked the small size of it and I approached it as a course that I could finish and get through, therefore giving me a good sense of accomplishment. One of the things I especially like is that she gives variations of the different basic bread types at the end of each chapter.There are a few relatively minor inconsistencies in it but they are not major.I recommend it as an intro to bread baking.