Bread: The Breads of the World and How to Bake Them at Home

I have made at least 15 of the recipes from this book and they all turn out very well. As with any baking book, there's going to be the need for some practice to learn how to turn out a good loaf, but once you have the basics down, the variety of recipes and consistently delicious products make this book a great buy. Among my favorites are the recipes for focaccia and English muffins. The muffins are fantastic fresh off the griddle. The recipes are clear, and I have not found errors yet after reading practically the entire book. The background information at the beginning is fairly interesting as well for thumbing through while waiting for yeast to proof. The only two recipes I would adjust that I have made so far are the pretzels and bagels. For the recipe size, these came out smaller and crisper than I like, so I would double the recipe but make the same number of pieces.

"Bread" (the breads of the world and how to bake them at home), Hermes House, copywrite 2003, by Anness Publishing Ltd. of London, 256 pp., by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapteer, is an excellent book for baking the breads of the world. There are many excellent color photos to show the finished products as well as some of the steps in the preparation of the breads. The recipes and directions are easy to follow. Baking bread is a learned art/skill. No one turns out a good loaf on the first try. However, anyone with patience can, eventually, turn out a good loaf of bread, each time. On the other hand, patience, skill, and a variety of intangibles sometimes result in an ability to turn out an exceptional loaf of bread. Personally, I am still working at it. However, this book is a wonderful resource for techniques, especially if I want to try something different. Try it. This book makes an excellent gift for the cook/baker who wants to turn out better or different bread.

I love this book! I've made several of the recipes, such as challah, pita and baguette over and over again. My husband (who studied in France) said the baguette tastes just like what he ate in France. I plan to give this book to people as gifts (if I can find copies!). It's got recipes from around the world as well as educational articles on the components of bread and how to make it. One of the best features is the great pictures accompanying many steps in the instructions - very helpful!

This book does a really good job of giving you a good overview of the kinds of breads that are backed around the world, the kinds of grains that go into them and how they are milled and all of the basic stuff about how to bake bread and how the various ingredients interact together. There are great pictures, lots of commentary. The only reason I am giving this four stars out of five is because the book does not give recipes for all the kinds of bread it discusses in the first part! This was a little disappointing after reading about them in the front and wanting to try them. Still, I would recommend this book, it covers most all the basic breads, though it focuses more on the fancier ones (italian chocolate bread) then some that are plain but wide spread (north american frybread, an example of one mentioned for which no recipe is given). Still, don't take this review the wrong way. If you just looked at the recipes alone, this book would still stand out as a good one.

This book is lavishly illustrated, as any cook book should be. But it has more than just pretty pictures. You get lots of pictures that illustrate technique. It also offers really detailed instructions on fermented dough starters used in French and Italian breads. For a next step, you might want something that spends more time on weights and ratios and the finer points of technique. But this is a great book for a baker with some experience who wants to make the next step.