The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

DiMuzio's «Bread Baking: An Artisan's Perspective»

thihal123's picture
thihal123

DiMuzio's «Bread Baking: An Artisan's Perspective»

Is there an errata published for DiMuzio's book? I was scouting through this forum and notice that this is a highly recommended textbook, but according to some reviewers, there are some formula errors. I don't mind if there is a published errata, either online or in print. Does this exist?

Juergen Krauss's picture
Juergen Krauss

I am not sure if there is an errata sheet, but the errors I have come across are fairly obvious.

All the recipes are available online on the publisher's site:

http://bcs.wiley.com/he-bcs/Books?action=resource&bcsId=5055&itemId=0470138823&resourceId=17232

Great book, indeed.

My favourites are: Sweet Challah, Pain de campagne, Baguette (direct Method)

Juergen

thihal123's picture
thihal123

Thanks! I wish I heard about this book earlier. It seems like a highly recommended book with clear instructions etc. 

LindyD's picture
LindyD

Dan is a member here, so he may pop up with an answer.  I recall a mention of some corrections, but keep in mind the book was first published in February 2009.   Publishers tend to make corrections in subsequent prints.  

It's a wonderful book and a great companion to Hamelman's Bread.

thihal123's picture
thihal123

Yes, publishers do tend to make corrections in subsequent prints, but even now the latest version is listed as printed in 2009, so I'm not sure how many printings, if any, the book has gone through. It's because of this that I was wondering if I should buy the book brand new instead of a used copy, thinking that a brand new one would be most likely to be the latest printing, if there were more than one printing.

davidg618's picture
davidg618

Dan's book was the first--and for quite a while, the only--book I used to learn artisan baking. Furthermore, Dan routinely helped me, by answering many of  my TFL-posted questions, with clear, unambiguous replies, and alternatives.

He also frequently added encouragement that helped keep me motivated to become a better baker.

Unless something has changed, he is readily accessible through TFL. His TFL name is dghdctr.

David G

 

thihal123's picture
thihal123

I got this book recently. It's a good textbook, but it seems to lack much explanation on hand mixing/kneading. Seems like the book assumes that you'll be using a machine for mixing. :(  By the way, I'm not so sure DiMuzio is still that active on this board. I sent him a message a while back and he hasn't replied. Not sure he still logs on.

 

Edit: edited to clarify that I'm talking about hand mixing, not machine machine. DiMuzio goes into detail for machine mixing.

Janetcook's picture
Janetcook

This is one of the first books I bought and has been a favorite due to the format and clarity.  I know lots here love Bread by Jeffery Hamelman but I found his book a bit much when I first started baking.  I had to work up to  his book whereas with Dan's it was an instant click.

What I like about it is that the information is broken down into smaller bite size pieces.  The book is larger and so is the print....I am an older person who likes larger print :-)  The pages are broken up into different sections - the main body of writing, maybe a photo or a 'box' containing extra information that doesn't necessarily fit into the main body of writing but is related.   It is very easy to use the index to find information when needed too.

I do not know about errata nor have run into any because I used this book more for the information about ingredients and the entire baking process - including formula development - than as a recipe book.  I use freshly milled whole grains so the book I used for baking my breads was an entirely different one.  (Peter Reinhart's 'Whole Grain Breads')  Dan's book filled in the information not included in Peter's book.

One thing I did, because there are a ton of books out there, was to request the books I was interested in at our library.  I was able to review them prior to purchasing them.   This allowed sit with each one for a bit before deciding which was a good 'fit' for me.  Saved me a lot of money in the long run.

Have fun in your search.

Janet

thihal123's picture
thihal123

Thanks Janet for a wonderful detailed reply :)

I have also borrowed many copies of bread books from my local library.