The Fresh Loaf

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Which is the one BEST Bread Book for recipes/formulas. Not a technique book or how to but the actual formulas for great bread.

saraugie's picture
saraugie

Which is the one BEST Bread Book for recipes/formulas. Not a technique book or how to but the actual formulas for great bread.

Which one book, has the most, the tastiest recipes ?  Instructions on bread baking 101 not necessary, if it has that's ok but not essential by any means.

Comments

ehanner's picture
ehanner

I think most of us that have been here a while have come to the  conclusion that it is the technique and not the recipe that makes a great bread. Without the understanding of the former, the latter is of little value.

Eric

LindyD's picture
LindyD

Eric has stated the truth, so there's nothing else to add except that "taste" is a very subjective topic.  What one may consider "tasty," another may consider horrid.

You have to know what pleases your own palate, so browse around the recipes and blogs, and pick a few to try.

rossnroller's picture
rossnroller

Also, although I have a few excellent bread baking books (Hamelman, Reinhart, Glezer, Lepard) and another not so excellent, I mostly find myself baking the recipes of my favourite home bakers on this and my other bread forums (mostly Sourdough Companion and Wild Yeast). I have now baked scores of different breads and still have a long queue in my must-try list. This is because new ones that look fantastic are constantly popping up and joining the queue - and of course, when I discover a particulary yummy one, I bake it again and again.

I love my books and you certainly get a lot out of them that you don't get off forums, but for recipes, this and other forums are a constant source of amazing new breads to try. You're already just where you need to be!

Cheers
Ross

DownStateBaker's picture
DownStateBaker

When I am experimenting at home. I take the bread entry from a table on page 527 of Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking.

It's a basic formula but it helps give you ball park %'s of various ingredients. I like to see how breads turn out by tuning the %'s to what I am thinking of making.

Flour 100%

Water 65% (I wouldn't go much lower than this as the crumb is too dry and tight for my taste i am usually bringing the % up)

Fat or oil 3%

Milk Solids 3%

Sugar 5%

Salt 2%

Yeast varies too much to put a % here but he goes on to say later. "...the standard proportion for cake yeast is 0.5%-4% of the flour weight... for dried yeast, approximatley half these numbers"

I usually use this when I have ingredients for bread but not all of the specific ones in some recipes. I've made a lot of different kinds of breads with this formula as a starting point. I don't always add fat or oil, milk, or sugar. Salt and yeast are always included :-P

Tom Georgalas

Bertel's picture
Bertel

What exactly do you want? If you have the technique you probably know some formula's so why need a book? By surfing the web you can find loads of good bread formula's. Make no mistak, a recipe is a recipe. Environment, flour type, yeast, etc. all will make differences.

saraugie's picture
saraugie

What exactly do you want? If you have the technique you probably know some formula's so why need a book? By surfing the web you can find loads of good bread formula's. Make no mistak, a recipe is a recipe. Environment, flour type, yeast, etc. all will make differences."

I do understand that there is a base formula or perhaps a few, and its just tweaking it that makes a diff.  As a new baker, I want to read what the pros do, with the different additions.  I do have all the books I need, RLB Bread Bible, PR Artisan Breads Everyday, RB Dough, DL Local Breads, JJ Book of Bread, as well as other cookbooks which have bread recipes in them.

I think I'm set.  Thanks all for pointing out that once one has the basics, its all personal taste.

caryn's picture
caryn

Coincidentally, I just put up an entry on the book I think has some of the best and varied formulas: Hamelman's "Bread."  See my post here titled "Desert Island Bread Book."

saraugie's picture
saraugie

I bought Bread, and I am putting my peel down. "No more bread books" :)

saraugie's picture
saraugie

Got it