Hello everyone.  I'm pretty new here but I've been reading everything I could on the site (and other sites) for a few weeks.  I've been baking bread nearly every day for the past two weeks.   I'm the kind of person who is not happy merely following a recipe, I want to know the science behind the ingredients and techniques.  I've been looking at a few books but don't know which would be the best investment as far as combination of science and recipes.  Here are the books I've narrowed down:

* Hamelman's "Bread"

* Reinhart's BBA

*Clayton's "Complete Book of Breads"

*Hensperger's "Bread Bible"

I know the last two have far more recipes but I don't know the quality of the technical information in comparison to Hamelman and Reinhart.  So I guess I'm asking if you could pick just one book that would teach you both in depth theory and application, which would you choose?

I should add that I tried to see if any of these books are at my library, but they are not.  

I hope that I'm not being too much of a pain in the butt LOL.  I just want to make a wise investment.

I really appreciate it.

Thanks a bunch,

Eve

Hi all, 

I just saw that there's a new upcoming bread book: "Tartine Bread" (ISBN: 0811870413). According to Amazon.com, it is due to be published in September. 

I don't know much about the, but if it's anything like the Tartine bakery book, it should be a must-have book. 

Does anyone here know anything about it? (Perhaps TFLers located in San Francisco can visit the bakery and ask?)

Boaz

Seems like they're very few cookbooks out there for the home milling crowd, and ever fewer for the home miller who wants to bake exclusively with sourdough.  Any recommendations on a collection of recipes or a website for the sourdough whole grain home miller?

I'm looking for a good book with lots of recipes for traditional and rustic breads.

TIA 

ETA- If possible, recipes that are not just Italian and French.

Hi, I am new to baking and have been reading this site while deciding which couple of books to buy.( awesome site by the way ) I have read the threads  about recommendations and have a question. I can not find The Italian Baker in the bookstore and my librarys copy is lost. I wanted to take a look before purchasing and came across a book called Italian Baking Secrets by Father Giuseppe Orsini. This one I can get at my library. Here are quotes from two of the amazon reviews

This book appears to be very closely related to 'The Italian Baker' copyright 1985 by Carol Field. In fact this may essentially be a "new edition" of that quarter century old book(?) The overall length is reduced, apparently by omitting some of the most obscure material and replacing or substantially rewriting chunks of the rest. Yet the similarities are huge. At least pages 18-55 are reprinted word for word (in the process changing the anecdotal "I" from a she to a he). And the table of contents is almost the same. I wish I knew more about the relationship between the two books and between the two authors so I could better compare the highs and lows.

I guess I didn't need this book because I already own Carol Fields' 1985 "The Italian Baker." I don't know if the joke's on me, but huge portions of this book (including the personal anecdotes) are copied verbatim from that volume. What the heck? To be fair, the recipes are excellent, especially the regional and rustic breads - I'm just not sure this guy should get the credit.

Does anyone know anything about this book? Is it even worth checking out of the library or is it no good?

Thanks

Tony

I have been a reader and poster (though only sporadically) for years now on this site.  I believe it was here where I learned the secret for creating sourdough starters, that resulted in my complete passion for making artisan breads.  I now make bread most weekends, and still get very excited watching the oven spring as it is happening, and, of course, cutting into the freshly baked loaf!  I realized that although I now have an extensive bread book collection, I find the book I most return to is "Bread"  by Jeffery Hamelman.  Here is why:  Once you learn to make this type of bread (or most any bread), from either the excellent explanations in his book or from another source, he provides a most extensive formulas that seem to work every time.  Perhaps if you are new to this type of bread baking, Peter Reinhart's books (particularly, "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" (BBA) will be best, since he does walk you through many of the basic techniques (That is what I really started with.) And I don't want to diminish the value of that book and many others.  I still use some of the BBA formulas, but I do want to say that once you have learned the basics, Hamelman's book seems to provide the techniques and formulas for some of the best breads, and it will take a really long time to bake through them, should you choose to make the various breads that are included in his book.

So the reason for this post was to express my enthusiasm for the book that I most rely on.  The other thing is that while now I mostly create my doughs without my mixer using the "French fold," (See the info on this site and watch the video by the French baker making sweet dough.), his formulas still work wonderfully for me. 

Today I baked his semolina with sesame seeds, and it looks like another winner, though I have yet to cut into it!

Also, some of the content seems a bit intimidating at first, but I've learned that you can do what works for you, and end of with a lot of wonderful bread.  So if you have the book, try it, if not, it is really worth having.  And no I don't get any kickbacks for this endorsement!!! I just think that if you are interested in making wonderful artisan breads, this book is fabulous!

Please could anybody help to choose some good books for baking? The problem is, that living in a non-English speaking country I cannot have a look at them in a bookshop or library :-(

1) I already have PR´s Artisan Breads Every Day. Most of you recommend BBA, Whole Grain Breads and Crust and Crumb. How are the books different? Are there completely different methods, explanations and recipes?

2) I would love a good book (or two) that would explain clearly and with practical "tips and tricks" how bread making works (comparing sourdough and other preferment and direct methods), how different hydrations, feeding ratios, temperatues (e.g. preheated vs. cold oven...) etc. affect the composition on the starter and the resulting bread and helping to manage the amounts for a home baker? Also some examples of healthy recipes (without much cream, eggs, meat, sugar...) in metric units would be welcome.

3) Here are some of the tips I have gathered when reading this super TFL forum:

Daniel DiMuzio: Bread Baking

Andrew Whitley: Bread Matters

Daniel Leader: Local Breads

Daniel Leader: Bread Alone

Maggie Glezer: Artisan Baking

Jeffrey Hamelman: Bread

Richard Bertinet: Crust

Joe Ortiz: Village Baker

Laurel´s Kitchen Book

Peter Reinhart: BBa

Peter Reinhart: Crust and Crumb

Peter Reinhart: Whole Grain Breads

Thanks very much!

zdenka

I got a Barnes and Noble giftcard for Christmas and I am thinking about using it to get a new bread book.  I am looking for suggestions on books.

I already have Bread Baker's Apprentice and Rose Levy Beranbaum's Bread Bible.

To give you an idea of my style - from TFL I have made and added to my repetoire:

• Norm's Onion Rolls
• Wild Rice and Onion Bread
• Sweet Potato Rolls
• Sourdoughlady's Sourdough Bread 
• Soft Pretzels
• Blueberry Cream Cheese Braid
• Buttermilk Cluster
• Pita bread
• Zola Blue's cinnamon rolls

Yup, I am kind of all over the place.  I don't have much specialized equipment, though I do have a great baking stone, a nice peel and firmly believe in parchment paper.

So what is your MUST have book that you turn to time and time again?

I just made Hamelman's oatmeal bread from "Bread" last night, and it turned out great! I love the format and depth of the book, but I was left with a question after my first bake from it. The "Home Baker" measurements mentions it makes "2 large loaves" and just over 4lbs of dough. Since it was my first time with the recipe, I halved it and ended up with just over 2Lbs of dough. The instructions below the recipe mention that 14oz of dough is the appropriate amount for a a normal small loaf pan 8.5" x 4.5" and 18oz for a larger 9.5"x4.5" pan, so I divided the dough in half, formed two loaves and panned them up for proofing in my two smaller loaf pans. The shaped loaves seemed very small for this volume, and after proofing they were still three quarters of an inch or more below the top of the pan. They would have made very dainty sandwiches had I baked them that way! I ended up placing the small proved loves side by side, seams together, in one large loaf pan and proceeded with baking, and got a normal sized large loaf.

It seems the text above the formula was accurate, and was contradicted by the instructional text below. My small loaf pans would probably have been more appropriate for 18oz of dough instead of the 13-ish oz loaves. Has anyone made smaller loaves with this recipe and happen to remember the pre-baked dough weight they used? Has anyone else had instructions-formula contradiction issues in the book? I love it, and will definitely keep baking from it, I am just curious what to expect!

Re: the bread

The bread itself came out beautifully despite the odd last-minute handling, and is very tender. It is a fantastic sandwich/toast loaf. The next time I make it, I might try substituting the oatmeal with Quaker's multigrain rolled grain cereal and see how it fares.

I have the book at home  and have been perusing and reading. I have been reading the chapters about cakes and methods. As a footnote he offers in the back increased amount for larger production. I have poured over the Yellow Butter Cake and Chocolate Butter cake in the Cake section and in the back in the larger volume section. I cannot figure out the math. Anyone have the book? The amounts he has adds up but if I check my baker's math it doesn't work, at least not on my calculator. Am I missing something? Anyone with the book that can take a look I would greatly appreciate your assistance.

Eli