**** SOLD:  No longer available. ****

Used copy Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads for sale; paring down the kitchen bookshelf.

Price:  $18.00 + shipping (est. $3.99 for standard shipping).  You can pay by paypal for the fastest turnaround.

In excellent condition with the exception of two recipes, which have seen a bit of water on them so the pages have rippled a little.  The jacket is intact and looks like new.

If you are interested, please contact me by email (tania.hide@gmail.com).

Cheers,

MommaT

I came across this cookbook which has some very interesting 'ways' from 1895.   

http://www.archive.org/stream/smileyscookbooku00smil#page/256/mode/2up

The name of the book is "Smiley's Cookbook and Universal Household Guide: A Comprehensive Collection.

Take a look at the section on bread which starts on page 256 (you can move ahead in the book by typing the page number in the little box on the top of the page on the right).  

There is info on how to test the oven for the right temp. and something called 'steaming' for several hours and then baking for an hour???

My favorite was the section on page 261 titled "Eating Hot Bread".  

Enjoy!

Does anybody know of a good cookbook in english containing japanese and/or other asian recipes for bread. I have become enthralled with the japanese bread styles!

We've reached the end of the test baking experience for Norm Berg and Stan Ginsberg's NY Bakery Cookbook.  I've found it a highly rewarding experience.  It's stretched me in many ways (skills and waistline).  I have never been very disciplined about following recipes so that in itself was worthwhile.  I certainly gained respect for how challenging it must be to write a cookbook--particularly a baking book with all its variables. 

For me the highlights were the chocolate roll, Polish potato bread, and sourdough challah.  I saw photos of many other creations other test bakers made that looked fantastic. I can't wait to purchase copies of the book.  (Great gift along with a plate of sour cream spritz cookies!). 

Anyway, Norm and Stan--thank you for putting together this book and organizing this testing experience.  I wish you tremendous success with the publication. Please keep us posted on your progress.

And to my fellow testers, what did you take away from this experience?

This is pretty pathetic, I'll admit...but here I sit, 3:50am on a Saturday morning, watching my starter bubble waiting to make English Muffins. A bit nervous...I've had a 50-50 success rate...first batch was amazing to me, recognized areas of improvement...second batch went in the trash at the grill stage.  I'm new to this realm, but in these economic times, I'm looking for both cost-cutting and fulfilling projects...making my own baked goods saves me scads of cash that my office building's cafeteria will never see. As i browse the site, I try to act like the starter sponge...absorbing knowledge and nutrition slowly.  I love it in here. Now comes the pathetic part.

I was sitting here thinking about buying Peter's books...having the internet as a resource is the best, but sometimes you just like to have something tactile to peruse...pages to dog-ear, highlight and splash flour on. Add to that an unreliable laptop and cable access that seems so frivolous to pay for...the thought occured to me that my sponge development could be halted at any moment. Equally frivolous is the concept of paying $30 for a book right now...borrowing out of the local library is out of the question (ask the daughter that "borrowed" a $50 Japanese-English dictionary on mom's card that she now can't find)...so I look in the forum for help.

I know it's a lot to ask, but if anyone has an copies of any bread books and baking paraphernalia...in any condition...or a line on a garage sale in Upstate NY, keep me in mind. Every other Saturday (I get paid bi-weekly), I make the local rounds of tag sales, hoping to find that baker that's upgrading their kitchen...or moving to Europe and can't take the cookbooks, utensils and gadgets they've accumulated...the best I've done so far is a really wobbly GE plastic stand mixer with a detachable beater but without a bowl. Pathetic to the hilt...but there it is.  Thanks for being here, for listening, and for giving me something constructive to do with my free time...

We bought "Bread Machine, how to prepare the perfect loaf", by Jennie Shapter, about six years ago at a Barnes & Noble clearance sale. We've never felt the need to buy any other bread machine cookbook since.

My wife and I can't remember when we last bought store bread. We use our bread machine, a Zo, at least once a week. Yvonne has mastered what we call our "every day breads", and sweet, fruited breads we share with family and friends during the holidays. I, most often use the dough cycle only, especially for high hydration breads like caibatta. We both use this favorite cookbook. Initially, we followed it slavishly; today, having learned much over the past decade, its more a guide, but still a source for "first time" efforts. We've baked about a third of the recipes so far, a dozen have become favorites. We host an annual "open house" where we share our homemade wines that have come of age in each year, along with lots of nibbles, to about fifty guests. This year our theme will be wine and bread. Many of the bread recipes will come from "Bread Machine,...".

The author covers basics and fundemental ingredients in approximately thirty pages, and another twenty pages of advanced topics,e.g., "Sourdoughs and Starters", "Adapting Recipes for Use in a Bread Machine" and "Troubleshooting". The balance of the book is devoted to approximately 170 recipes in nine categories: Basic Breads, Speciality Grains, Flatbreads and Pizzas, Sourdoughs and Starter Dough Breads, Savory Breads, Vegetables Breads; Rolls, Buns and Pasteries; Sweet Breads and Yeast Cakes, and TeaBreads and Cakes. Many of the recipes specify ingredients for "Small" (~1 lb.) "Medium" (~1-1/2 lb.) and "Large" (~2 lb.) loaves to accomodate variations among different machines. Published in 2001, it reasonably up-to-date.

We've followed each recipe we've baked precisely (at least the first time) with unvarying success. It's obvious that every recipe has been carefully kitchen tested for results. There are lots of photos of final results, and "how to" where appropriate, but not at the expense of clear, detailed instructions.

I'm not a big fan of cookbooks anymore, or for that matter any "how to" genre. I rely on the internet (or my self) for nearly 100% of all my cooking, baking, brewing, wine making, gardening, woodworking, etc. projects. However, this is one cookbook I'm glad we have; yet I've never seen it mentioned by other bread machine bakers on the baking sites I visit.

The book is out of print, but, as of yesterday, there were eleven copies, new and used, on Amazon. The cheapest was 8 bucks: a bargain, for a fine book.

David

In the course of morning browsing, my husband found this article on the news/arts/life website Slate:

http://www.slate.com/id/2216080/

It's a review of a cookbook called "Kneadlessly Simple" - the author says she's an inept baker but apparently took a lot from the book...  I thought that perhaps a few Fresh Loafers (not lazy loafers, brilliant Loafers!) might find it an interesting quick read.  And, of course, of course, I posted a comment in their discussion forum highly recommending both the practice of baking and The Fresh Loaf!  

Otherwise, I only hope everybody is enjoying their own blooming spring, equalling blossoming life, and rising bread!