The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Eric Kayser - Larousse Book of Bread

SCChris's picture
SCChris

Eric Kayser - Larousse Book of Bread

Anyone pick this one up yet and have any feed back?

 

Thanks

 

Chris

ri_us's picture
ri_us

We made the vienna bread recipe last week. It was nice. We are making the classic brioche now. Will bake soon.

MichaelLily's picture
MichaelLily

Nope

ri_us's picture
ri_us

I think the recipe I have from KAF is about the same.

suave's picture
suave

I think I'll take a pass.  He should have published it 10-15 years ago.  Now the market is oversaturated.

hanseata's picture
hanseata

Since I had no time, I wasn't able to try anything, yet. But I find the book very well made, the recipes interesting, and I'm looking forward to bake some breads from it when I'm back from my family visit in Hamburg.

Karin

Donkey_hot's picture
Donkey_hot

I have a French edition,  it's nice but I cannot call it spectacular... have to agree with "outdated" review above.

SCChris's picture
SCChris

Thanks for the feedback all

 

Chris

 

RoundhayBaker's picture
RoundhayBaker

...I'm a little baffled by those comments. Since we - artisan bakers - are committed to using methods and skills that are thousands of years old, isn't everything we do outdated? That's the point of it.

This is a book for the home artisan baker by one of the most influential bakers of our time. There are no idiosyncratic or sloppy interpretations of, say, the baker's percentage, to confuse the inexperienced (and experienced). Every single recipe is in both metric and cups. Every single recipe is beautifully laid out and explained. Every single recipe uses sourdough. And it's in English.

So far, I've only baked the sourdough baguettes (three batches) and, in my opinion, they are easily as good as any of the long-ferment baguette recipes you can find on this forum or on KAF's site. Kamut and Seaweed Rolls are next (heh, kamut khorosan... now that's an outdated flour for you, by about six millennia), then the Cuttlefish Ink Bread, then the Ekmek.

I'm not big on bread books, but this is a keeper. 

Ogi the Yogi's picture
Ogi the Yogi

instead of the dry yeast! In the beginning of the book I think he says if using dry use half but I am not sure if I understood that clearly, usually you cut fresh yeast by a third. Any advice? He uses tiny amounts of fresh bakers yeast! 

SCChris's picture
SCChris

The first few builds should give you a better idea of how much "you" want to use.

For me, I tend to minimize and only use what yeast I need to to get the job done.

 

Best

 

Chris

rsergio007's picture
rsergio007

I've just started making bread at home and this was exactly the first book I bought.

As a total beginner, I can say that the book is geared for someone with simple equipment/ingredients. Regular oven, off-the-shelf flours. The only thing is that every recipe calls for liquid levain, but the process is well explained in the book anyway.

I'm happy with the results so far, not perfect yet, but I'm just a beginner.

What I think could be more developed is the aspects of fermentation, temperatures, duration. How exactly the levain and fresh yeast interact, and the effects that room temperature will have on the recipes.

Also, most recipes are relatively "quick". Meaning, a boule with levain is made in around 5 hours. No recipe until now requires very long fermentation, refrigerator, overnight, etc.