November 30, 2009 - 11:04am
Which would you read first?
Hello bakers, I have a newbie question. I purchased the bread bakers apprentice last week, today I received the hand made loaf which was my end of a trade I made with another member here. I started reading Reinhardt book. Which book do you think would be best to start with? Thanks guys.
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The BBA does a better job of covering fundamental principles than The Handmade Loaf. I'd suggest reading the first third or so of the BBA first, then bake some of the recipes you find interesting from either book to see those principles in practice.
I agree. If you read the first 107 pages of BBA you'll have an excellent foundation for taking on the challenges in either of those books.
Over the last few years (my total experience with any bread baking from starting as a total novice, and thinking sourdough was a brand name for pretzels) I have taken many of the books mentioned on this site from the library and read from start to finish, but only felt that one was informative and easy enough to use in my kitchen to actually go out and purchase it. After over a year I am still glad that I did. That would be Jeffery Hammelmans "Bread". If I had started reading this from day one I would have avoided allot of the crap in the rest. I absolutely hated the "Bread Baker's Apprentice", though perhaps because of where I was as a baker at the time, and do not feel that it is a good place to start at all. The only other book that I have found to have really enjoyed and would not mind owning a copy is "The Bread Builders" but more for the interesting reading and descriptive expanations of what goes on in sourdough than for how much it helped me in baking it (though it probably helps to know all that stuff more than I realise).
BBA is an excellent place to start. It is where I really started and it taught me so much.
I'll keep reading BBA. I feel like A junkie right now that needs a fix. I have the time and ingredients to bake something but even after giving away one cream cheese braid and one pumpkin bread It would be to wasteful to bake anything else.