December 12, 2009 - 7:49pm
Recent books: High Hydration doughs, and their authors......
I have become smitten with the high-hydration, no-or-little-knead school of thought in making breads. I am happy to see several books on the market, using a "Less-Fuss approach" to making bread. I am considering buying Peter Reinhart's, Artisan Breads Every Day,...or ...Jim Lahey's, My Bread. Anyone think one is better than another? I realize that many people seem to think that Reinhart is their Bread Guru. I have mannny volumes of poor, or redundant, bread books, amassed over the last 35 years. Should I buy either book,..other than to pat the publisher on the back? Thanks......
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Like you say, lots of folks have a favorite guru. I started with Reinhart and the BBA. Eventually I found Jeff Hamelman and "Bread". His formulas are solid and easy to follow. In my opinion, and I know there are some who think Jeff is speaking to professional bakers to heavily, this is the best collection of good advice available for $20.. I have made more good breads and understand why they are turning out well since I started using this book. Bread has a larger number of variety's of breads than most authors. Every one a gem.
Advanced Bread and Pastry by Michel Suas is without a doubt one of if not the all time best reference books ever printed. Again he is speaking from the pulpit at the SFBI and is addressing a higher than beginner level of baker.The book is around 1000 pages and about half is bread, the remainder covers pastry. I'm just getting into it and I'm really enjoying it.
I don't know you or your skills at this point so it's hard to make a recommendation. If you are a decent baker now, meaning you can reasonably expect all your breads to look and taste great, I guess I would say get Bread. If the $60 for Michel Suas isn't an issue, add that to the list.
I just went back and reread what I had said. I think the main difference between early Reinhart books and Bread or AB&P is that the idea of using fermenting for a longer time wasn't popular back then. Hamelmans recipes incorporate stretch and fold instead of beating with a mixer and hook for extended times. When I was starting out learning how to bake artisan style breads, the common procedure was to knead until you could pull a "window pane". Later I learned about using less yeast, preferment's and stretch and folds during ferment to develop gluten strength.
I don't know anything about Jim Lahey's book. He caught the world by surprise with his No Knead method. I've read he is a great baker so his book should be solid.
I hope I haven't gone into too much detail when you wanted a simple answer.
Eric
TFL member Suave is one of the 24 people who purchased the Lahey book and wrote a review at Amazon.
Amazon also provides reviews by people who purchased the Reinhart book.
Hope this helps you choose between the two.
Thanks, Eric for your great recommendation of Jeff Hamelman's book. I do not have this volume either. Once upon a time, I bought many bread books, only to be disappointed with their overly-complicated approach to making good bread. I do have a copy of Local Breads, by Daniel Leader which I like... although there is much "redundancy" in the book. Bread making really doesn't have to be something "mystical". Yikes... I will have to buy the Hammelman Bread book now too?
LindyD,.. I went back to re-read the expanding reviews of Lahey's book. Not many reviews as yet on Reinhart's book at Amazon. Sounds like they are quite different in content.
I don't want to spend more moolah on books,...than flour. But... I will likely end up buying both Lahey's and Reinhart's books...? Gads... this is like a disease.........
Thanks again...for the comments......