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Posted

Hamelman's "Bread".

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch ... you must first invent the universe." - Carl Sagan

Posted
Hamelman's "Bread".

Hamelman's Bread only has metric for institutional quantities. Home baker's recipes are writen in oz to the tenth of an ounce. Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain does have metric for all recipes.

Dan

"Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea." --Pythagoras.

Posted
Hamelman's Bread only has metric for institutional quantities. Home baker's recipes are writen in oz to the tenth of an ounce.

It's very easy to scale the recipes, so I wouldn't hold that against Hamelman. If you're looking for a professional bread book, you most likely want to set up a spreadsheet to calculate the required amounts of levain and preferments for the batch size you want to make. As long as you've got the recipe broken down in baker's %, it's the specific weights aren't crucial.

I do own a few bread baking books, and I agree with the above recommendations: Hamelman's "Bread" and/or Suas' "Advanced Bread and Pastry". Suas' book got the same measurements as Hamelman, but his application of baker's % are slightly different. You'll have to convert one to the other if you want to compare recipes in the two books.

I'm becoming more and more fond of Suas' book. I think it's better when it comes to explaining and visualizing the bread baking process. Besides, it's got a substantial pastry and Viennoserie section too. Hamelman's book has got a broader range of recipes, however, and is especially strong on rye sourdough breads. It's probably the best book on rye sourdough in English.

Posted
Hamelman's Bread only has metric for institutional quantities. Home baker's recipes are writen in oz to the tenth of an ounce.

It's very easy to scale the recipes, so I wouldn't hold that against Hamelman. If you're looking for a professional bread book, you most likely want to set up a spreadsheet to calculate the required amounts of levain and preferments for the batch size you want to make. As long as you've got the recipe broken down in baker's %, it's the specific weights aren't crucial.

I do own a few bread baking books, and I agree with the above recommendations: Hamelman's "Bread" and/or Suas' "Advanced Bread and Pastry". Suas' book got the same measurements as Hamelman, but his application of baker's % are slightly different. You'll have to convert one to the other if you want to compare recipes in the two books.

I'm becoming more and more fond of Suas' book. I think it's better when it comes to explaining and visualizing the bread baking process. Besides, it's got a substantial pastry and Viennoserie section too. Hamelman's book has got a broader range of recipes, however, and is especially strong on rye sourdough breads. It's probably the best book on rye sourdough in English.

In this case, you are correct. Most professional baking books include baker's percentages that allow you to scale a formula any way you want. Hamelman's book does have a good explanation of baker's math if you need to learn it.

Dan

"Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea." --Pythagoras.

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