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Bread Books for the Home Baker

CRUZMISL

By CRUZMISL
in Cookbooks & References

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Lisa Shock

Lisa Shock

Posted
Posted

I use Ciril Hitz's books most often. His formulas work very well and his instructions give very precise results. In Baking Artisan Bread, I think the Ciabatta (formula two) is my favorite -no real rhyme or reason here, I just like making it. In Baking Artisan Pastries and Breads, my favorite is the Basic Sweet Dough; made up into the Pecan Sticky Buns or Russian Braid. Both books are really solid throughout (look for the errata sheets on the author's website) and have helped me really step up the quality and precision in my breads -and really helped with competitions. Ciril's classes are great; check out his youtube channel, he also sells DVDs.

 

IMO, you should talk to Mitch Stamm, he has such a wealth of information about bakeries and procedures of the past.

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Senor Pescado

Senor Pescado

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I'm very much an amateur, but I love the recipes and techniques in Maggie Glezer's A Blessing of Bread. And I'm pretty sure it won a James Beard Award, so I must not be the only one!

 

And everything from Peter Reinhart. But you guys did one better and went and hired him. I love MC@H, so I can't wait to see what you come up with!

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andiesenji

andiesenji

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I have all of Peter Reinhart's books, from the very first.  Some recipes evolved a bit but I have found the books to be extremely helpful.

 

Another that is essential to me is Bread, by Jeffrey Hamelman.

 

And My Bread by Jim Lahey - No-work, no-knead method.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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weinoo

weinoo

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I have all of Peter Reinhart's books, from the very first.  Some recipes evolved a bit but I have found the books to be extremely helpful.

Ditto.

 

This is pretty great too:

 

2015_06_23_323.JPG

 

 

Edited by weinoo (log)
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rotuts

rotuts

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Charles Van Over   The Best Bread Ever : Great Homemade Bread using your Food Processor

 

laugh you might :

 

introduced to me the 45 sec. knead, where you add up the temp of your flour + your water ( the variable ) and in 45 seconds

 

get 70 degree dough.

 

what does this do ?   nice in cold kitchens where your flour is cold  ( mine )

 

but very little oxygen is introduced into the dough therefore the bread stays fresh much much  longer.

 

you retard/etc in a closed container.

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andiesenji

andiesenji

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Ditto.

 

This is pretty great too:

 

attachicon.gif2015_06_23_323.JPG

Yes.  I have Ed's books and routinely buy the sourdough starters from various areas - they "evolve" after a few months so can't be kept going for years. 

World Sourdoughs from Antiquity  taught me quite a lot about sourdough - after I had been baking with some starters for decades. 

 

If you have not yet tried it, I highly recommend  the South African culture because it does a terrific job with whole wheat flour even when seeds and nuts are added to the dough.  It also does a good job with rye flour and the sourness really complements the flavor of the rye.  I  used it to make Limpa bread and it was extraordinary.

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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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JohnT

JohnT

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Somehow I missed this thread. As mentioned above by Lisa Shock, the two books by Ciril Hitz are quite good except you must download the errata updates from his web site.

For a really good "learning" experience on bread, the book: "Bread baking - An artisan's perspective, by Daniel T. DiMuzio", I find, is a very good reference book. It is published by John Wiley & Sons. It is quite a thick book and aimed as his teaching course.

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AAQuesada

AAQuesada

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I learned soo much from Richard Bertinet books with accompanying videos. I went from knowing hardly anything to having the confidence to make very large batched of brioche with out a mixer to make slider buns for work. 

 

Demonstating the technique along side the book was huge for me. 

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Guest Caren Palevitz

Guest Caren Palevitz

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Wow! A big thanks to everyone who responded to this! We really appreciate all of the feedback. 

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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

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Wow! A big thanks to everyone who responded to this! We really appreciate all of the feedback. 

 

Caren, you are most welcome for the feedback.  I can't speak for everyone on eGullet but we would love to see more participation from the Modernist Cuisine team on our forums, not just when a new book is coming out.  Personally I owe so much to the knowledge of Modernist Cuisine but I can't help but think you might learn a few things here.

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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Guest Caren Palevitz

Guest Caren Palevitz

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Caren, you are most welcome for the feedback.  I can't speak for everyone on eGullet but we would love to see more participation from the Modernist Cuisine team on our forums, not just when a new book is coming out.  Personally I owe so much to the knowledge of Modernist Cuisine but I can't help but think you might learn a few things here.

 

That's great to hear. We'll definitely try to work on getting on the forums more often and be a part of the conversation. 

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