Bread Baking Seminar in Book Form
Written: Dec 04 '07 (Updated Jun 08 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A treasure trove of information, inspiration, and formulas for great bread.
Cons: No mention of no-knead bread.
The Bottom Line: Invaluable for anyone who aspires to making good, even great bread at home. Top-notch writing and photography.
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| lyagushka's Full Review: Peter Reinhart - The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mas... |
My New Year's resolution for 2007 was to learn how to bake bread. It's been nearly a year now, and I have only been able to produce consistently great results with two different recipes. But that modest success rate and Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice have given me a bad case of the bread-baking bug.
Reinhart is a Certified Master Baker and a baking instructor at Johnson & Wales University, so he clearly has forgotten more about baking bread than I will ever know. He is the author of several books on bread baking, and if Bread Baker's Apprentice is anything to go by, he has a real talent for instruction to go along with his deep knowledge of the subject. His book focuses narrowly on the production of breads and other items from yeasted doughs (including sourdough). Breads leavened chemically (baking soda and/or baking powder) are not covered.
It so happened that Bread Baker's Apprentice was among the first books I turned to in my goal of learning about making bread. You could say that doing so was a little bit like trying to drink from a fire hydrant. There is so much information and minute detail in this book that I had sometimes to skim. At other times, I read for hours, completely engrossed. Reinhart made it very clear that bread, while a commonplace staple of the western world, is far from a simple substance. He explains the biology of the microorganisms in yeasted doughs, the chemical processes, and discusses the properties of various flours on page after page. He demystifies baking terminology, and gives valuable tips on how the home baker can replicate the special equipment of an artisinal, professional bakery. In fact, the first one hundred pages of this book don't even contain any recipes. It takes Reinhart that long just to cover the fundamentals. And it is this section that distinguishes the book from so many other "bakebooks." Rather than just listing a collection of bread recipes, this book teaches the reader how to think about bread, and the various parameters that the baker can vary to influence the resulting loaf. Bread Baker's Apprentice provides more than enough detail for any beginning baker, and plenty for any accomplished amateur. Perhaps more importantly, it inspires.
Following Reinhart's extensive introduction are about eighty fabulous bread "formulas." Reinhart encourages both his students and his readers to think in terms of ratios and methods, rather than in terms of a straightforward recipe. I can see why this is useful, even if it is a bit challenging for a rank beginner to get a handle on. But his formulas are carefully written, with gorgeous, high quality food porn photographs, and even leavened with a bit of dry humor now and then. Other photos are instructive, showing folding methods and other procedures that are difficult to describe in words. I've never been at a loss to understand what to do when reading this book. I find even Reinhart's offhand "commentary" very interesting and useful.
I have prepared breads from just six of the many formulas in this book (brioche, pizza, focaccia, ciabatta, lavash crackers, and casatiello). Not every attempt on my part was rewarded with huge success, but I can say that each resulting loaf was at least respectable. And my results encouraged me to keep trying. I've got my eye on several other formulas from this book too, but I find that re-attempting a given loaf teaches me more about baking than trying lots of different recipes. Learning to bake bread is a slow process for the home baker. I'm certain though that I am learning faster because of this book. And I suspect that I will return to the book year after year, to re-read in greater depth as my understanding of baking improves. I'm glad I bought the hardcover edition. It'll withstand the heavy usage better than a paperback.
If I have one small disappointment with Bread Baker's Apprentice, it's that it doesn't include any information on the no-knead method popularized by Mark Bittman via The New York Times in late 2006. The no-knead bread method is a wonder and a revelation for any baker, particularly one as green as I am. I would have liked to hear Reinhart's comments on it. This however is a very minor quibble.
I also have a caveat for aspiring bakers, even though I can't call this a shortcoming of the book. By far the majority of the breads presented in this cookbook either require two-three days to prepare, or they are at least vastly improved if prepared on that time frame. This is because Reinhart often advocates long rising times and "retarding" doughs in the refrigerator overnight. These things improve the flavor of many breads. So there is the drawback of not being able to prepare many of these breads on a whim. At first this bothered me. I naturally wanted to eat my bread the day I did the mixing. I've gotten used to this though, mixing and baking on different days. And having tasted the benefits of long rising times, I can't consider it any flaw in the book that the breads take that long to prepare. The hands-on time usually totals an hour or less, including cleanup.
Incidentally, Bread Baker's Apprentice won the James Beard Foundation's Cookbook of the Year Award. I've found cookbooks so recognized to be of uniformly stellar quality. This one is no exception. It also received the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) Cookbook of the Year Award. That should give you a sense of the quality of this work, if the opinion of a very amateur baker does not.
If you are interested in learning to bake yeasted breads, I recommend this book very highly indeed.
I can also recommend these cookbooks:
• Baking With Julia - Julia Child's award-winning "bakebook", covers all type of baked goods
• Dim Sum - a thorough introduction to these tasty Chinese morsels
• Indian Cooking - excellent cookbook by Jaffrey for beginner cooks, includes many meat dishes
• Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone - encyclopedic, with a great dessert section
• Cooking with Pomiane - a deliciously nostalgic review of culinary history, narrated by a great wit
• The Boulevard Cookbook - sumptuous recipes from San Francisco's favorite restaurant
• America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook - trustworthy guide to all home cooking fundamentals
• Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America - accessible, delicious recipes for nibbles or a hearty meal
• World Vegetarian - suitable for slightly more experienced cooks & essential for vegetarians
• The New Best Recipe - 1000 canonical recipes, perfected
• The Good Egg - fresh & tasty recipes based on the incredible, edible egg
• The Wellness Encyclopedia - an excellent reference guide to the nutritional facts on most anything you could put in your mouth
Recommended:
Yes
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