THE Best Bread Book for a Beginner?

[fidgiegirl]

I would like to get into baking bread and am interested in a good book for a beginner.

I am interested in knowing how all the chemistry of the breadmaking works.

What do you recommend?

:thankyou:

[kally]

I like Laurel's Kitchen or Laurel\s Bread book.

[Rosemary]

The Tassajara Bread Book has very detailed instructions for a couple of basic loaves, and then many variations with less detail.
Laurel's Bread Book is my favorite general-purpose bread book, and there is definitely enough detail for beginners.

Bread is very simple. I made my first loaf of bread as a grad student and followed a French bread recipe in an ordinary cookbook. It was perfect and beautiful.

What kind of bread do you want to make?

[fidgiegirl]

Sandwich bread for my DH, and dinner roll type breads for us at home. A variety, I guess. Dessert breads, too, like cinnamon rolls. ;)

[Rosemary]

I suggest you start with a basic loaf. If you want to do 100% whole grain, it requires about twice as much kneading and a longer rising time. Otherwise, start with 50% unbleached flour - 50 % whole wheat flour, or less whole wheat if it just doesn't work for you.

A few tips:
basic formula: one pound loaf = 1 c water, 3 c flour, 2 tsp yeast. Optional: salt, sweetener, dairy, oil or fat. Salt and sweetener add some flavor. Fat makes a loaf last a little longer. Dairy products such as milk change the texture of the bread.

A microwave is a really good place for letting the bread raise, because you can keep it humid. I microwave a mug full of water until it's hot, then put my bread in there to rise, uncovered, and close it. I leave the mug of water in there while the bread is rising.

Cinnamon rolls/bread are just another variation of regular bread. You can enrich the bread, or not, with egg, dairy, sugar. I usually don't; I generally make bread in a 3-pound batch, and if I want some cinnamon bread, I take 1/3 of my batch, roll it out, spread it with the cinnamon/sugar, raisins, whatever else, and roll it up.

My favorite bread pans are the Chicago Metallic Commercial. They are so much better than any other I've tried that I will recommend them by name. I never buy nonstick pans and was so happy to find these (I ordered them from Amazon). My bread never sticks in them, and they have not rusted like less expensive metal pans I've tried. I really disliked pyrex bread pans. Too hard to get the bread out. For rolls, you can form the rolls and bake them in anything, like a standard 9x9 brownie pan.

Here's are some beginning recipes from King Arthur Flour:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/recipes-for/beginners

It's really not necessary to have a whole book of bread recipes (though I do)... once you get the hang of the texture of bread dough, you don't need any recipes. I mix various flours and cooked or soaked whole grains with water until the texture is right, and the bread is always good.

[AmeliaJane]

It depends on whether you are a beginning cook, or a beginning bread baker who already has experience reading recipes etc. I used "The Bread Bible" by Rose Levy Beranbaum and really liked it, but you have to be the kind of person who likes long, very detailed recipes (each recipe gets 2-3 pages) and following precise directions. But her recipes very seldom go wrong, and they go into the why and how quite a bit, which it sounds like you want. I think it would be overwhelming to someone who was a beginning cook overall, though.

I would recommend borrowing it from the library to see if you like it first.

[fidgiegirl]

Rosemary, thank you! The link is GREAT! I think I will find a lot of recipes for getting started.

[bae]

"Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day"

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

[lhamo]

"Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day"

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

I just got this for myself as a birthday/Christmas gift (I was generous to myself this year:)). Our fridge is too packed with food for 10 people (inlaws visiting) to try it this weekend, but hope to start experimenting soon. I was reading the intro this morning, and it looks good.

lhamo

[Rosemary]

Note that a newer "5 minutes a day" book was published that focuses more on whole grain breads.

[Merski]

My Bread by Jim Lahey

[leslieann]

I learned so much from the chapter "A Loaf for Learning" in the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. I know that's an old book by now but that particular chapter, with the emphasis on whole wheat, really helped me to understand my baking (failures as well as successes). I'd done quite a lot of bread baking before I found that book but it sure helped me to understand stuff about the gluten, what I was seeing as I was kneading, what exactly is meant by "light and doubled in size.."

In the present, though, I seem to have thrown all of that out the window and now I mostly experiment with the five minute bread which makes a great product with very little fussing. Have fun, fidgiegirl! Bread baking is earthy and delicious and fun.

[Perplexa]

I don't think this posted when I tried before. I absolutely swear by Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. Not exactly "beginner" material, but the recipes are pretty clear and seem to work well even if you don't read the introductory stuff (there's lots of information on enzyme action, gluten structure, and so on). The recipes make some of the best whole wheat bread I've had.

[fidgiegirl]

I chose a few of the books to get from the library and review. My reviews are on my blog:

http://athrivinglife.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/bread-book-comparison/