Artisan Bread Baking

Artisan Baking
by Maggie Glezer

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Description

It’s a crunch and aroma you can savor in your mind before you even take a bite: that perfect crust and that perfect crumb you can get only in bread baked with craft and care. Artisan Baking puts that bread within reach of every home baker; even the beginner now deftly will be able to turn out sourdoughs, pizzas, corn breads, and baguettes that are truly out of this world. Step-by-step instructions explain the best professional methods, and mail-order sources for ingredients and equipment simplify the baking experience. This is a book to bake from, to learn from, to read from for the sheer pleasure of encountering the generosity of spirit of the country’s finest bakers as they share their abundant expertise.

First published five years ago to glowing praise and awards, Artisan Baking is “a rare combination of clear writing, meticulous recipes, and abundant expertise” (Fine Cooking) and the cookbook that “those who live for and on bread have been waiting for” (The New York Times). It was picked by the editor of Cookbook Digest as the one book she would choose if she could have only one bread-baking book in her life. Reprinted twice in hardcover, Artisan Baking is now, at last, in an affordable paperback format with a new, easier-to-handle trim size. – Amazon

Bread Baking: An Artisan’s Perspective
by Daniel T. DiMuzio

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A guide to making artisan breads practically and profitably, Bread Baking: An Artisan’s Perspective includes step-by-step instructions on mixing, fermentation, shaping, proofing and retarding, and baking. Written for both experienced and novice bakers, Bread Baking contains more than 150 helpful photos and drawings that illustrate techniques and showcase beautiful artisan bread products. Covering the business of bread-making, this book features practical advice from successful artisan bakers as well as forty plus tested artisan bread formulas, including ciabatta, pain au levain, bagels, honey whole wheat, croissants, and many more. Artisan bread baker and teacher Dan DiMuzio provides invaluable information on troubleshooting, ingredients, laminated dough, and creating dough formulas. Professional bakers and baking and pastry students will benefit from this practical resource to artisan breads. – Amazon

Artisan Baking Across America: The Breads, The Bakers, The Best Recipes
by Maggie Glezer

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…Beautiful enough to serve as a piece of art on the coffee table, it is nonetheless a practical guide for anyone who wants to bake bread like a pro.

According to Glezer, a professional baker and writer, “artisan baking” refers to the process -part of which must be done by hand- that produces the crusty, European-style breads conjured by careful craftsmanship. Glezer traveled around the country in search of the best breads and bakers in America, convincing them to share their stories, their recipes, and their knowledge of America’s artisan bread movement.

At first glance, this book seems only for serious bakers, as many of the recipes are quite complicated, but fortunately each is categorized by skill level -from beginner to advanced- to steer inexperienced bakers away from the trickier recipes. Best of all, the meticulous recipes are scaled-down versions of original bakeshop formulas -levain, ciabatta, dark rye, bialy, and much more- and reproduce the professional excellence of some of the best breads being made today.

…She goes on to introduce the men and women who have devoted their lives to mastering this intricate craft and shares their most treasured recipes: Rustic Baguettes from the Acme Bread Company in Berkeley, California; Sweet Perrin (pear bread) from Seattle’s Essential Baking Company; Kalamata Olive Bread from WheatFields Bakery/Cafe in Lawrence, Kansas; Semolina Filone from Tom Cat Bakery in Long Island City, New York, and many more.

Whether you’re serious or just curious about the art of baking bread, this book provides possibly the best education you could find outside of cooking school. Suffice it to say, if one could live on bread alone, this book might very well be the Bible. – Robin Donovan

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
by Jeff Hertzberg MD & Zoë François

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There’s nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread to fill a kitchen with warmth, eager appetites, and endless praise for the baker who took on such a time-consuming task. Now, you can fill your kitchen with the irresistible aromas of a French bakery every day with just five minutes of active preparation time, and Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day will show you how.

Coauthors Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François prove that bread baking can be easier than a trip to the bakery. Their method is quick and simple, bringing forth scrumptious perfection in each loaf. Delectable creations will emerge straight from your own oven as warm, indulgent masterpieces that you can finally make for yourself. In exchange for a mere five minutes of your time, your breads will rival those of the finest bakers in the world.

With nearly 100 recipes to put this ingenious technique to use, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day will open the eyes of any potential baker who has sworn off homemade bread as simply too much work. Crusty baguettes, mouth-watering pizzas, hearty sandwich loaves, and even buttery pastries can easily become part of your own personal menu, and this innovative book will teach you everything you need to know. – Amazon

Baking Artisan Bread: 10 Expert Formulas for Baking Better Bread at Home
by Ciril Hitz

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While “bread” once implied a simple, sliced white loaf from the supermarket, consumers have begun to consider the product in a more sophisticated light. Bread enthusiasts are more aware of the diverse array of high-quality breads than ever before and are seeking out handmade artisan products at local farmers’ markets, organic grocery stores, specialty shops…even the Internet. Baking Artisan Bread will show that finding these specialty breads is as easy as looking in your own kitchen!

Baking Artisan Bread provides a simplified, formula-based approach to baking bread at home, making the mixing, the rising, and the baking itself more approachable and less intimidating. With step-by-step full-color process shots and clear directions, chef Ciril Hitz will show you how with just 10 formulas you can create more than 40 different products—how’s that for streamlined? – Amazon

The Village Baker: Classic Regional Breads from Europe and America
by Joe Ortiz

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The long and short of it is you could pick up a copy of The Village Baker by Joe Ortiz, start at the beginning, bake your way to the last page, and open your own village bakery. A California regional baker since 1978 (Joe Ortiz bakes breads, and his wife bakes pastries at Gayle’s Bakery in Capitola, California), Ortiz brings his years of personal experience and his endless travels through Europe to the one subject he holds so dear: good bread. And by good bread, he means the best of what France, Germany, and Italy have to offer, as well as notable contributions from great American bakers working in the traditional, village-baker style: dense, crusty, flavorful loaves of bread that support life in and of themselves. Ortiz holds out the promise that this can actually be accomplished in the home kitchen -with the highest standards.

Ortiz’s book starts in the style of a primer with sections on the basic ingredients, kinds of leavenings, and basic techniques and procedures. He wants the newcomer to bake the very basic French loaf (think baguette) several times to get one decent loaf under the belt buckle. Then it’s open season on regional breads, rye breads, and specialty breads. In a final section, Ortiz gives the true enthusiast professional style recipes and ideas. – Schuyler Ingle (Amazon)

Tagged with: artisan • baking • book • bread

Filed under: Bread Books