3 Loaf sizes: medium, large and extra-large (up to 2-1/2 pounds)
Settings for white, whole wheat, multigrain, French & quick breads/cakes
Bread crust control: Light, medium & dark
13-hour delay timer
Automatic shutoff
Rapid bake cycle
Add-ingredient alert
Bake Modes: Bake Only, Sandwich, Raisin, Dough and Pizza
Yeast Dispenser
Recipes booklet for 40 breads and doughs, plus baking tips
Included Accessories: Measuring cup & measuring spoon
Dimensions (W x D x H): 13.5 x 9 x 14 inches
Weight: 15.4 pounds
Electric Rating: 120 volts / 550 watts
1-year limited warranty
Price: Under $135
With this automatic, easy to use, Bread Baker you have the ability to bake delicious bread, freshly prepared and baked at home. Just place the ingredients in the non-stick pan, set your desired setting options, and it does everything else.
It provides you with many options: It mixes, kneads, rises, and bakes bread in three loaf sizes up to 2-1/2 pounds. Its digital controls offers you settings for white, whole wheat, multigrain, and French breads and three crust color options (light, medium or dark).
Additional settings allows you rapid baking and baking sandwich bread with a soft crust. It has a beeper signal for adding raisins (or other dried-fruit) so the fruit it’s not crushed during kneading.
The machine automatically adds yeast at the proper time from its built-in dispenser. It also bakes non-yeast, quick breads (like banana and gingerbread) and sweet cakes. And it mixes, kneads, and rises doughs for pizza, focaccia, croissants, and other pastries without baking them.
A timer permits the machine to be programmed up to 13 hours in advance so fresh bread or cake is available for breakfast or dinner. But it doesn’t have a keep warm feature once the bread is ready.
Its instruction booklet is very easy to understand and includes 40 bread and doughs recipes along with useful baking basics and illustrated tips for making pastries.
Customer Testimonial
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“Has lots of options, and makes very good bread”
The Panasonic SD-YD250 is pretty much the state of the art in bread machine technology in mid 2000s. It’s one of the larger units around with a 2.5 lb. loaf capacity. This size will also eat up your counter or cupboard space: you need just under 14″ of width and height, and 10″ of depth, so keep that in mind when you order.
The bread consistency is excellent. It’s even pretty good in the “rapid” mode, though the results are a bit better in the standard bake mode so that’s what I generally use. Also, the “rapid” mode for whole wheat or multigrain bread is 3 hours (vs. 5 hours standard), so it’s not like you can start the machine at the beginning of a meal and expect completed bread before you leave the table. The fastest full cycle -(rapid” bake mode for white bread) is 1hr 55min.
The SD-YD250 is quieter than most earlier bread makers; however, you’ll still hear the clicking and whirring as it mixes and kneads the dough. It’s a neat idea to wake up to the smell of freshly-baked bread but the machine isn’t quiet enough to run in the bedroom unless you’re a very sound sleeper.
The options for this machine include the following:
Basic/rapid bake
Immediate start/timer delay
White/ whole wheat / multigrain
Sandwich (soft crust)
Crust color light/medium/dark
Raisin (pause and beep to add fruit or nuts)
Dough knead without bake
Bake without dough knead
Note that not all of these options can be combined. For instance: you only get crust color selection for white bread, and sandwich mode for white and whole wheat; multigrain bread always has a dark, tough crust (although the bread inside the crust is moist and well-textured).
The container inside really is nonstick (based on my not-so-lengthy use since I bought it) and the kneading blade does very little damage to the finished loaf. Ease of use and cleanup are both excellent.
Bread results are quite sensitive to variations in the ingredients in either weight, consistency, or age. Always use fresh bread flour and fresh yeast (bread machine yeast recommended) and the right amount of salt, sugar, and flour. The recipes in the included book specify flour weight in units like 16 3/4 oz., so it’s highly recommended that you get a digital kitchen scale for good results. Note that this will require still more counter space.
Summary: a very good machine, but you’ll need a fair amount of counter space and attention to details to get the best results from it.
It’s Virtually Impossible Not To Get It Right The First Time.
Beth, this book is a winner! So many cookbooks simply give you a recipe to follow (which frequently goes wrong) and very little else. No wonder people try once and then give up. Your step by step guide, with its great illustrations, takes people through the whole process from start to finish. It’s like having a master baker looking over your shoulder. You make it all so easy, it’s virtually impossible not to get it right first time and every time. I like your method so much – not to mention the great tasting result – that this is the one I will be using in my kitchen from now on. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone, even the first time beginner, and as a chef I heartily endorse your comments on the nutritional value of wholemeal bread. It is so important in a healthy, well-balanced diet. Everyone who cares about what their family eats should get hold of a copy of your book and start baking right now! Best wishes. – Michael Sheridan (TheCookBook.com)
Bread Baking: An Artisan’s Perspective
by Daniel T. DiMuzio
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Description
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
From a Baker’s Kitchen: Techniques and Recipes for Professional Quality Baking in the Home Kitchen
by Gail Sher
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Description
This classic all-in-one baking book remains the best single introduction to making delicious, professional-quality bread and other baked goods at home. From a Baker-s Kitchen, now again available in this twentieth anniversary edition, is one of the essential books for any home baker who aspires to make professional-quality bread. Gail Sher, the first head baker of the celebrated Tassajara Bread Bakery in San Francisco, offers over 100 recipes-clear, foolproof, wonderfully varied and kitchen-tested. Sher divides them into two basic categories: yeasted breads-ranging from white breads to whole-wheat, rye, and specialty-flour breads (including recipes for rolls and buns as well as loaves), and quick breads-covering corn breads, spoonbreads, biscuits, tea cakes & batter breads, gingerbreads, and muffins. But Sher goes beyond the recipes to clearly and carefully describe all of the tools, ingredients, equipment, and, most originally, the bread-making methods and principles that make each recipe work, including her ingenious “”sponge method”" for making yeasted breads, which prominent bakers-the most effective technique for creating richly flavorful bread at home. – Amazon
How Baking Works
by Paula I. Figoni
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Description
Understanding and applying food science to the bakeshop-now revised and updated How Baking Works, Second Edition thoroughly covers the entire baking process, emphasizing the “whys” at work behind basic techniques. The book takes the user through the major ingredient groups, explaining how sweeteners, fats, milk, leavening agents, and other ingredients affect the appearance, flavor, and texture of the end product. The coverage also includes scaling and measurements, heat transfer, and sensory properties in baking. This revised and updated Second Edition features: Hands-on exercises and experiments at the end of each chapter, with many involving the sensory evaluation of ingredients Expanded coverage of sweeteners, variety grains, enzymes, starch structure and gelatinization, and gluten structure Important coverage of changes to federal laws, such as food allergen labeling Coverage reflecting consumer awareness of nutrition and health, including information on dietary fiber, trans fats, and trans-free fats in the baking context More photographs to illustrate the science of baking End-of-chapter questions that both review content and require readers to apply and synthesize what they’ve learned How Baking Works, Second Edition offers a dynamic, hands-on learning experience to both practicing and future bakers and pastry chefs. – Amazon
The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens
by Alan Scott & Daniel Wing
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In recent years, a revived and burgeoning interest in wholesome, locally baked bread has swept the country, with bakeries springing up in medium towns and major urban areas alike, producing an astounding variety of interesting, crusty, tasty, handmade breads. The Bread Builders explains the grains and flours, leavens and doughs, the chemistry of bread, and the physics of baking in a big book filled with helpful drawings, photographs, recipes, and tips. In a unique angle for a book on baking bread, it also includes detailed diagrams and instructions for building your own masonry bread oven from scratch.
As Laurel Robertson, author of The New Laurel’s Kitchen says, “This book is ice cream for a baker! We visit legendary bakeries, meet wonderful people, learn all sorts of fascinating scientific information with practical usefulness in bowl and oven, and best of all, get the skinny on masonry ovens, the cherished fantasy of us all.” The enthusiasm of the authors in their search for the perfect loaf of bread permeates this detailed but lively and accessible book, and will offer much of use to both amateur and professional bread makers. – Mark A. Hetts (Amazon)
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
Understanding Baking
by Joseph Amendola & Nicole Rees
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This Second Edition builds upon the tested methodologies of the past by incorporating the essentials of our advancing knowledge of food science. Readers get a closehand look at new baking ingredients and additives; the latest in modified starches, fat substitutes, and sweeteners; and the wide variety of gums and thickening agents now being used as substitutes for foods high in calories. – Amazon
BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes
King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains
by King Arthur Flour
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Hang on to your pie plate—King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking will change the way every baker thinks about whole grains.
Forget what you know about whole grain baking. Instead, envision light, flaky croissants; airy cakes; moist brownies; dreamy piecrusts; and scrumptious cookies—all made with whole grains. This is what you get in King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, a revolutionary cookbook that breathes new life into breads, cakes, cookies, pastries, and more by transforming the dark and dense alchemy of whole grain baking into lively, flavorful, sweet, and savory treats of all types.
King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking is a book that only the bakers at King Arthur Flour could successfully complete, opening up the home baker’s repertoire to new flours, new flavors, and new categories of whole grain baked goods. It spills over with helpful tips, how-to illustrations, sidebars on history and lore, and a friendly voice that says to readers, “Come into the kitchen with me and let’s bake.” Thousands of hours were spent testing these recipes, making sure that each one met their high standards. The final result is more than 400 delicious, inviting, and foolproof recipes that have earned a place in King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking—the next generation whole grain cookbook. 125 black & white illustrations, 16 color pages, index. – Amazon
Whole Grain Breads by Machine or Hand: 200 Delicious, Healthful, Simple Recipes
by Beatrice Ojakangas
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“Possibly the best such bread book on the market… every recipe a winner.” – New York Times
This accessible book gives new and experienced bakers the freedom and flexibility they need to make excellent homemade loaves, with more than 190 recipes that range from a simple Sourdough Bread to a fancy Finnish Cardamom Coffee Braid. Celebrated as a “reliable and inventive recipe writer” by Publishers Weekly, Beatrice Ojakangas shares four ways to make each delicious whole-grain recipe step by step: by hand, mixer, food processor, and bread machine.
Beatrice Ojakangas (Duluth, MN) is a well-known food writer, author, and consultant whose articles have appeared in Gourmet, Bon Appétit, Redbook, and other magazines. Her many books include the James Beard Award—winning Light and Easy Baking. She has been a guest on radio and television, including CNN, Martha Stewart Living, and Baking with Julia. – Amazon
Great Whole Grain Breads
by Beatrice Ojakangas
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Description
The crust, the texture, the aroma, the taste-a hearty whole grain bread makes the meal or, in the case of the cheese breads, blinis, or calzone that Beatrice Ojakangas serves up, becomes the meal. The seasoned baker and the passionate amateur, the connoisseur and the simply famished will find plenty to celebrate in Ojakangas’s classic bread-making book.
Whether it’s traditional Finnish rye, old-fashioned corn bread, scones, croissants, pretzels, or popovers, the perfect bread for any occasion can be found in this book, along with companionable advice for making it perfectly every time. For the baker with no time to spare, Ojakangas includes a large assortment of fast and easy breads.
With more than 250 sweet-and-savory recipes, easy-to-follow, step-by-step techniques for mixing and kneading, and special hints for working with whole grains, Great Whole Grain Breads should find a place in every baker’s kitchen.
Beatrice Ojakangas is the author of dozens of cookbooks, including The Great Scandinavian Baking Book (1999), Scandinavian Feasts (2001), and The Great Holiday Baking Book (2001), all published by Minnesota. She has appeared on television’s Baking with Julia Child and Martha Stewart’s Living, and has written articles for many newspapers and magazines, including Cooking Light, Family Circle, and Bon Appetit. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota. – Amazon
The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book: A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking
by Laurel Robertson
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The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book is the classic bestselling cookbook devoted to baking light, healthful, delicious bread entirely from whole grains. This specially updated edition includes an entirely new chapter on making excellent whole-grain loaves in a bread machine. Now even the busiest among us can bake the delectable loaves for which Laurel’s Kitchen is famous.
New research proves what we’ve known all along: Eating whole grains really is better for your health! Here, the switch from “white” is made fun and easy.
Like a good friend, the “Loaf for Learning” tutorial guides you step-by-step through the baking process. You’ll make perfect loaves every time, right from the start.
Here you’ll find recipes for everything—from chewy Flemish Desem Bread and mouthwatering Hot Cross Buns to tender Buttermilk Rolls, foolproof Pita Pockets, tangy Cheese Muffins, and luscious Banana Bread—all with clear explanations and helpful woodcut illustrations.
The brand-new chapter on bread machines teaches you to make light “electric” loaves from whole-grain flour. No matter what your schedule, you can come home to the wonderful smell of baking bread, fresh, hot, and ready to enjoy. – Amazon
Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe’s Best Artisan Bakers
by Daniel Leader & Lauren Chattman (Contributor)
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Recipes from the back rooms and basement bakeries that produce Europe’s best breads. When Daniel Leader opened his Catskills bakery, Bread Alone, twenty years ago, he was determined to duplicate the whole-grain and sourdough breads he had learned to make in the bakeries of Paris. The bakery was an instant success, and his first book, Bread Alone, brought Leader’s breads to home kitchens. In this, his second book, Leader shares his experiences traveling throughout Europe in search of the best artisan breads. He learned how to make new-wave sourdough baguettes with spelt, flaxseed, and soy at an organic bakery in Alsace; and in Genzano, outside of Rome, he worked with the bakers who make the enormous country loaves so unique that they have earned the Indicazione Geografica Protetta (IGP), a government mark reserved for the most prized foods and wines. Leader’s detailed recipes describe every step that it takes to reproduce these rare loaves, which until now were available strictly locally. 32 pages of color illustrations. – Amazon
The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread
by Peter Reinhart (Author) & Ron Manville (Photographer)
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“A bread baker, like any true artisan or craftsman, must have the power to control outcomes,” says Peter Reinhart, author of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. “Mastery comes with practice.” As in many arts, you must know and understand the rules before you can break them. Reinhart encourages you to learn the science of bread making, but to never forget that vision and experimentation, not formulas, make transcendent loaves. The Bread Baker’s Apprentice is broken into three sections. The first is an amusing tale of Reinhart’s visit to France and his discovery of pain à l’ancienne, a cold-fermented baguette. The second section comprises a tutorial of bread-making basics and Reinhart’s “Twelve Stages of Bread.” And finally, the recipes: Ciabatta, Pane Siciliano, Potato Rosemary Bread, New York Deli Rye, Kaiser Rolls, and Brioche, to name a few. All recipes include bread profiles and ingredient percentages. Reimagined for modern bakers, these mouthwatering classic recipes are bound to inspire. – Dana Van Nest (Amazon)
Crust: Bread to Get Your Teeth Into (With DVD)
by Richard Bertinet
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Description
Crust is the exciting new bread book from Richard Bertinet, whose previous book, Dough, won IACP Best Cookbook of the Year and a James Beard Award. His revolutionary and simple approach that won him so many accolades for Dough continues, but this time he delves deeper into the world of breadmaking, de-mystifying the more gourmet and exciting breads so that you can bake them at home with ease and confidence.
Bake a beautiful loaf of the mighty sourdough or surprise your family in the morning with the sweet, warm aroma of freshly baked croissants (and don’t worry, you don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to create them, you can easily freeze them). Richard also presents imaginative recipes using different flours and ingredients that will soon become favorites in your breadmaking repertoire. Make bagels or pretzels to liven up your lunch or experiment with Cabernet grape flour to create mini baguettes.
These utterly delicious recipes are complemented by great photography from Jean Cazals and a free DVD of Richard taking you through the tips and techniques that make his style of breadmaking so easy and enjoyable. – Amazon
From a Baker’s Kitchen: Techniques and Recipes for Professional Quality Baking in the Home Kitchen
by Gail Sher
Average Reader’s Score:
Paperback Edition:
Description
This classic all-in-one baking book remains the best single introduction to making delicious, professional-quality bread and other baked goods at home. From a Baker-s Kitchen, now again available in this twentieth anniversary edition, is one of the essential books for any home baker who aspires to make professional-quality bread. Gail Sher, the first head baker of the celebrated Tassajara Bread Bakery in San Francisco, offers over 100 recipes-clear, foolproof, wonderfully varied and kitchen-tested. Sher divides them into two basic categories: yeasted breads-ranging from white breads to whole-wheat, rye, and specialty-flour breads (including recipes for rolls and buns as well as loaves), and quick breads-covering corn breads, spoonbreads, biscuits, tea cakes & batter breads, gingerbreads, and muffins. But Sher goes beyond the recipes to clearly and carefully describe all of the tools, ingredients, equipment, and, most originally, the bread-making methods and principles that make each recipe work, including her ingenious “”sponge method”" for making yeasted breads, which prominent bakers-the most effective technique for creating richly flavorful bread at home. – Amazon
The Handmade Loaf
by Dan Lepard
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“The Handmade Loaf” is a collection of recipes, personal stories and photographs that capture the breads and home bakers of Europe. Over 80 recipes, many of which are inspired by the bakers profiled, look afresh at traditional methods and ingredients. Their blend of history and innovation will appeal to the experienced baker, but also to a generation ready to discover the simple pleasure of baking their first crisp loaf at home. Shot in real time, with bakers caught on film as the dough is mixed and the bread taken freshly from the oven, the photographs place the reader right beside the baker, showing the detail to help us understand perfectly how breads are created. – Amazon
My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method
by Jim Lahey & Rick Flaste
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Lahey’s “breathtaking, miraculous, no-work, no-knead bread” (Vogue) has revolutionized the food world. Inspired by the ancient art of Italian bread making, Jim Lahey developed artisanal bread that is entirely his own and soon can be yours. It takes only a pot to create what Mark Bittman in the New York Times calls “the best no-work bread you have ever made.” The method, which captured worldwide attention, is practically foolproof and allows the home baker to let the dough rise slowly, without any kneading or fuss, and then bake it in a heavy, preheated pot. Lahey also shares the fun of making his inventive recipes for classic breads like the rustic Italian baguette, the stirato, and his famous pizza bianca. With step-by-step instructions and full color photographs of finished loaves, My Bread is perfect for home cooks who have always wanted to make beautiful, deeply flavored bread but found traditional recipes dauntingly complicated. color photos throughout. – Amazon
The Bread Bible: 300 Favorite Recipes
by Beth Hensperger
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The Bread Bible is the one book on the subject no kitchen should be without -and now it’s available in paperback. A trusted authority on baking, Beth Hensperger has brought together hundreds of time-tested recipes, both classic and intriguingly original, from Gruyere Pullman Loaf and Farm-Style White Bread with Cardamom to fragrant Tuscan Peasant Bread and Classic Buttermilk Biscuits. And don’t just think loaves. Steamed Pecan Corn Bread, pancakes, golden brioches, flatbreads, focaccia, pizza dough, dinner rolls, dessert breads, strudels, breakfast buns -the choices are endless. The recipes are foolproof, step-by-step, and easy-to-follow. Busy bakers will also appreciate the excellent selection of recipes for bread machines and food processors. With a glossary and easy-to follow tips such as how to store and reheat bread, The Bread Bible is “a keeper for anyone who likes to bake or plans to get started.” – Chicago Tribune
For years, countless home cooks have shied away from baking their own bread because they were intimidated by all the mess, the experience, and of course, all the kneading required. Now, with Nancy Baggett’s revolutionary new Kneadlessly Simple method, even complete novices can bake bread quickly and easily in their own homes, with no kneading and no kitchen mess. The secret is in Baggett’s slow-rise method, which allows the yeast to grow slowly and develop the same full, satisfying flavor of traditional bread, without any kneading at all. The technique calls for minimal ingredients, often mixed in one bowl with one spoon, eliminating all the mess of traditional bread recipes, and it can be used to produce a wide variety of breads, from Whole Wheat Boules and English Muffin Loaves to Raisin Bread and Caraway Beer Bread. With this innovative new method, anyone who can read, measure, and stir can now make delicious, fine-textured yeast bread at home. This book will differ from others on the same subject because Nancy Baggett is an experienced food writer who understand home baker’s needs. While techniques by other experts may sound similar, they still require messy dough handling. Nancy Baggett’s technique is the simplest one yet, and it’s virtually fool-proof. – Amazon
Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes
by Jeffrey Hamelman
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The warm, complex aroma of a fresh-baked loaf of bread can be utterly tantalizing; the first bite, a revelation. In Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes, award-winning master baker Jeffrey Hamelman presents the definitive, one-stop reference on the art and science of bread baking – a kitchen essential for seasoned home bakers and professionals alike. Hamelman, a professional baker for nearly three decades, was a member of the United States national baking team that won first place in the 1996 Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie, the bread-baking World Cup. Here, he shares this experience, putting world-class artisanal loaves within reach of any serious baker. Opening with a comprehensive overview of the foundations – essential ingredients; hand techniques for kneading, scoring, and shaping; the basic process from mixing through baking – he lucidly guides bakers through all elements of this richly rewarding craft.
Bread contains 118 detailed, step-by-step recipes for an array of breads: versatile sourdough ryes; breads made with pre-ferments; and simple, straight dough loaves. Recipes for brioche, focaccia, pizza dough, flat breads, and other traditional baking staples augment the diverse collection of flavors, tastes, and textures represented within these pages. From the delicate flavor and aroma of classic French baguettes to the mellow smoothness of Roasted Garlic Levain, a bread for every season and every palate is here.
Each recipe clearly outlines the key stages, with easy-to-use charts that list ingredients in both American and metric measures, quantities appropriate for home baking, and baker’s percentages. Hundreds of drawings vividly illustrate techniques, and 35 handsome color photographs display finished breads. Sidebars accompany each recipe and section with valuable tips, from the subtle art of tasting and evaluating breads to the perfect fare to complement Vollkornbrot. A complete chapter on decorative breads – with instructions on techniques as well as a wide variety of exquisite patterns – will inspire magnificent display creations.
Laced throughout the book, Hamelman’s personal narratives offer a compelling portrait of a lifelong love affair with bread and vividly communicate buy Maximum Lipotropics online this passion. For bakers seeking to finesse this time-honored craft or simply to learn the tricks of the trade from a real master, Bread is a resource to be consulted time and time again. – Amazon
Dough: Simple Contemporary Breads (with DVD)
by Richard Bertinet
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For all those who do not want to eat mass produced sliced bread filled with chemicals and preservatives, help is at hand. Chef, teacher and baker extraordinaire Richard Bertinet gets back to basics and shows that, far from being hard or time-consuming, baking bread is quick and easy. Dough breaks down the bread making process into easy-to-follow and achievable steps using just four simple ingredients – yeast, flour, water and salt. An instructional DVD accompanies the book to help illustrate and ease the process of working with dough.
In his book Bertinet explores five different doughs – White, Olive, Brown, Rye and Sweet – and shows how from these ‘parent’ doughs you can bake a vast variety of breads really easily. Though the doughs vary, the technique for making each one is identical. The beauty of it is that it takes no time at all to fill a bread basket with, say, striking looking Fougasse, Breadsticks or Spicy Moroccan rolls (from the White Dough chapter) or Poppy Seed Stars, Sesame plaits and chunks of Pecan and Cranberry, or Cardamom and Prune bread (from the Brown chapter) and no one will guess that they are all part of the same ‘family’. Most of the breads take less than 1 hour to bake and many of the recipes can be part-baked and frozen, ready to finish off in the oven at any time. – Amazon
The Best Quick Breads: 150 Recipes for Muffins, Scones, Shortcakes, Gingerbreads, Cornbreads, Coffeecakes, and More
by Beth Hensperger
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In her no-fuss, straightforward style, Hensperger (The Bread Bible, etc.) expertly lays out the basics for making quick breads in this exhaustive, offbeat book. She offers 150 recipes in all: 100 from her now out-of-print The Art of Quick Breads and 50 brand new. Classic loaves, such as Lemon-Poppy Seed Bread, appear alongside innovative items like Fresh Orange-Oatmeal Bread and Amaretto Nut Bead. Standout muffins include Rye Muffins with Orange and Fennel, Zucchini-Basil Baby Cakes and Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins. Gingerbreads are redolent with spices and unusual ingredients such as stout and peaches. This is not to imply that all of Hensperger’s recipes rely on wacky ingredient combinations. She includes plenty of staid recipes like Fresh Apple Coffee Cake and Chicken-and-Mushroom-Filled Cr?pes with b?chamel. But just as Hensperger expands the definition of quick breads to include pancakes, cr?pes, dumplings and even latkes, she also enlarges the pool of potential quick bread ingredients to incorporate some new tastes: Autumn Persimmon Pancakes, Graham Popovers, and Soda Bread with Caraway and Drambuie. The entries sometimes border on the unorthodox (Chinatown Green Onion Cakes; Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Sage Butter), but with recipes this concise and inviting, readers are unlikely to complain. – Publishers Weekly (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Crust and Crumb: Master Formulas for Serious Bread Bakers
by Peter Reinhart
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Reinhart is the author of the well-regarded Brother Juniper’s Bread Book (1991. o.p.) as well as the charming Sacramental Magic in a medium-Town Cafe (LJ 9/15/94), about the cafe that grew into Brother Juniper’s Bakery, in Santa Rosa, CA. Now he’s teaching baking at the California Culinary Academy, and his latest book is a detailed and authoritative guide to artisan breads. The book’s subtitle basically says it all, though Reinhart explains that he uses the word formula rather than recipe because he’s included the “why” as well as the “how” for making his “world-class breads,” from sourdoughs of all types to brioche and challah to flatbreads and pizza. A worthy addition to the elite group that includes Joe Ortiz’s The Village Baker (LJ 12/92) and Daniel Leader’s Bread Alone (LJ 10/15/93), this is highly recommended for all baking collections. – Library Journal. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
