Bread Illustrated: A Step-By-Step Guide to Achieving Bakery-Quality Results At Home

This is a fantastic book. I knew it would be, America's Test Kitchen always has good books full of hints and tips that make life easier. There is everything from sourdough to quick breads in this book. Illustrations that are helpful and explain what is being described makes it easy for novice and expert cooks to follow along. I am very glad I made the decision was made to purchase this book. It is a welcome addition to the cookbooks I term "keepers". This book is perfect for people who are learning how to bake bread. It discusses various ways to knead bread, depending on the type you are baking. It talks about tools that are useful and ones that are "must haves". It talks about substitutes and ways to fix problems. There are lots and lots of pictures to show what they mean so if you are visual learner, you are covered. Beyond this, there are recipes, lots and lots of recipes for bread of all types. You are sure to find what you are seeking in this book, be it a quick bread that you need or a fancy bread for a dinner party. Everything is explained, so novice cooks are not left guessing what is meant. Experienced cooks will likely learn something as well, I know that I did! From the moment I heard this book was hitting the shelves, I was pacing. Bread is a weekly thing at our house. Sometimes sourdough, sometimes yeast, often both on the same day. Bread baking has become a ritualistic type of thing that is a way to relax and make the house smell divine. Yes, even in the depths of summer, when the mercury rose to 100*, there was rising bread. Tweaked recipes and new techniques are tried, some flop, some exceed expectations, and this book is helping to make the ritual even more fun.

Great book. Great instructions and illustrations. Glad I bought it.

I was stuck between this book and several other bread baking books and I’m so pleased with this one! I love that this book offers general basics and tips with recommendations for equipment. Then it gets into a bunch of recipes within specific categories, like basic breads, sandwich breads, and sweet breads. And then it finishes with trickier classics like sourdough and bagels. My mom has been getting more into baking bread so I didn’t want to get her something that would be repetitive to what she’s already practiced. This gives her great tried and true recipes with a ton of additional options to play around with. I also love that there are troubleshooting sections for every recipe, so you can actually learn the techniques and things to improve. The pictures are beautiful and I love that there are step by step images as well as final products. I’d definitely recommend this!

This book has wonderful pictures and recipes. Please note that all recipes listed in ounces and not grams.

Bread illustrated is put out by America's test kitchen, which means each recipe has been tested and retested. People have different feelings about the paragraphs explaining why the recipe works, I find it interesting and enjoy reading it. I have a lot of bread cookbooks, two bookshelves worth, and that is after I got rid of many. Everything from no knead bread to a Passion for bread (which intimidated me so much when I got it I told Jim I wasn't sure I'd ever be that passionate about bread.) Bread Illustrated is laid out from easiest to more involved, so you have early success, learn techniques, then go into more advanced bread baking. The measurements are both the standard cup, half cup, but it also has weights based on the American scale, for example 10 oz water, 16 1/4 oz flour. It does not give metric on the recipe page, but does conversions in the back, so yes, it does have weights, which I prefer for baking. Pictures- it has them, gorgeous pictures, both of the finished product, and pictures of techniques, skills, for pretzels it shows how to roll and shape the pretzels, for hoagie rolls how to shape the rolls. Some of the pictures are pretty basic, adding the yeast to the water, but you will have a course in bread making when done with this book. Most of the recipes also have a trouble shooting guide at the end of each recipe, for example, the fluffy dinner rolls might be tough and hard to handle, they say to make sure the rolls are covered with plastic wrap, then go on to explain if you cut the rolls slowly they can dry out and develop a skin, so cover the cut pieces of dough while working. The first 37 pages are wonderful reading, they talk about science of gluten, first rise in depth, yeast, equipment, cooling and storing, the pantry, kneading, it's excellent for beginner, interesting and a refresher for those of us who have been baking awhile. Bread machines are not covered, this is a hands on, or big mixer type of making bread. One of the most interesting techniques, mentioned briefly in the equipment and more in depth on page 37, is using lava rocks with boiling water poured over them to maintain a steamy oven. I had never heard of this before, but it's brilliant. Put the lava rocks in aluminum pie plates and pour the water over the lava rocks to create long lasting steam. The recipes are varied and interesting enough to make this a go to bread book for basic sandwich loafs, rolls, pretzels, pizza, and then onto breads like sage polenta and pita. Sweet dough and breads, those lovely lovely cinnamon buns, St Lucia buns, Chocolate babka, are not neglected. The pages is laid out by recipe title, yield (ex: makes 1 loaf), rising time, resting time, baking time, total time, key equipment. Then the why the recipe works section. On the same page is the list of ingredients, then the instructions, and pictures on following pages. The chapters, besides the 37 page introduction, are: Starting from scratch, 12 foolproof breads that teach the basics Sandwich breads, everyday loaves, modern and classic Mastering size and shape- dinner rolls and more The perfect crust- pizzas and flatbreads from around the world The sweeter side- enriched breads and other treats Upping your game with sponges- bakery style artisan loaves raising the bar- project recipes worth the time (here is where you'll find sourdoughs and sprouted breads, for example) Now, you noticed I said it gave american weights and not metric, which is yes and no. It gives American ozs and lbs in the recipe, but starting on page 414 you will find metric conversions. the index is alphabetical and well laid out, making recipes easy to find. Why, when I am so enthused about this book, when the quick cheese bread was delicious, the sandwich loaf was great, am I giving the book a 4 stars? Because the ingredients are typed in a light salmon orange on white paper, no doubt an aesthetic choice but one that makes it difficult to read and doesn't belong in such an otherwise wonderful instructional book. Because the ingredients are such a huge part of the recipe this was, to me, a fairly major flaw and worthy of a one star deduction. * a special note on kneading. if you don't read page 15 you might think the recipes are only for a heavy duty stand mixer. In the recipes they do not give instructions or time for hand kneading. It will say something like mix 2 min then turn on med high and mix 8 min, so you might think you can't knead by hand, or know how long to knead. On page 15 however, it gives instructions for hand kneading, saying most loaves will take 12-15 minutes. They also give reluctant instructions for the food processor. So yes, they do tell you how to hand knead and the time conversions for most 8 minutes in the mixer, but they don't include that information in the individual recipes. It's really a good idea to read the first 37 pages no matter how exciting it is to jump in and make some bread. Otherwise this is an excellent addition for almost anyone interested in bread and bread-like making and baking.

Oh my goodness this book changed my baking life into a pro.

En México, la variedad del pan y sus sabores son infinitos, y por lo mismo, muchas veces es complicado encontrar el sabor y la textura que esperas por la adecuación local de recetas provenientes de otras partes del mundo. Adquirí este libro básicamente por curiosidad, porque pensé que los resultados que uno prueba en panaderías artesanales son a base de prueba y error: INCORRECTO. Aplicando las instrucciones de este libro al pie de la letra obtendrás los resultados precisos sin necesidad de echar a perder material o desperdiciar tu tiempo. El precio de este libro es ridículamente bajo considerando lo mucho que ahorrarás los viernes de pizza aprovechando todo lo que tengas en el refrigerador y poniendo en práctica una buena base de pizza de las varias que se incluyen en el libro. Prepara tortillas de harina, pan pita o pan para sándwiches de un día a otro (la preparación de las masas debe ser bien planeada para permitir sus tiempos de elevado), sin aditivos y con el sabor del pan recién hecho. Lo recomiendo totalmente a expertos que desean probar formas más efectivas de mejorar sus resultados o a amateurs como yo.

I have always enjoyed the America's Test Kitchen TV show since I stumbled across it on the PBS channel. I was hooked by the attention to detail in every recipe they cook/bake. No incomplete instructions here like some cooking/ baking books that assume you are a competent cook/baker. Obviously aimed at the American market I still would not hesitate to purchase this kindle edition as all recipes have American cup measurements, and weight measurements in ounces, not grams but this is not a problem as any decent set of scales are able to weigh in ounces anyway. Also if you visit the America's Test Kitchen website, they have a cup to grams conversion chart which is helpful for bakers in the U.K. This kindle edition is fantastic with a huge range of breads from basic white sandwich bread, whole meal/wholewheat breads, sweet breads, breads with pre-ferments i.e. Poolish, overnight soakers, and the King of breads, the sourdough. All recipes have great photos of the finished product and also pictures of vital steps, for example shaping bread whether it is a boule, Batard, or a sandwich/tin loaf. Don't hesitate to purchase, you won't regret it, I know I didn't! Enjoy bakery quality breads at home.

Outstanding, as expected from America's Test Kitchen. Clear and thorough introduction on the equipment you'll need, the science behind what happens in the process of rising, kneading and such. Lots of great recipes that turn out beautifully when followed carefully. You can't expect to find everything there is to know in the wide world of bread in one book, but as a reference for anyone wanting to get into making bread at home this has been simply fantastic. Note 1: I have really come to love the work done by America's Test Kitchen. I have a few of their books now on everything from cook's science to perfect cookies and they are, almost without exception, perfect. Not just for the recipes that they have exhaustively tested to ensure they'll work out well, but I really enjoy their explanations for the steps they take in testing each recipe for what works, what doesn't, and why. I've learned as much from those as I have anything else. Note 2: When following this book's instructions on Sourdough bread I didn't have much success at first. After the customary rising period, instead of a cohesive dough I basically had flour soup. I decided after a few unsuccessful attempts to go through the same trial and error process the test kitchen does and record all my changes. It seems that the native yeasts of this city (Ottawa) might just be lazy little buggers. Using the same recipe but with a much larger amount of sourdough starter than indicated (think 5-6x as much) which had been fed well about 5-6 hours before use yielded much better results. There seems to be some regional variation in this, so if yours doesn't turn out quite right the first time don't give up on it.

Step by step instructions with colour photo.