Question for the bakers here

Kenny 13

I've been reading some of these posts on pizzas & breads and looking at lots of great pictures and some recipes, but I have to admit that I really know nothing about baking. It's been probably 9 or 10 years since I've had a bread machine, which used to turn out some very good bread, but I really would like to learn more about the different aspects of baking, and really starting out as a beginner. Can anyone suggest any good books or other sources for a beginner to get a good start?

Boilermaker Ben

A lot of people swear by Peter Reinhart for bread books. The Bread Baker's Apprentice is a popular one, and his latest, Artisinal Bread Every Day (or Artisan bread every day, or something like that) just got nominated for a Beard Award. I don't have any of his books, but they're supposed to be very good. He also has a pie book, and a couple others.

I DO have the Bread Bible by Rose Levy Berenbaum, which I like a lot. She also has a few other books, including a couple cake books.

A good all around baking book is the King Arthur Flour baking book. It's very comprehensive. Their website is also very good.

BENTE

Peter Reinhart's "the bread bakers apprentice" has helped my bread baking alot!!


there are other books but i am not sure what they are

edg1

One place to start is thefreshloaf.com. There are some egg related topics.

I have done a little bit of eggsperimenting, and I will be doing more. So far, I really like the egg for baking.

edg

BillHill

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/

lowercasebill

first two on this page are the current fave's.. any book by peter reinhart

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_6_4?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=bread+baking&sprefix=brea

one of our own , unconudrum, is an amazing baker he recently gave a course at freds music and bbq. his foccacia recipe is easy , i have made it 3 times so far. i have been fortunate to partake of his breads, pizza, donuts,, if i lived closer to him i would be fat!


http://recipesonrails.com/

FearlessGrill

I agree with the Peter Reinhart recommendations. Not only are the recipes good, but he does a good job of explaining why, not just how. I've also been enjoying Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes Per Day, which takes the approach of making big batches of dough and storing them in the fridge till you need them. Makes good bread, and lets you spontaneously decide to make a loaf without having to wait 3-4 hours.

There are bread and other Egg baking recipes posted on our blog too.

Hope this helps,

-John

cookn biker

Kenny, The books suggested are awesome!!
My suggested book, I stumbled upon. I was in Borders with fellow eggers and found at the back of the store a rack of cookbooks on sale. This cost me $6. I LOVE a bargin!! I had no bread specific cookbooks so I did a quick check through it and I liked it. What I like is it offers all countries and thier regions of breads. Breads of the world. The pictures of the regions and the breads. A total flour section. An intro section covering by hand baking and machine. History, grains and milling and lot's more.
It is: The Bread and Bread Machine Bible
by : Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter.
Publisher: Hermes House.
Let us know what you decide on.
Happy egg baking!!

Kenny 13

Thanks for all the replies. I'm definitely interested in finding out why, and ot just how on some of this stuff. I don't want to be just stuck following recipes, as I want to be able to make adjustments if something isn't working for me.

I'll definitely check out the Reinhart suggestions, as well as the website suggestions, to get started. Then I'll go on from there.

mkc

One book that hasn't been mentioned yet is Shirley Corriher's "Bakewise". It covers other baking topics besides yeast breads (although it covers those as well). Like her "Cookwise", it goes into a lot of the "why", in this case different aspects of baking.

(she's my hero - wish I'd known about being a food scientist. I'd have chosen that over chemical/materials/electrical engineering)

For yeast doughs, I agree with the recommendations for the Reinhart books for more on "why" and the ABin5 book for very user-friendly baking.

For pizza, my favorite resource is www.pizzamaking.com and its forums (fora?)

-M

Kenny 13

I've actually just started looking at pizzamaking.com, but I haven't gotten deep enough into it yet. It looks like they have some books recommended there too.

Kenny 13

Thanks again for the replies on this. Last night I spent some time reading through some of the lessons on that fresh loaf site and I already feel like I've learned a little. I'll probably pick up one of the recommended books this weekend so I can get a little deeper into things.