Jump to content

Recommended Posts

My husband is a keen bread baker and his birthday is coming up. I'm looking for a book that has some interesting extended techniques but that's suitable for home baking. I'm seeing a lot of volumes that get rave reviews, but when I look at the recipes, I see quantities and yields that strike me as much more suited to commercial production than to home baking and eating.

Any good suggestions? Suggestions also welcome for other good gifts for a baking enthusiast!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am a big fan of Carol Field's original Italian Baker.  I have not read the revised version, but she has good, detailed directions and we have not had a failure from her book.  We are particularly fond of the Rosemary bread.  Many of her recipes involve an overnight sponge.

http://smile.amazon.com/Italian-Baker-Carol-Field/dp/0061812668/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425060638&sr=8-1&keywords=field+italian+baker

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I own and like The Bread Baker's Apprentice, though the recipes may still be too big for what you have in mind.

Another suggestion if you're open to a wider definition of breadmaking, would be Flatbread & Flavor.  It has a nice overview of various kinds of flatbread and include lots of recipes of food to eat with each flatbread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My husband is a keen bread baker and his birthday is coming up. I'm looking for a book that has some interesting extended techniques but that's suitable for home baking. I'm seeing a lot of volumes that get rave reviews, but when I look at the recipes, I see quantities and yields that strike me as much more suited to commercial production than to home baking and eating.

Any good suggestions? Suggestions also welcome for other good gifts for a baking enthusiast!

Mark Furstenberg is as good and as experienced a baker as anyone in this region and probably the country.  He recently did a blog post on cookbooks of all types because he has partnered with Politics & Prose up the street to create a book shelf in BreadFurst alongside his fantastic breads, pastries, pickled, preserved, prepared and other foods for sale.

Because the post was mostly about cook books versus his personal core focus of baking, he just wrote this in terms of a possible answer to your question:

Finally, could I create a bookshelf at Bread Furst without books about breads and sweets? Right now my favorite bread books are:

Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson, my copain in San Francisco.

Flour Water Salt by Ken Forbish, a particularly sensible didactic bread book.

The full blog post is here. You might do well to go visit him at the shop and just ask his views. And get one of his magic baguettes or a loaf of levain, palladin or corn rye to inspire.  I don't think he offers classes but talking to him might yield some great ideas.

One final idea.  Phone these guys in Brookline, MA and ask their reccs as well.  They, like Mark, are current Beard Award semifinalists for Most Outstanding Bakery in America.  LIke BreadFurst, this is a truly awesome and exceedingly rare bakery.  I'd put heavy weight on whatever book reccs either would suggest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While it is not strictly a bread technique and recipe book, I'll bet he would really enjoy Sam Fromartz's recent memoir In Search of the Perfect Loaf. Sam is a local DC-area journalist who became fascinated by bread-baking, focused on making a great baguette. The book is a chronicle of his obsession with learning about how to make great bread. He's a terrific, entertaining writer who manages while telling the story of his passion for bread and the many interesting characters he encounters in his quest to learn how to bake, to provide vast amounts of information about the history of wheat cultivation and bread baking, the many types of flour and how they need to be handled to make bread. It's a great read, and he describes his own techniques, too. Highly recommended.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...