Book recommendations for learning to bake bread, please

[mathnerd]

I bake bread rarely and when I do, I use King Arthur recipe website and odd blogs, youtube and back of the flour bag recipes.

I would like to start baking all our sandwich bread since we consume a lot. I have previous experience with making and sustaining a sourdough starter. I would like to learn how to bake bread and understand how factors like temperature, gluten development, yeast, different flours from different grains, sugars etc affect the quality of the bread. My aim is to incorporate a variety of grains, seeds and flours and bake twice a week. I don't have a bread machine or a stand mixer.

I am a geek and don't mind if this subject matter gets complicated or technical. Please recommend a book to learn from! Thanks!

[Bootsie]

America's Test Kitchen's bread book ( Bread Illustrated: A Step-By-Step Guide to Achieving Bakery-Quality Results At Home: America's Test Kitchen: 9781940352602: Amazon.com: Books ) provides baske recipes for a wide variety of breads.  It provides informaiton about gluten development and all of the other particulars of bread baking.  None of the recipes are for bread machines.  All of the recipes I have tried have turned out well. 

[mathnerd]

11 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

America's Test Kitchen's bread book ( Bread Illustrated: A Step-By-Step Guide to Achieving Bakery-Quality Results At Home: America's Test Kitchen: 9781940352602: Amazon.com: Books ) provides baske recipes for a wide variety of breads.  It provides informaiton about gluten development and all of the other particulars of bread baking.  None of the recipes are for bread machines.  All of the recipes I have tried have turned out well. 

Thank you very much! My library has the ebook and I got it just now. I will try out a few recipes from it.

[Carol in Cal.]

The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book is where I learned a ton about bread theory.  It’s old enough that it’s probably in  your local library or super cheap in your local thrift stores.

Ironically I no longer use any of their recipes as they are all 100% whole grain, but I still use the knowledge from that book just about every time I make bread otherwise.   And one of these days I *will* make a desem starter.

For true white sandwich bread, I like two recipes—one being the plain bread in “The Impoverished Student’s Guide to Eatery, Drinkery, and Housekeepery”, a book I heartily endorse for its great recipes, awesome adulting advice, amusing writing style, and reasonable price. Available from the Reed College bookstore only.  The other being the white bread with three rises in “Soup and Bread” by Crescent Dragonwagon, which is more like Wonder Bread than any homemade bread should be.  The first tastes better but the second is more conventional and suited for tea sandwiches or PBGJ.

[Clarita]

This book will be all you ever needed to know about baking. The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry, 4th Edition: Friberg, Bo: 8601400132609: Amazon.com: Books Although it was a bit hard to bake from as a begining baker - there are no shortcuts in this book also they have larger quantities. However as a geek/nerd it gives you enough information to make your own pastry recipe. 

I use this book as "fun" reading as oppose to a recipe book. Then, I use the internet to find the recipes and use the information from this book to tweak and/or experiment.

[Danae]

1 minute ago, Carol in Cal. said:

The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book is where I learned a ton about bread theory.  It’s old enough that it’s probably in  your local library or super cheap in your local thrift stores.

Ironically I no longer use any of their recipes as they are all 100% whole grain, but I still use the knowledge from that book just about every time I make bread otherwise.   And one of these days I *will* make a desem starter.

 

 

All of this.  Except I did keep a desem going for a year or so.  I might do it again when my schedule is more stable.

[Carol in Cal.]

12 minutes ago, Danae said:

 

All of this.  Except I did keep a desem going for a year or so.  I might do it again when my schedule is more stable.

That is so cool!

[Amethyst]

Best Bread Ever by Charles Van Over. (Sorry. Can’t do a link) He makes dough using a food processor which may sound weird at first, but I’ve had good success with this. Plenty of technique and background information, plenty of theory, suggestions on shaping doughs, stretch-and-fold method, temperature checks.  Lots to read if you want more than just quick recipes. But also easy method and great results. 

[J-rap]

I never hear of bread machines anymore, but I made most of our bread in our bread machine.  That is, I added everything to the machine where it was kneaded, rose, kneaded again...  And then I took it out and shaped it and baked it in the oven.  It was really good!  Adding the ingredients to the bread machine was usually one of the jobs of our kids (which they loved to do), so the whole thing felt pretty effortless.

[VickiMNE]

Not a book recommendation but this baker at https://www.theperfectloaf.com has tons of informative articles AND answers questions. 

[Guest]

I do agree with the recommendation from bootsie of America’s test kitchen. They also have a Baking Bible, which has the best Italian loaf recipe that is pretty much all I make now. 
 

But I owe my knowledge of what to do to Peter Reinhardt. I loved his book “Artesan Bread Every Day.”

[LostSurprise]

Entry level: Peter Reinhardt in general, but specifically his Bread Baker's Apprentice. A lot of people use Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast, but since I read Reinhardt first I've only browsed that one since it fills a similar niche.  Both are good with explanations.

Intermediate: Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread. My go-to for recipes. Very professional and he scales up for larger bakes. 

 

I also enjoy reading Daniel Leader for background on European city breads, but I've had trouble with a few of his recipes so I think he has some he bakes professionally himself and some he's collected on his travels. 

Edited January 4, 2022 by LostSurprise

[KrissiK]

One more piece of advice, that is not book related, but I think essential when baking bread…. it really is an Art more than a science. You need to do it often, learn the feel of the dough, be patient.  I’m a real recipe follower and even though I’ve been baking bread for years, my bread isn’t as good as my mom’s who just does it by “feel”.   Have fun.

[DreamerGirl]

I know how to make flat breads really well, thought I could transition to bread easily. Nope.

This book by this man helped. He is fearsome in the criticism in bakeoff, so I figured if any one could teach me it could be him. Also there are tons of videos of him making bread and also look at the master class of bakeoff where he makes a lot of the bread he so criticizes the poor contestants for.

https://www.amazon.com/Paul-Hollywoods-Bread-Hollywood/dp/1408840693

[Forget-Me-Not]

3 hours ago, KrissiK said:

One more piece of advice, that is not book related, but I think essential when baking bread…. it really is an Art more than a science. You need to do it often, learn the feel of the dough, be patient.  I’m a real recipe follower and even though I’ve been baking bread for years, my bread isn’t as good as my mom’s who just does it by “feel”.   Have fun.

Totally agree. I was just telling my brother this the other day, when he was trying to figure out why his cinnamon rolls came out really dry. 
 

I will also add: If you’re using a Kitchen-Aid mixer, their instruction to add flour until the dough forms a ball and “cleans” the side of the bowl generally results in too much flour in the dough, IME. I think leaving the dough a bit soft to where it’s just *slightly* tacky when I touch it is better. 

[Carol in Cal.]

BTW:  A Loaf For Learning in the Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book is annotated like an apprenticeship.  If you do want to make 100% whole wheat bread that is low fat, that is definitely where to start. 

I’d use a little more butter, as it helps the rise and I don’t need the bread to be as low fat as LK, and after adding the water let it sit for 10 minutes before proceeding.  

Edited January 4, 2022 by Carol in Cal.

[popmom]

13 hours ago, VickiMNE said:

Not a book recommendation but this baker at https://www.theperfectloaf.com has tons of informative articles AND answers questions. 

Yes…especially if you want to geek out over the math and science of sourdough. 🙂

[HS Mom in NC]

I really like my copy of this one from America's Test Kitchen: https://www.amazon.com/Bread-Illustrated-Step-Step-Bakery-Quality/dp/1940352606/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1MT0QZCB56LCO&keywords=americas+test+kitchen+bread&qid=1641334641&sprefix=americas+test+kitchen+bread%2Caps%2C117&sr=8-1