There’s
something about bread that entices us. Very rare is the person who can walk
past a kitchen where the smell of fresh baked bread still lingers and not want a
taste. Making bread at home is one of those enviable skills that anyone with a
culinary touch wants but so few of us try. Often, for us amateurs, we don’t
know where to begin. Well, here’s the best place to start!
Peter
Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice
is a book for both the newcomer and the expert alike. Even if you’ve only just
starting making bread, or only thinking about making bread, you’ll benefit from
this book. Reinhart’s ability to dissect bread making (and tasting) makes this
a book that is both useful for understanding how bread works and for making
your mouth water while you read.
The book is
part cookbook and part lesson. The second half of the book includes recipes on
various types of bread, written with instructions that work in either the most
well equipped eatery or the sparsest kitchen. The breads Reinhart includes
range from familiar loafs, like French bread, bagels, and cornbread, to exotic
dishes, like Ciabatta, Pugliese, and pain
a’ l’Ancienne. All, of course, accompanied with delicious pictures.
The first
half of the book is a bit of a history of Reinhart’s own learning in bread
making and a study of how bread works. How the baking of loaves works, how the
mixing of dough works, even how the eating of bread works. Aside from giving
the reader an understanding of why bread is, well, bread, this section makes
for an interesting read if the art behind culinary is something you’ve always
wanted to know.
The Bread Baker’s Apprentice is not one
of those cookbooks that comes with a thousand recipes that guarantees you
you’ll find any dish for any occasion. It’s a serious look at baking bread
correctly, whether this is your first or five hundredth loaf. So, if bread’s
what makes your mouth water, give this one a try.
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