WILEY Bread: A Baker′s Book of Techniques and Recipes

The best bread book out there. I spend a fair amount of time reading blogs on The Fresh Loaf website. When people ask which bread books to buy, this is the one most often recommended. Always! I’ve read multiple times that people have never baked a bad recipe from this book. That’s an impressive statement, especially when it comes from serious bakers. I hesitated to buy it for the longest time because I had so much trouble reading the library copy of the 1st edition. The words were small and light and extremely hard to read. I'd seen a quite a few complaints about the 3rd edition having the same problem, but then I started seeing a few comments that the newest copies had improved -- and my copy was significantly better than the first edition. The typeface is still not dark, but it's a LOT easier to read. That was a huge relief! Hamelman’s strength is his vast amount of knowledge and the ability to share it clearly. The first 87 pages are taken up with info on ingredients and techniques, and I’ve already learned things that will help me. I’ve only owned the book for a week, but it’s already full of sticky notes and flags, and I read this one with a highlighter in my hand. There’s an impressive variety of recipes in this book. Hamelman discusses rye quite a bit and there’s a whole chapter on sourdough rye breads. Each recipe takes about 2 pages, with a comment section at the beginning, then the formulas and directions. There are no wasted words, and the instructions are clear and concise. Very easy to folliw. Importantly, Hamelman gives recipes in grams in this latest edition, thank goodness! That’s a deal breaker for me in any baking book. I don’t think I’d recommend this book for the novice baker. It would have scared me off had I read it first, but now I’m ready to absorb what Hamelman has to offer. It will probably end up being my primary reference book. There are so many interesting recipes in it. There is only a small section of photos, but there are really excellent illustrations sprinkled throughout. If photos had been included, there would have been far fewer recipes, so the editors made the right choice. At this level of baking, photos aren’t as necessary. I love my bread books. I enjoy just leafing through them, to read recipes and to learn. Sometimes I’ll see a tidbit of information that I’d never noticed before. Frequently I’m inspired to bake. This is one I’m really going to enjoy – and use! I’ll probably buy a few more books over the next year, but there’s no reason to hurry. This one will keep me busy for a long time.

The author is a professional and has written an excellent book, however I do not understand why it was printed in a light grey which makes it uncomfortable to read without a light shining directly on the pages. Also there are so many printing errors in the text, with words running together or even overlapping, some split weirdly, and with no hyphen (see some instances circled in the photos) that it lowers the overall quality. I appreciate the recipes for each level of baker, though I am puzzled why metric measurements were not used in the home bakers column. Since the USA is literally the only western country still using the imperial system, I would have thought the more exact metric measurements would have been prioritized. Otherwise I do appreciate the author sharing his significant knowledge; the 4 stars is for the content. If based on the printing it would receive 1 star.

Da ogni buon libro sul pane si impara qualcosa. Da questo libro, ben curato, su carta patinata, si impara molto sulla buona pratica di panificazione ma poco sui sottostanti aspetti scientifici. L'autore infatti assume dichiaratamente il punto di vista dell'artigiano, che non è tenuto a essere un accademico, ma deve saper padroneggiare tutti i passaggi che dalla materia prima conducono a un prodotto finale di qualità. Sotto questo aspetto egli fornisce preziose informazioni che aiutano a svolgere al meglio l'intero processo. Il libro si articola in due parti: la prima, appunto, sulla buona pratica, la seconda è un lungo e bellissimo elenco di ricette all over the world, ben commentate, che costituiscono un'ottima fonte di ispirazione. Alla fine c'è una terza parte, in forma di appendice, che integra e completa la parte generale. Direi che non può mancare nella libreria tanto del panificatore di professione quanto del semplice appassionato.

great book, well written, technical and informative

It was a gift for my son. I'm happy it is hard bound