Customer Reviews

Baking Artisan Bread: 10 Expert Formulas for Baking Better Bread at Home

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I get the feeling the folks that rated it 5 stars have never used the book for baking. Mr. Hitz is a world class baker. I have met him and think highly of his talents. He is an innovator and competent artisan, and a teacher at a prominent culinary institute.

Unfortunately, this cookbook is flawed where it counts. I have made two projects from the book and both recipes had errors. The first, Challah bread, the knotted rolls, tells the baker to divide the dough into 100g units, unfortunately it should be 70g, a minor error but one that affects the baking time. The next was Pain de Mie, the metric measurements do not match the US measurements both in the sugar amount nor the salt content - which one is incorrect, I haven't a clue. There are more errors, including using millimeters instead of centimeters (p141), and page referrals to other recipes in the book that are not correct.
I am not a seasoned veteran in the field of baking, I rely entirely on the recipes. If I can't trust the book and the instructions, what good is it?

I wrote to Mr. Hitz, and got the reply that he is aware of the errors and will fix it in the next edition. Great, no erratum sheet, no way to know if there is a problem until after the fact.

My suggestion is wait until the next edition is out, but until then, look at the King Arthur Baker's Companion baking cookbook, it has most of the same recipes, and after making several dozen projects, I have not had a problem with any of the directions. Until then, Baking Artisan Bread is just a 5 star coffee table book.

Full disclosure - I do not work for, nor did I get a discount when I bought my King Arthur cookbook.

Ciril gives you formulas and instructions that work and taste great. He does not comprise on technique just to make it easy. If you can master Ciril's instructions, you will turn out better bread than your local bakery. If you are serious, go to one of his 3 day courses and you will learn the formulas for what I think are his two best breads--Pain Rustique and Miche.

If you are new to pre-ferments, try starting with the focaccia. It makes use of a poolish, but is forgiving. Also, you don't have to use steam. Cover with herb oil and after 20 minutes with grated Parmesan. You will be amazed with the results.

This book is not for people who want to make bread in 2 hours. If you want that kind of bread, don't waste the 2 hours, just buy a loaf at the store. This book is for people who are willing to do the little bit of extra planning and work to get exceptional results. Most of the recipes will require that you mix a pre-ferment the day before you bake. This extra 5 minutes and 12-18 hours overnight is the step that makes all the difference.

In response to Mr. "folks that rated it fives stars"...
----
Do you think that people who are serious about baking are interested in making plain old sandwich bread? Pain de Mie? That would be about the last formula I would try in a baking book. Seriously, try something a little more interesting--you might like it. Don't rate a book 1 star because you try 2 formulas.

You will find that in most baking books, you will need to tweak stuff to your own baking environment. The size of dividing units is not an issue. If you don't like the size, adjust accordingly. I make pita based on Glezer's formulas, she calls for 170g pitas, but I find that 85g is more to my liking. That doesn't mean she is off by 100%.

Also, I made the Challah last week and it was perfect. Don't divide into 70g as Mr. grumpy stripes suggests, 100g is correct as Ciril states. 110g if doing a 5 braid.

Baking times are never correct. Each brand/type of flour bakes different, each oven bakes differently, and baking stones bake differently too. Also you have the ambient temperature factor. Things are ready when they look ready. When it looks like the picture in the book, take it out. I set my timer about 5-10 minutes less and then just keep a careful eye.

Here are the good formulas in the book
Foccacia, Ciabatta, Baguette, Bagel, Brioche, Croissant, and Challah

Recipes I won't waste time with or have had bad experiences with..
Pan Francese, Pain de Mie, Whole Wheat, Pizza (I don't like pizza dough made with oil)

Even the best bakeries in the world have items that don't taste good. It is the same with cookbooks, you need to dig around to find the gems. Ignore the filler formulas. Try Ciril's Foccacia or Ciabatta, it will put a couple stars back on your opinion. Even that one formula is worth $16.50, just make 4 loaves. I have made the f/c formula about 15 times. Some people have said it was the best bread they have ever tasted.

Now remember, even if you make the f/c formula and it doesn't turn out right or taste like a million bucks, you have to realize that it would be impossible for you to replicate my environment. I live at 4600 ft, use 14% bread flour from a local producer, use SAF Instant, measure in grams, use a drug scale, and have a temperature controlling proofer/retarder.

Baking is just a big science experiment. You have to get all the variables and factors perfect. It take a lot of practice. A book just gives you a framework.

And yes Ciril did post minor corrections available on his website--which is not common for a food book author.
[...]

"Baking Artisan Bread" is an adequate book for those new to bread baking, but it is lacking in some simple, yet important, techniques, such as the autolyse. I'm astounded this basic method of initially hydrating the flour was omitted. More importantly, Mr. Hitz apparently has chosen to ignore the errors in his recipes. Rather than publish a list of corrections at his website, which could be easily done, he has decided to make the corrections in the next printing (if there is one) and the current owners of the book be damned.

Errors in publications happen. However, when one is dealing with a cookbook or baking book, not only has the consumer made an investment in the book, but in the ingredients as well, not to mention his/her time. Responsible and ethical bakers make every effort to publish corrections and make them easily accessible to the people who paid money for their product and presumed expertise.

Caveat emptor.

Baking Artisan Bread by Ciril Hitz is subtitled 10 Expert Formulas for Baking Better Bread at Home. It's true that the recipes presented are sized for the home baker, however, serious devotees and professionals can learn from the hints, scientific explanations, production tips, and troubleshooting that are offered. Bakers of all levels of abilities and understanding can learn something from this book. Each formula is presented in weight as well as volume measurements and includes at least one variation. The formulas and procedures are presented in an easy to understand format. The abundance of photos ensures an understanding of the baked products and process shots reinforce the "how to." It scores high on information, presentation, and photography. This is a great book for any bread lover's library.

Okay, so if you have not guessed by now, the only recipe I have done in this book is the challah recipe. Like most of the recipes in this book, there are errors. I found the errata online and printed them out. Using the errata fixes the challah recipe and makes it great. It's easy to make (when you cheat using a bread machine to mix the dough and generate the right rising temperature), only takes maybe 1 hour of hands on work, 5 hours of waiting total, etc. The book actually tells you that this is the fastest bread to make. Other recipes in the book can actually take days. Days! That is why I have only done the challah recipe. But, this challah recipe is the best one I have used so far. It actually WORKS. Consistency - great. Appearance - great ( i use a six strand braid. look on utube to find out how to do this). Taste - great. Happy family eating bread - great. One time I was too lazy and busy to make the bread so I bought it at the market like I used to. Store bought bread now tastes nasty to me. It was spongy and had no flavor. I can no longer buy challah bread since my taste buds have become more refined and appreciative. I must warn, I think that buying the ingredients for the loaf costs more than buying the bread in the store. But, the taste and quality of the ingredients (organic eggs, filtered water, yadda yadda) plus the smell of your home while the bread is baking can all make up for this. Just a point I thought I would mention.

In summary:

good:
- recipe after errata have been distilled
- cd helps understand what it means to roll the dough into rounds
- taste of bread is wonderful
- you know what is in your bread
- better ingredients = can eat more and might not make you as fat as store bread
- family loves it
- kitchen smells great

bad:
- go find the errata online and print it out to include with your book
- ingredients may cost you more than buying store-bought loaf. might depend on if you use organic ingredients
- might want to invest in a bread machine to do the kneading and rising for you. i put bad since this adds an additional cost and space taken up in your kitchen

Baking Artisan Bread is the best bread book I have ever purchased. And where one reviewer said people who gave it 5 stars probably have never even tried the recipes, well I find that ridiculous. I have baked quite a few of the recipes in this cookbook and they are outstanding. In fact the brioche recipe is the best recipe on brioche I have ever tried. The directions were easy to follow and the results were unbelievable. If you want to master the art of bread baking, then this is the book for you. As an added plus, I checked out Ciril Hitz's website and should you have any questions in regard to bread baking, he responds quickly and graciously. He truly is a class act.

I have been making bread for almost 40 years. I've gone from old fashioned white bread like my Mother used to make all the way to artisan loaves and sourdough and even used the 5 minute a day technique (which I really like). I picked this book up because of the DVD, thought it looked interesting, but I didn't expect to really learn anything new. Wow, was I surprised! The handling of the dough is very gentle, no punching down or deflating, no long doubling rises, just gentle stretching and resting, and voila--a perfect baguette!! The video was very helpful, fun to see the directions come alive. I would highly recommend this book to beginners as well as seasoned "old dogs" like me--it was fun and the results were really, really good. I made the epi loaves last night for a dinner party, and everyone thought the bread was amazing!

There have been criticisms about errata in the book. Yep, this is a pain, but the corrections are clearly posted on his website, and mistakes happen. I was so happy with this book that I ordered his other title on pastries, hope it is as good.

I own 15 baking books, by far this is the best. The formulas are clear and they work great. This book does not have all the fluff in other books. Easy to read and also has great pictures.

I really like this book because it explains in detail how to accomplish baking bread, and also what the "wrong" way looks like. If you did not know what "over risen" meant, you would not know that you were doing it incorrectly. I like it, I use it weekly for the recipies.

After checking this book out from the local library to see what it was all about I decided to purchase my own copy. I have been using a number of other artisan bread books and what caught my attention with this one was the DVD that is included with the book. Static images can do a fine job at helping to illustrate technique but video demos of techniques and processes is even better as I'm sure many will agree. Although I have only worked with a couple of the formulas there seems to be more adjustments to them that need to be make like temperature settings and in one of the formulas (Ciabatta) the baker's percentage for the yeast in the poolish doesn't jive with the amount specified. The last time I made this one I used my modified amount of yeast and the recipe worked better. All in all this is a very nice book. Great explanations, pictures, layout, encouragements, extras, trouble shooting section are very well done. I tried making laminated dough before with disastrous results many many years ago and have been hesitant to try again. Ciril's directions in the book and on the DVD give me some courage and hope to try it again.

I recommend this book to anyone wanting to get into artisan bread baking.