Customer Reviews

Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads: Revised and Expanded

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The subject of bread baking seems to attract large, authoritative titled books, as this is the third 400 or more page book on bread which claims to be either complete or a bible. As the other two books (both entitled `The Bread Bible' by Beth Hensperger and Rose Levy Beranbaum) were published in the last five years and Mr. Clayton's first edition of his book was published thirty years ago, Bernard Clayton has a distinct claim to have commanded this cookbook niche for the longest time, thereby having ample opportunity to correct, improve, and augment. From the author's new introduction, I see he has been doing that faithfully for the last thirty years.

In a sense, Mr. Clayton is very old school, as he was in a position to consult not only with Julia Child, but also with Craig Claiborne and James Beard, both of which have left us for tables on high. The augmentation of thirty years' effort gives us a volume which weighs in at 685 pages at an exceedingly reasonable $35. Kudos to Simon and Shuster for giving the volume the price of most cookbooks which rarely exceed 300 pages.

While Mr. Clayton arose from an `old school' background, the general technique behind his bread recipes is very modern and will be very welcome to the inexperienced home baker. The heart of his technique for yeast breads is to use the newest incarnation of commercial yeast, typically called `Rapid Rise'. I believe this yeast was specifically developed to work with bread machines. The fact that `Rapid Rise' yeast can be added to dry ingredients without being proofed in warm water and sugar or flour is what distinguishes it from the older `Active Dry' yeast from producers like Red Star and Fleishmans. Virtually every yeast based recipe in the book mixes the yeast with dry ingredients and starts with water at 120 degrees Fahrenheit rather than blooming the yeast in water at about 105 degrees Fahrenheit.

The very best thing about Mr. Clayton's book in comparison to it's closest competitor, `The Bread Bible' by Rose Levy Beranbaum is the fact that Mr. Clayton makes a point of showing you how bread baking can not only be easy, but it can be relatively easy with an incredibly wide range of historically and ethnically interesting breads made with manual kneading, bread machine, stand mixer, and food processor. After reading books by such hyper fussy bakers such as Beranbaum, Silverton, and Reinhart, this is a real revelation. The second best thing about this book is revealed in the title. This is a complete book of BREADS. Note the plural. The most important aspect of the book is that it presents, in depth, recipes for twenty-four different types of breads, including many ethnic favorites. I found, for example, a recipe for the Russian Easter bread, Kulich, a close cousin to the local Lehigh Valley favorite, Paska from the Ukraine. None of the other encyclopedic approaches to bread included this recipe. However, I did recently find it and the true Ukrainian recipe in the new book `Celebration Breads' by Betsy Oppenneer.

The great thing about this variety is that it gives pretty complete coverage to all special needs, such as those who need a gluten-free bread, those who need a yeast-free bread (and are tired of Irish Soda Bread), and those who want healthy, whole grain bread recipes. It even covers recipes for crackers and batter breads and baking for dogs, if you can believe that.

The most amazing thing about the subject of bread baking is that in spite of the great size of this book, it simply does not cover everything, and, what it does cover is done from what is not the only or even the best point of view. While this book does touch on breads made from starters, the book does not deal with this subject in any detail. The book does not even include the words sponge, poolish, or biga in the index. It is on this subject where Ms. Beranbaum really shines. Unlike Mr. Clayton who gives a relatively cursory introduction to the techniques of yeast bread baking, Ms. Beranbaum gives about 90 very detailed pages to the intricacies of artisinal baking with both natural and commercial yeasts. I have already noted Mr. Clayton's focus on `Rapid Rise' yeast and it's techniques. Other writers prefer either `Active Dry' or even moist, `live' yeast that must be refrigerated. Other baking experts such as Peter Reinhart also make compelling arguments for very long rise times, which, in the interest of appealing to the amateur, Clayton does not discuss in depth.

If you want an exceedingly rich source of baking recipes for a very reasonable price with a very friendly voice which will make you confident that you will do well when you bake bread, this is the book for you! If you have no interest in a deep understanding of bread baking or in natural yeast techniques, you will need no other book. If your interest in baking is more professional or more in need of deeper understanding, check out Beranbaum or Reinhart's books.

Highly recommended. Makes bread baking inviting.

I should have a kind of loyalty to Bernard Clayton, Jr.'s bread book. It's big, it's complete and it has just about any bread including crackers. (Like author Clayton, I love crackers.) But recent bread books,especially those artisan books, surpass The "New Complete Book of Breads" for getting that European effect, especially for free-form wheat breads like ciabatta and Tuscan bread.

However, this book shines for the American kitchen, in which you might not be using all the latest gadgets or have re-created a stone hearth. The recipes work well with the flours available in the grocery store and health food store, whereas you might need to mail order high-ash French-style flours from catalogs if you are working towards artisan breads.

The section on holiday breads like Panettone, Pandoro, challah and stollen are especially good. There is a Finnish bread that I especially admire.

So I find I still pull this book off the shelf when I want to make good bread, but don't want to agonize over getting crackly crusts, gel-like crumb or other artisan features of specialty breads. Easy, reliable and plenty of variety here.

I recently told someone I bake all our bread from scratch--no bread machine for me. He looked at me in amazement and asked, "Then how do you do it?!" "Just the way your grandmother did," I told him. With Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, anyone can bake flawless loaves of bread. Clayton has thought of everything, from explaining the many different types of flours and their differing attributes to formatting every recipe for hand mixing, electric mixer and food processor. I was given a recipe for Irish soda bread that listed the ingredients by weight, not volume, and Clayton even has a conversion table. I have made his recipe for Rudi's stone-ground wheat bread every week since I bought the book; the bread is so wonderful, my husband and I are addicted to it. But I have made perhaps ten other bread recipes, and without exception they have been delicious and professional looking. Clayton doesn't resort to tricks but uses techniques that are guaranteed to produce perfect results. I find the process of bread baking exhilarating: by mixing a few simple ingredients together I produce a living, changing dough that appeals to every sense: the resilience of the dough as I knead it, the excitement of seeing the dough rising in the bowl, the irresistible smell of the loaves as they bake, the crunch of the crust--and the taste of a fresh chunk of bread, hot from the oven, that makes me weak-kneed with pleasure every time. From flat breads to quick breads to pizza doughs to every variety of yeast bread, Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads will never let you down. How could it? Your spirits will rise along with your bread.

I have baked primarily the mixed grain and whole grain wheat breads from this book with success each time. Good explanations with directions for utilzing stand mixers, food processors or the old fashioned "by hand" methods of mixing and kneading. Packed full of information and recipes. Color pictures would be nice, but it's such a great source for such a variety of breads, I don't hold that lack against it. A must for the home breadbaker from the very father of bread making.

At first glance, one might think this book is a bit excessive. I mean, it's enormous and it's all bread. And coming from someone who hadn't made a ton of bread before, it was a little intimidating. But the reveiws don't lie - this is an excellent book that will seriously turn ANYONE into a bread making master.
The book is divided up into sections - White Breads, Little Breads, Festive Breads, et cetera. And while it may seem like, with so many recipes, a lot of these breads are going to be very specific and not everyday useful, that's very much not the case.
The recipes are presented in the clearest, most concise, straighfoward and thorough method of ANY cookbook I've ever owned. Each recipe is broken down, step by step (and even in minutes) for hand, mixer or processor. There are hints and ideas at the beginning of each recipe and along the way. Even someone who has never made bread before would be baking a delicious loaf in no time.
I have made at least one recipe a week from this book since I purchased it a year ago and - no kidding - I've only had two that didn't turn out perfect (and in those cases, I knew what I had done wrong). And to be fair, even the ones I messed up were still very edible!
Some of my favorites are the Buttery Rowies, all the muffin recipes, and the Pepper Cheese Loaf. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in learning to make bread, or is already a proficient baker and wants to learn even MORE delicious recipes!

Clayton's book came out long before the latest round of fancy sourdough and other artisan bread books, but it is every bit as good as they are.

He does not spend hundreds of pages fawning over artisan bakers. He just assumes, rightly, that you and I can just go ahead and bake very good bread.

Recipes include hand, mixer and food processor versions; I have no trouble following any of the methods for any of the recipes.

And the recipes WORK! Not true for all bread books.

So if you just want to bake, rather than worship bread and a few famous bakers, get this book and get going.

Of all the bread baking books I have (and I have a lot) this is the one I actually *use* the most. I have made more than 30 of the recipes, and they consistently come out very well. The book covers a huge variety of breads, from the so-called quickbreads that can be assembled in a matter of minutes to complicated ones that may take a week or more from preparation to final result. There are classic French breads, wholemeal breads, small breads-chances are, if you want to make it, it's in here.The instructions are very clear, even if there are no illustrations or photographs. After many failed attempts, I was able to make perfect croissants for the first time from this book! Finally, the book if presented with a great sense of humor-you'll love reading the recipe for dog biscuits, even if you don't have a dog.

.........

I wrote the above review in 1997 - it's now 2003, and this book is still the break baking book I use the most. I've now moved to a country (Switzerland) where it's possible to buy great bread from any bakery, even from the supermarket. Yet I still turn to this book at least once a week for old favorites. Some that I have made more times than I can remember include scones (from mixing to eating in 30 minutes!), Old Milwaukee Rye Bread, Basic White Bread, Rosemary-Garlic Bread..the list goes on. Some I've yet to master after numerous tries - like the salt-raising breads. And I still haven't tried the dog biscuits. :)

There came a point in my life when so I missed the Saturday afternoon smell of home-made French bread that I began experimenting with baking. Mind you, I was never a great cook -- I was too impatient, and had no confidence in my own abilities -- so tackling a project as intimidating as making my own bread was a huge step for me.

My first bread was, well, passable. It smelled good, but was amazingly chewy. So I got a bread machine. I didn't give up my hand-made project, though; it had, by this time, become a matter of pride. Eventually, after much practice, my bread was deemed "almost as good as bread-machine bread!" by my grateful family.

Then I stumbled upon this book. Bought it, took it home, made "The First Loaf." And suddenly, my bread was much, much better than anything the bread machine turned out.

Mr. Clayton doesn't just present you with a recipe. He instructs you on the very theory of bread-making, from the role of each ingredient and equipment to the process of constructing your own oven if you so desire.

I make all of my bread now with a wooden spoon and a large bowl, and I often make it without any recipes at all. Bread is now much more for me than something I make when I get nostalgic -- it is my hobby, and my therapy. And whenever I decide to try a new kind of bread, this book is the first place I turn to. No matter how skilled I become, this book still has something new to offer.

My next project is the brioche. Wish me luck!

I bought a copy of this book used from an Amazon.com Marketplace seller, and I love it. I have been very impressed with the book though I have actually made only two of the recipes so far (and have made them several times). The very best thing about the book is that Clayton is very encouraging as a bread-baking teacher and mentor. He makes bread making seem, perhaps not easy, but accessible and possible. The overall sense here is, "You can do it!" Other reviewers have commented on his "old school" style, and indeed, he has been writing and revising his cookbooks for around 30 years. I have to say, I love this. He does offer instruction for food processor, stand mixer, and hand kneading. He describes each step in such a way that the amateur baker knows what to expect in terms of feel and look of the dough in progress. Encouraged by his instruction, I have been easily able to adapt the recipes, with fabulous result, to my Bosch mixer, freshly milled whole wheat, and instant yeast. The book contains a truly stunning number of types of bread, from sandwich to artisan, and, honestly, I could try a new bread every weekend for years before repeating any. I picture Clayton traveling about, meeting bread bakers around the world with an open curiosity and then passing his newfound knowledge with the rest of us who don't have either time or funds to travel as he does. And I for one am grateful for his enthusiastic search for bread knowledge. Thank you, Bernard Clayton!

After purchasing a bread machine, and baking a few loafes, I was unhappy with the results. I decided to try baking by hand. I bought this book randomly, and I am sure glad I did.
This book is the complete book on bread making. From white breads, to whole wheat, to sweet and special breads, this is the one source for recipes.
All recipes are clearly and logically laid out, and offer instructions for food processor, stand mixer, and by hand. Mr. Clayton offers insights, reccomendations for serving and storage, and background and origin of each recipe. My favorite so far is the "Rich White Bread".
If you are new to breadmaking as I was, or are a seasoned baker looking for a treasure trove of recipes, I cannot say enough good about this book.