Customer Reviews

Bob's Red Mill Baking Book

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I use a lot of Bob's Red Mill products and have baked with whole grains for more than 25 years, so I was excited when this book was published. The format is easy to use and appealing, and the directions are clear,although there are no photographs or drawings.

After a description of different kinds of flour and cereals, the book is divided into chapters on whole grain yeast breads, rolls, and sourdough; quick breads, muffins, biscuits, and scones; flatbreads, focaccia, crackers, and pizza; pies, tarts, cobblers and crisps; cookies; and cakes.

There are many ideas for using spelt, teff, quinoa, barley, buckwheat, and other less common flours, and there are quite a few gluten-free recipes, including cakes, gingerbread. and even sugar cookies. There are recipes for seven kinds of pizza dough, from yeast-free to cornmeal, and an unusual recipe for a strawberry pie that calls for baking the strawberries in a double crust. There are also many kinds of piecrust to try, ranging from sorghum and almond oat to whole wheat and barley.

The first recipe I tried was Bob's High Fiber Bread, which turned out dense and dry. I made Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread, which was dull, dry, and heavy (I threw it out),and Gluten-free Rice Bread, a two-day project that didn't rise properly and had to be thrown out, also. Maple Pecan Muffins were very dry as were Whole Grain Bread Rings.

Here are some winners: the whole wheat pizza dough was very good, as was the Italian sausage and fontina calzone. Oatmeal pancakes were excellent, and the oatmeal muffins and orange spelt muffins were good.

It seems that often the proportions are wrong. Bob's Energy Boosters contained too much butter and didn't hold together. Five-Grain Daybreak Cookies taste great, but the recipe called for way too much butter and should have used baking powder instead of soda to prevent spreading. It made 48 very large, floppy, sticky cookies instead of the predicted 24.

I'm not ready to give up on this book, because the recipes sound so good, and every once in a while, I hit a winner. But not often enough. When I want to be sure of a success, I turn to King Arthur's Whole Grain Cookbook, The Baker's Apprentice, or Berenbaum's Bread Bible. Hodgson Mills just published a whole grains cookbook--it will be interesting to compare their book to Bob's Red Mill Baking Book.

I am buying this book after checking it out from the library for 9 wks running -- I think they want it back. I have altered ingredients in a few recipes to make lower in fat and sugar. There is a great variety of recipes, something for everyone. I LOVE the whole wheat pizza dough, another favorite is the pumpkin cranberry bread. Delicious!!

I thought I was "allergic" to wheat, but instead I found if I made my own bread and other products, without the added ingredients used in keeping them fresh, I could enjoy wheat again. Recipes in Bob's Red Mill Baking Book are easy and healthy. I've tried Bob's Whole Wheat Honey Bread on page 43 toasted with Camejo's peach jam. yummmm. This cookbook mentions the kneading aspect of bread making and in the fact that it's not necessary. This makes bread making easy enough for the whole family.

The first review of this book is very accurate. I too have lots of experience with bread baking & was hoping for whole grain delicious breads to off set the high price in the grocery store. After making 2 of the whole grain recipes, I could see that the ingredients were off in their ratios & neither breads very good. It is too costly all around to use recipes that don't work & taste bad. I emailed Bob & asked if they actually made the recipes &/or did they scale down large batch recipes. I won't risk my money, time, fuel costs on another recipe in this book.

I am an avid baker and am always looking for ways to incorporate whole grains into my diet. This book has recipes for a great variety of grains - more than just whole wheat. However, I've been trying recipes from the Bob's Red Mill Baking Book for over a year, and am consistently disappointed - they just aren't reliable. If gluten is a problem for you, this book might be worth looking into. If not, go for the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking Book instead - recipes are wheat-based but always delicious.

The recipes in this book are fine, but the book suffers from a lack of background information about the various flours Bob's Red Mill sells. What can be substituted for what? How does using a particular flour affect the result?

For example, there's a recipe for quinoa muffins. Why use quinoa flour instead of amaranth, barley, or, for that matter, wheat flour? What's the reason to invest the effort in acquiring quinoa flour and making this recipe instead of just using one of the many whole wheat flour muffin recipes around?

There are a few recipes for which the ingredients are obviously necessary. Rye bread has to contain rye. Injera (the flatbread they serve at Ethiopian restaurants) has to contain teff. But most recipes seem more like novelties: they could have been made with wheat flour, and used something else for no adequately explained reason. That's not to say that there might not have been a good reason; maybe the particular flour used added a particular flavor or texture that improves the product. But in most cases, the book just doesn't say.

Whole wheat flour is cheaper and easier to find than any of the unusual Bob's Red Mill products. If your goal is just to eat more whole-grain breads, there are plenty of books full of whole wheat recipes. Unless you want to experiment with a wide variety of flours just for the fun of it, I don't see much point to this book.

I tried two recipes - the whole wheat pretzels and the cardamom rolls. The whole wheat pretzels were bread sticks (not the crunchy texture of pretzels as the recipe claimed they would be). The cardamom rolls never did rise. I tried the recipe twice! It was more the consistency of cookie dough than bread dough. A big waste of ingredients and time. I am a fan of Bob Red's Mill products and really wanted to like this book hoping the other reviewers just had bad luck.

I was rather disappointed with these recipes. Every recipe I've tried comes out tasting like health food (dry and mediocre). I give it three stars, however, because with a few adjustments, the recipes can usually be improved. For example, adding an extra banana and another 1/4 cup oil to the Banana Flax bread makes it moist and yummy. So I keep it around because the recipes are great ideas; they just need tuning.

No pictures?! But more recipes. good info on differnt grains that they use in recipes. No Diatary info on each recipe. Fat content, sodium,sugar and all.

The Pumpkin Cranberry Bread on p. 101 is delicious if you double all the spices, however it makes one loaf, not two. The Banana Flax Bread on p. 104 has an unpleasantly gritty texture, but (fortunately) it makes one loaf, not two. The Pumpkin Bundt Cake recipe on p. 449 calls for just 1 cup of flour--I doubt that's enough. (The Bob's Red Mill customer service rep said the author is unavailable for questions, so I should just eyeball the batter and add more flour if necessary.) On a positive note, the Maple Pecan Muffins on p. 130 were very nice, if small. If you like to experiment with new grains, or need gluten-free recipes (I haven't tested any of them), and you can spot problems just by reading a recipe and will know how to correct bad ones, you'll manage. But why do John Ettinger's work for him? Spend your money on a more reliable cookbook and a more trustworthy author.