Bread for Breakfast [Paperback]

Beth Hensperger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 2001

Written by baking authority Beth Hensperger, BREAD FOR BREAKFAST is a compact, comprehensive introduction to ushering in the new day the best way possible: with freshly baked bread! Old-fashioned favorites take their place alongside clever new combinations in this collection of over 50 recipes for tempting, satisfying breads. As Beth says, "I've included my favorite recipes from my very own files, so I won't have to work from tattered, handwritten notes anymore!" Beth's favorites are sure to become your own, too, whether you're looking for a bread to play a starring role in an elegant weekend brunch, or as a down-home addition to a morning meal.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What's better than waking up on a Saturday morning to the smell of blueberry muffins? How about the sweet yeasty scent of Giant Macadamia Nut Cinnamon Rolls or the rich tang of Lemon Yogurt Pancakes with Dried Fruit Compote? A basket of warm muffins or slices of quick bread are a wonderful way to start a weekend or to share a leisurely brunch with friends. Want to add a bit of breakfast fun to your weekdays, too? Try English Muffin Batter Bread or Milk and Honey Whole Wheat Bread for your toast. With Bread for Breakfast, you have an entire book devoted to starting off your day right.

Just because you have to get to work or get the kids off to school is no reason to skimp on a tasty breakfast. You don't need to have cold cereal every morning. Try baking a loaf of Applesauce Bread (a yeast version, not the heavier quick bread) and then making French Toast with real maple syrup or Ginger Butter. For the kiddies, whip up Jam Toast using Buttermilk White Bread or Orange Bread: slather a slice with jam, top it with another slice, coat with cooking spray, grill until golden brown and crisp, and then slice into four strips. Author Beth Hensperger says her Every Morning Fruit Muffins are so easy that she can "chat casually while looking around the kitchen for whatever fresh fruit is on the counter" and have hot muffins on the table in less than an hour. For fancier or holiday meals, bake a Black, White, and Mocha Coffee Cake (dotted with semisweet chocolate chunks), a Rhubarb Coffee Cake with Strawberry Coulis, or a Walnut Babka.

Whatever your bread preference, with Bread for Breakfast you can bake a batch to satisfy the whole family. Most of these breads freeze well--but don't count on leftovers. --Dana Van Nest

From Publishers Weekly

Beth Hensperger's name is equivalent with quality, easy-to-make and ultimately satisfying bread. To add to her many existing books on this yummy subject including Bread Bible, which won the James Beard Award Hensperger offers Bread for Breakfast, a compilation of 50 recipes for those who love pancakes, muffins and scones in the morning. For everyday breakfast, probably the most rushed meal of the day, Hensperger recommends Jam Toasts and English Muffin Batter Bread, and for late, luxurious Sunday mornings, she tantalizes readers with sinful German Puff Pancakes with Apple Compote and Bourbon Pecan Butter. Also included in the delightful volume are recipes for crumb cakes, ethnic breads and donuts. Agent, Martha Casselman.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (February 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580082130
• ISBN-13: 978-1580082136
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #829,204 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Beth Hensperger, a New Jersey-born who now considers herself a California native, has been educating, writing, and demo-lecturing about the art of baking bread and cooking for thirty years. In the last few years, she has shifted focus from baking bread to countertop appliance-driven cookbooks that embrace the use of seasonal ingredients, merge convenience with cooking from scratch, and modernizing the home kitchen: the bread machine, the rice cooker, the microwave oven, and now a four-volume compilation specifically for use with the electric slow cooker, stressing care in preparation and personal creativity.

Hensperger's writing career began when she was chosen as the guest cooking instructor for the March 1985 issue of Bon Appétit. Now she is the author of over twenty cookbooks, including the best-selling Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook series, which includes Not Your Mother's Recipes for Entertaining, Not Your Mother's Family Favorites, Not Your Mother's Weeknight Suppers, and NYMSC Recipes for Two along with the blockbuster first volume, Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook. Also from The Harvard Common Press are The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook, The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook, and The Best Quick Breads. She is also the author of The Bread Bible, winner of the 2000 James Beard Book Award in Baking, and nominated twice for an IACP Cookbook Award.

Hensperger wrote a food column, "Baking with the Seasons," for the San Jose Mercury News (which was nominated for a James Beard Award in newspaper journalism) for over 12 years until the newspaper downsized.

She is a contributor to dozens of national and online cooking & lifestyle magazines, such as Food and Wine, Rachel Ray Magazine, Prevention, Veggie Life, Working Woman, Family Circle, and Cooking.com, as well as being a sought after radio interviewee speaking on cooking, baking, and entertaining. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Visit Beth's website at BethHensperger.com and her weekly blog at notyourmotherscookbooks.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some recipes disappoint, August 17, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Bread for Breakfast (Paperback)

I've tried several recipes in Bread for Breakfast, and I've had a number of disappointments. In many recipes, ingredient amounts are inaccurate or seemingly excessive. For example, in many recipes Hensperger says that 2 packages of dry yeast is equivalent to 2 tablespoons. Actually, 2 packages yields 1 1/2 tablespoons.

In her recipe for Oatmeal Egg Bread with a Cinnamon Swirl, which makes 2 loaves, the filling calls for 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar. When I used this amount, some of the sugar melted in the oven and spilled out of the pan. What remained became large clumps of unmelted sugar in the middle of the loaf, which was unappetizing and made the slices hard to toast.

My most recent attempt was the Lemon and Blueberry Bread with Lemon Glaze. It omitted a crucial instruction which is a must whenever baking with berries: toss them with a small amount of flour before adding them to the batter. Because the recipe didn't mention it, I forgot to do this, and I wound up with Blueberry Upside-Down Cake: all the berries sank to the bottom, and the bread fell apart when I removed it from the pan. The Lemon Glaze also seemed unnecessary: it made the bread soggy and needlessly sweet.

The majority of the recipes I've tried from this book are very sweet. This is a matter of personal taste, but I would have been happier with a better balance of flavors in the finished products.

Not all her recipes have problems, though. Her Seeded Dakota Bread is wonderful, with a complex nutty flavor and interesting texture.

I really enjoy making morning pastries. Bread for Breakfast is full of great ideas, and has helped expand my repertoire. But I find I need to interpret the recipes carefully, and not be afraid to make adjustments where I find potential problems. Novice bakers should be aware of these pitfalls before buying this book.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great breads, May 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Bread for Breakfast (Paperback)

Bread For Breakfast contains excellent recipes for the bread-making enthusiast, as well as many recipes easy enough for the beginner to complete successfully. I made three recipes the first night. Buttermilk White Bread is very light and is wonderful toasted. The Orange Bread is divine in rounds as suggested in the book, or baked in a french bread pan. My Biscuit Muffins almost rose from the pans on their own. Beth Hensperger has provided quite a variety of items in this most delightful book,not just for breakfast but for anytime at all.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two recipes worth the price of the book, May 6, 2002

By 

Brooks G. Tish (Kirkland, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bread for Breakfast (Paperback)

You have not had the perfect cinnamon roll until you have had the macadamia nut cinnamon roll. And the brioche pretzels are worth the effort and time.

Henspergers recipes are usually flawless but these two work better with a little tweaking. Instructions for the cinnamon rolls are to pat out the dough into a rectangle 20 inches by 14 inches. After spreading the filling and rolling the dough into a pinwheel one is to cut 16 rolls 1 1/2 inches thick. The math doesn't work. The dough is pliable -- easily worked by hand into a 24 X 14 inch rectangle. Now you will get your 16 rolls.

The orange-based frosting really enhances the rest of the flavors but the recipe is too parsimonious. For best results increase by 1 1/2 or 2 times.

The problem with the brioche pretzels again is in the dimension of the rectangle. Instructions are to cut 12 equal strips from a 14 X 14 square. Much better results were achieved by reducing the size of the square to 12 X 12 inch square. The strips were easier to cut evenly and much easier to roll into the 20 inch long "ropes" from which to form the pretzels.