Customer Reviews

Bread Made Easy: A Baker's First Bread Book

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

 

 

I finally got up the nerve to begin the task of bread baking about six months ago. After some research, I decided on this book because it is for beginners and the book methodically moves from easiest to more difficult. Each master recipe in a chapter is accompanied by variations on the same theme so if you make the master and a variation, then you probably have the skills to move on. The directions are simple, there is a chapter on basic bread knowledge and they the breads taste great. As of this writing, I have baked pretty much all the master recipes and a variant. I have not tried the sweet dough chapters (of which there are 2 or 3 I think). I thought these chapters are more special occasion breads rather than everyday so I skipped them. IMHO, one sweet dough chapter would have been fine and this is why I didnt give it 5 stars. Im sure they are excellent recipes. I have graduated to Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice which is a more serious treatise and also geared to novices. Look for my review on that when I have baked through it a bit. Bread Made Easy is not expensive and I recommend it as a first timer's book. Hope this helps someone.

This book exceeded my expectations. It explains everything you need to know to bake all types of bread, including ingredients, supplies, techniques and tips. The author is very knowledgable and takes you through the book from basic to more advanced breads. I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn the art of baking breads!!!

I am a beginning bread baker. I was attracted to this book because it is targeted to beginning bread bakers and has helped me learn and reinforce the basics, and it introduced me to a handful of basic bread types. I liked the small size of it and I approached it as a course that I could finish and get through, therefore giving me a good sense of accomplishment. One of the things I especially like is that she gives variations of the different basic bread types at the end of each chapter.

There are a few relatively minor inconsistencies in it but they are not major.
I recommend it as an intro to bread baking.

The author says it's as good as a class in breadmaking-except for an instructor to talk to she's right! The recipes are easy to follow and arranged in order of difficulty. Plus each chapter starts with a basic recipe and then adds variations to dress it up! Try the Egg bread with cinnamon-my kids love it.

I've only tried to bake bread a few times without a bread machine and only one was edible. So I thought I'd try this book, reading carefully about yeasts and flours and techniques in the first 41 pages. I really try to follow recipes exactly to the letter in fear of screwing up. So the author recommends starting with the first recipe and working your way through the book, but I'm already stuck on the very first "white velvet batter bread" because I cannot find the bakeware required for this recipe. There are two options: glass baking canisters or coffee cans. I cannot find the glass canisters that she uses, not even on Amazon, where I can usually find everything!
Also, have you tried finding 13-oz coffee cans? I don't even usually buy coffee in cans (I buy beans in bags) so when I went to purchase some, I found that most of the "cans" are plastic, and the metal ones come in 10oz and 12.5oz and everything in between, but not 13oz. Ugh. Not sure if Amazon sells coffee or adequately describes the packaging, but that's the next place I'll look.
If I can find them, I'll buy two cans and brew coffee for a couple of weeks until I empty both of them so that I can then try to bake the bread. So the first recipe is getting a bit arduous and I haven't even measured out the yeast yet!

>>>Update: After some in-store research, I've determined that all those cans of coffee are the same size, just adjusted for weight, but be sure it's the type of can that you open with a can opener, not with the pull-off sealed lid! I've now successfully made the first two breads in the book and they were wonderful and pretty easy by strictly following the directions. I feel ready to start moving on and adding whole grains and really getting towards healthier bread products. Three comments that would improve the book: (1) give measurements throughout the recipe, for example, you use 1 1/2 cups of flour at the beginning, then on the next page it says to "add the rest of the flour 1/3 cup at a time" which means you have to go back and look at the ingredient list a page back and do the math in your head and figure out how many 1/3 cup scoops that is (19 scoops plus a bit, don't lose count!), or better yet (2) teach us how to properly measure flour (which I fortunately happened to know already) so that we can pre-measure out the entire amount and do less math. Also (3) talk about humidity, because I had to add extra flour to achieve the correct dough texture, supposedly from my baking friends because of the high, high humidity here in Florida.

**** I'd give it four stars if I reviewed it today.

This book is very simple and has great illustrations. I have been making hand kneaded bread for a few years now and have had good luck with the recipes I made from this book.

This book has excellent tips about baking bread. I would call it a bread bible. This book is for a bigger, the recipes are easy to follow.

I've made a lot of good bread lately even though I'm a beginner. But the 4 recipes I've tried from this book have all failed If this had been the only book I'd purchased on making bread I'd have stopped trying by now. But every recipe of Beatrice Ojakangas has turned out to be wonderful bread. I'd recommend her books if you want good bread. Should add, I don't know Beatrice and have no agenda in recommending her books. Each recipe from "Bread Made Easy" has ended up in my compost heap. Very disappointed