The Bread Bible: Beth Hensperger's 300 Favorite Recipes (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The simple pleasure of savoring homemade fresh bread reminds us of how wonderful the basic integrity of premium-quality ingredients is..." (more)
Key Phrases: switch from the paddle, greased deep container, country hearth breads, Rich Egg Glaze, Grand Marnier, Bread Machine Sponge Starter (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Weighing almost as much as a small child, Beth Hensperger's The Bread Bible contains 300 recipes, plus slice after slice of baking wisdom. Hensperger certainly knows her bread: she is the author of several other yeasty numbers, including the mouthwatering Bread for All Seasons and the feisty Breads of the Southwest. Her Bible features simple, basic breads, such as White Mountain Bread, French Bread, and an Old-Fashioned 100 Percent Whole-Wheat Bread, as well as fancier breads such as Brown Rice Bread with Dutch Crunch Topping and a tangy Anadama Bread with Tillamook Cheddar Cheese. Not forgotten are scones, biscuits, pizzas, croissants, waffles, muffins--and even coffee cakes. As can be expected from such a hefty, all-encompassing volume, many breads demand the skills of agile and able bakers. Crescia al Formaggio, an aesthetically pleasing savory cheese bread, requires scrupulous time-keeping and copious amounts of elbow grease and patience. Of course, the rewards are high. Happily, many other loaves can be whipped up in a bread machine, and are equally satisfying. An Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Bread using Irish oats makes everything good with the world with its rich, nutty texture. Hensperger's sweet treats are also a delight--the Blueberry Gingerbread works wonders with vanilla ice cream, and won't take up your whole day slaving over a hot stove.

Although The Bread Bible would have benefited from color photographs to tease the taste buds, Hensperger's latest ode to bread will still prove invaluable for both new and seasoned bakers. --Naomi Gesinger

From Publishers Weekly

Longtime San Francisco resident, cooking instructor and author (Bread for All Seasons) Hensperger offers a compelling and innovative collection of bread recipes for contemporary home bakers. With a significant nod to classic yeast breads, her extensive repertoire includes basic white, whole-wheat and rye loaves, sour starters, savory main-dish breads, even dessert and quick breads?just to name a few. Staunchly adhering to her philosophy that "breadmaking is nothing more than a series of sequential steps executed in a predictable order," she presents step-by-step instructions with great finesse and clarity. Where applicable, Hensperger provides useful addendum notes, divulges invaluable "Baker's Wisdom" baking tips and offers creative recipe variations (e.g., Cornmeal Brioche and Basic Pizza Dough). Taking into account busy schedules and state-of-the-art baking equipment, Hensperger devotes two end chapters to breads made with food processors and bread machines. For those who feel daunted by the prospect of baking bread, Hensperger encourages and inspires with a "breadmaking is for everyone" ethos and easy, vibrant prose infused with obvious passion for her craft.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811816869
• ISBN-13: 978-0811816861
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 8.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #780,441 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Bible for the Home, but not for the Seminary, January 16, 2004

By	B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is the first of two books by the same name `The Bread Bible' written by Beth Hensperger and published by Chronicle Books in 1999. The second book with this title, written by Rose Levy Beranbaum and published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2003 I have reviewed earlier, before I discovered this title.

This occurrence is actually a rare good fortune, as it gives us a chance to compare two essays of exactly the same subject and pick that effort which does the better job on the subject. Both authors appear to have ample credentials for the chuzpah required to write a book with such a pretentious title. Ms. Hensperger has written five other books on bread baking and Ms. Beranbaum has written three other large, well received books on baking, two of which are also `bibles' on their topics.

Ms. Hensperger gives us 473 pages of text and 21 pages of index at $32.50 while Ms. Beranbaum gives us 608 pages of text and 21 pages of index for $35.00. Ms. Hensperger gives us 25 very useful introductory pages on equipment, flour, and general techniques. Ms. Beranbaum gives us 62 pages of what I considered to be a model of culinary writing on the ten essential steps to making bread. This is the first sign that Ms. Beranbaum is aiming at a much more sophisticated audience than Ms. Hensperger.

Ms. Hensperger gives us no color photographs or diagrams illustrating techniques. The few line drawings seem to be primarily for decoration. Ms. Beranbaum's book provides four sections of full color photographs of the baked products essayed in the book. She also provides many pages of expertly done line drawings illustrating baking techniques such as the `business letter fold', layering foccacia with herbs, and making sticky buns. Other line drawings give very good pictures of baking equipment.

Ms. Hensperger's Table of Contents with the name of each and every recipe spelled out is much more to my taste than Ms. Beranbaum's simple chapter headings. Fitting Ms. Hensperger's home baker orientation, she has two whole chapters devoted to using a food processor and a bread machine for bread recipes. Ms. Beranbaum discusses bread machines, finds useful things they can do, but ultimately keeps them on the sidelines due to their small capacity and the tendency of most to heat the dough, causing a too fast rise in the dough for optimum taste. Rose is certainly not a Luddite, as she makes extensive use of the KitchenAid stand mixer and its big brother the Hobart stand mixer. I prefer to not use bread machines. If you are comfortable with them, Ms. Hensperger may have more to offer you.

It is no surprise that both authors deal with brioche. Ms. Hensperger includes four recipes for brioche and three variations. All are embedded in a chapter on egg breads including Challah. Ms. Beranbaum devotes a whole chapter of 45 pages to brioche, including Challah, cinnamon buns, panettone, and a provocatively named `stud muffin'. Lots of variations on each recipe are given. As with all recipes, Ms. Beranbaum's approach is much more detailed and precise. The most obvious sign is that all of Rose's recipes give ingredients in both volume and weight in imperial and metric units. This feature alone would swing my choice in favor of Ms. Beranbaum's work. Another example of Rose's precision is that she specifies the high gluten brands of all-purpose flour rather than simple `all-purpose flour. I am constantly amazed at the variety in recipes for brioche. Like every other authoritative recipe, both recommend an overnight rise, but the two recipes start the sponge in much different ways, with Ms. Beranbaum using a much more finicky approach, being very careful to avoid exposing the yeast in the sponge to salt than Ms. Hensperger. When separating the dough to be put into molds, Ms. Hensperger is unconcerned about differences in size. Ms. Beranbaum is not compulsive about same sizes, but does recommend a scale to achieve uniform amounts of dough in the molds.

Neither author oversimplifies her procedures, but Rose Beranbaum consistently gives a much more professional instruction and a deeper understanding about what is going on along the way. Both have an ample amount of passion and love for what they are doing. If you are a home baker and can find Ms. Hensperger's book at a good discount, you will not go wrong. If you are a baking hobbyist or even aspiring to being a professional baker, then Ms. Beranbaum's book is the one you want. Both are excellent. Ms. Beranbaum and her publishers seem to have invested much more energy, money, and precision into their volume.

Judging from other reviewers comments, some errors have been detected in this book. The same is true of Ms Beranbaum's book. This issue is a wash and I have stopped holding a small number of minor errors like that against cookbooks.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous, versatile book, July 13, 2000

By A Customer

I LOVE this book. It has lots and lots of recipes for whole grain breads, white breads, rustic breads, quick breads, flat breads, etc, etc. However, what sets her book apart from other "comprehensive" books is the quality of the recipes. I am constantly picking up my copy of the Bread Bible to try something new, and I haven't been disappointed in the results yet. She also gives great pointers on ingredients and methods, and tells you how to convert "by hand" recipes to recipes for either the food processor or bread machine. The book doesn't have photographs in it like some, but frankly, if they had to make room for photos there wouldn't be so many great recipes, so that suits me just fine. It's beautifully designed and easy to read. It's a pleasure to own this book.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly excellent, but..., September 10, 2001

By A Customer

I have been a fan of Beth Hensperger's books for years; in many ways, I attribute whatever success I have had as a baker to the things that I have learned from her. The Bread Bible is a very nice compendium of her work.

Unfortunately, the book suffers from poor editing. In two recipies that I have made recently, one failed to specify the baking temperature and the other failed to include an instruction to add a streusel topping (prepared in advance) to some muffins. Neither is serious, particularly to an experienced baker. But such errors can be confusing to the novice, and really are quite inexcusable.