Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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136 of 141 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best how-to book for the serious baker, April 7, 1999
I have for my entire adult life had the ambition to bake what Peter Reinhart fittingly calls "world-class" bread, but in spite of buying and reading several books dedicated to bread and much work and experimentation, the good bread eluded me. When I saw Peter Reinhart's "Crust and Crumb" advertised, I was reluctant to buy another baking book, having resigned myself to the fact that good bread cannot be baked at home. "Crust and Crumb" got me over the hump. It made me understand the chemistry and process of bread baking, and the result is that I now bake bread which is as good as any that I have had anywhere - and I have eaten a lot of good bread, including in Italy and France. And it made me understand that in order to bake good bread, you have to take it seriously, be dedicated and take the time it takes - there are few shortcuts ("poolish" starter being one of those few) and really no compromises. "Crust and Crumb" is really the only bread baking cookbook you need. Well, maybe Joe Ortiz' "Village Baker" too.
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66 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The REAL Bread Bible, December 10, 2004
This title would have been ironic for two reasons: this baking book has greater claim to the "Bread Bible" moniker than several other books that actually use this title; further, the author is a lay Brother in a religious order (I gather that he is not ordained clergy as such). This is not one of those "throw it together and toss it into the oven" sort of baking book; for these, look up Betty Crocker. The bread recipes in this book are rather long and designed as complete lessons to teach you how to properly make bread. It is a valuable educational tool, and not a happy-go-lucky affair.
The author of this wonderful book has personally perfected all of the bread recipes, and has even taught them to culinary and baking students in professional programs. Many currently popular baking books, despite a well respected reputation and big name on the cover, are "authored" by someone whose only experience with bread baking is tossing in a loaf made by a prep cook into a hot oven (and then leaving it to a sous chef to actually watch the bread and take it out of the oven when it is done) or who does not seem to actually like bread, but uses it as a springboard for creativity. Most of these books are full of inaccurate recipes lacking in necessary detail that will never produce a decent loaf of bread; this book is a happy exception.
Baking bread is not difficult, but it does require planning (in some cases, several days ahead of time), plus the home bread baker has to pay attention to what he is doing. This book will show you how; it is one of the few I have seen that teaches the home baker how to properly make a loaf from beginning to end. The recipes are thorough, complete, leave nothing out, and very reliable. This is one of the only non-professional bread books I know of that produces whole grain loaves that are edible. Trying to come up with a workable bread recipe at home is actually more difficult than in a professional bakery that already has a collection of tried and true recipes; more than once, this book has helped in solving problems I encountered trying to bake bread at home and that never come up in a production kitchen. It also finally reveals the secret to rye bread that will not chip a tooth: coarse rye flour (all bread books I have seen say to use the finest grind rye you can find).
This book is one of the few that describes the "window pane" test, the only way to really tell when bread dough is properly kneaded; "knead until smooth and satiny" is not an adequate instruction for an inexperienced bread baker, yet this is what most bread books will tell you. The recipes themselves are laid out like class projects that you would give to a beginning student at a cooking school, meaning that with a little effort and dedication, a relatively inexperienced baker will have success with the recipes.
One problem is the lay out of the chapters. The 2 most difficult bread types, French bread and sourdough, are the first 2 chapters, while the easiest ones (and ones that the neophyte should try first) on multi grain breads and quick breads are further back in the book. The author should have either organized the book's chapters in increasing order of difficulty, or given a recommended chapter order in the introductory material. Also helpful would have been a listing in the recipes as to how long that recipe takes, as some must be started several days in advance. The baking of flatbreads is also a mystery: he recommends placing, watching, flipping, and docking them. Problem is, they only take a minute or two to bake; if you are doing these things, the temperature of the oven drops dramatically each time you open the door, and the brief baking times do not permit the temperature to recover. So, even though you set the oven to 500 degrees, it could be 350 or less by the time you leave the oven door open to manipulate the dough.
Note that all recipes have a professional format: ingredient amounts are listed in both volume and weight measurements, there is a table of baker's percentages, and the steps are strictly numbered. The recipes are complete, meaning that few have less than a dozen steps, and several occupy multiple pages. Most recipes are accompanied by extensive notes. The first chapter is one the author rightfully expects you to read and thoroughly understand before doing any of the recipes in the rest of the book, as it contains vital information you will need. I should also say that this exemplary information is important for bread baking in general, and applies to all other loaves you might try, no matter which baking book you are using. The 2 recipes for French bread alone are worth the price of admission. Note that he has complete, tested recipes for poolish, biga, old dough, and barm.
It has these chapters: basics, pre-ferments, sourdough, whole grain, rye, enriched, flatbreads, quick breads, and winning recipes from the bread Olympics. The bibliography is especially valuable.
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89 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly Recommended Artisinal Baking Text. One of the Best, July 20, 2004
I am always a little nervous reviewing a book such as Joe Ortiz? ?The Village Baker? published over ten (10) years ago when there are several unread books which are known to me as leading authorities on the subject. This situation means I can praise a book while knowing there may be even better, more recent books on the market. Well, I am beginning to correct that situation with this review of Peter Reinhart?s ?Crust and Crumb? which is just one of his two major award winning books on bread baking. I am pleased to say that not only is ?Crust and Crumb? just a bit better than ?The Village Baker?, Reinhart, in ?Crust and Crumb? recognizes ?The Village Baker? as one of the most highly recommended books on the subject of artisinal bread baking. Both books are so good, it may be hard to recommend one over the other, but I will make some suggestions in this regard at the end of the review.
For people knowledgeable about and committed to the task of creating artisinal breads, this book is hands down one of the very best in English, readily available to people living in the United States. The subtitle says it all: ?Master Formulas for Serious Bread Bakers?. The term formulas should not put you off. The author is not turning bread baking into a mathematical exercise. Reinhart is simply using that term to replace recipes in order to reflect the well-known fact that written bread baking procedures are a different sort of thing from savory recipes where measurements can be approximate, with a variation to suit taste of up to 300% in things such as seasonings. Serious baking writers get nervous about statements that may lead to a variation of 10% in the weight of flour or water.
For people who do not know what artisinal bread baking is all about, I warn you that the difference between artisinal baking and savory cooking is similar to the difference between building a house out of prefabricated pieces and building a house out of logs you cut down and hew into lumber yourself. If working with brewer?s yeast is new to you, working with natural yeasts is a quantum step in sophistication beyond that. While you can create quick breads such as biscuits in an hour and you can bake a perfectly good loaf of yeast-risen white bread in six hours, artisinal baking can take days to set up. Then, the chances of success depend heavily on ambient conditions affecting flour and wild yeasts, plus the almost impossible to teach ability to sense stages in dough development by touch, look, and smell.
If you have no interest whatsoever in embarking on an artisinal baking project, this book may still have much to offer you. It has some quick bread recipes and it has many recipes that use brewer?s yeast in fresh, active dry, or instant form. In addition to these, the knowledge you gain about the nature and history of artisinal bread baking is superb. I was tickled to see Reinhart correct the mistake in another book that attributed the invention of the ?poolish? technique to Polish bakers in Paris. Actually, like many other baking techniques taken for French, the technique was developed in Vienna, by, of course, Polish bakers. The book corrects or explains many other more serious matters, leading to very long write-ups for many of the breadmaking essays, procedures, notes, and comments.
The greatest thing about this book I found was the author?s optimism in believing that you the reader are quite capable of duplicating the results of superior artisinal bakers with equipment you have in your home. No less an authority than Jacques Pepin claimed that this feat may be impossible, since you simply do not have the kinds of ovens used by professional bakers. I will go along with Peter Reinhart and not permit myself to believe I cannot bake a perfect Ciabatta, or, at least one as good or better than what is available at my local megamart.
This book is a full service location for everything you need to know about baking several important styles of bread as well as where you can get the best equipment, flour, and further information about bread baking. I am delighted that he endorses the opening chapters of Shirley Corriher?s ?Cookwise? as a superior reference on bread baking technique and he cites ?Baking With Julia? as a great way to get started in bread baking. This was my introduction, and it has served me well.
Needless to say, in a 210-page book that treats every formula in great depth, this book does not have everything there is about bread baking. It is an excellent text on artisinal baking, but it leaves out almost the whole world of regional specialties. For that, and almost everything else you may want to know about direct method brewer?s yeast baking, see Bernard Clayton?s ?The Complete World of Breads? or Betsy Oppenneer?s ?Celebration Breads?. For more information on other types of indirect (natural yeast) baking, see Rose Levy Beranbaum?s ?The Bread Bible?, Nancy Silverton?s ?Breads from the La Brea Bakery?, and Joe Ortiz? book cited above.
One issue I encounter again and again in bread baking books is the author?s selection of brewers yeast form. I first learned yeast bread baking from Julia Child with active dry yeast. Reinhart and several other authors prefer instant yeast. Some, like Wayne Harley Brachman, prefer fresh yeast. Luckily, Reinhart does a better job than most in making the conversion from one form to another in his formulas. If you resist little work with fractions, get Joe Ortiz? book. He is partial to active dry yeast.
Subject to revision when I read Reinhart?s latest book, ?The Bread Baker?s Apprentice?, I say this is clearly one of the best titles you can get on bread baking using both direct (brewers yeast) and indirect (natural yeast) formulas.
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