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Simple enough to get started immediately, with little hassle or fuss. Exhaustively detailed enough to provide months of learning and pleasure experimenting and refining your skills!
Taste-wise, the results are fantastic. I spend a lot of time in France, and the bread I baked from this book on my very first try is at least as good as your average bakery in the country known for its amazing bread. It is not as good as the very best, but as a simple daily 'everyday" bread, this book gives you a near perfect solution.
The secret to the book's popularity is not just the excellent recipes, but the carefully thought out no-knead method using high moisture dough. The water in the dough develops the gluten, making kneading unnecessary. The book is well written, well organized and attractively laid out with photos and info boxes with additional information engagingly presented. It simply and clearly details everything you need--the ingredients to buy, the skills you need to develop, tools to buy, etc.--in order to make fresh homemade bread part of your lifestyle.
At the core of the authors' method is a secret most professional chefs already know: You can make your bread dough in advance and store it in the refrigerator, and it actually gains flavor over time. This is super convenient as you can mix when you have time, and just pull out the ready-to-bake dough when you want it! While this is not anything new (I learned it years ago from a professional chef friend of mine), the authors do a wonderful job exploring in detail how to use this concept to simplify your life.
The "master recipe," the core of the book, makes enough dough for 3-4 loaves; You can keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks, snipping off a piece of dough to bake whenever you have a hankering for bread. Everything in the book is meticulously documented, clear and simply written.
The authors do a particularly good job describing the trade-offs between time-saving methods and superior results. For example, a longer preheat of the pizza stone you're baking on may give you a more divine crust, but you may prefer to save energy and time with a shorter preheat; the authors demystify the issue and clearly describe the trade-offs so you can make your own decision. This is a pleasant contrast from cookbooks that simply tell you the way things must be done and don't offer you reasons why or clearly explain how much difference it makes if you take a short cut.
The section on "what to buy" also strikes the perfect balance between perfectionism and practicality. For example, the authors recommend a dough whisk to mix the dough, saying it works faster than a wooden spoon and offers less resistance. But for those who don't have this implement, and may not want to buy one, they note, reassuringly, "a wooden spoon works fine."
Another thing I like about the book is the troubleshooting section. If your bread's crust is not crunchy enough, for example, it lists three possible ways to fix it.
Is it really just five minutes a day? Well, almost...for me, on mixing day it takes about 10 minutes of my time, and on baking day, another ten minutes of active work. The method is simple: You mix four ingredients (yeast, warm water, salt and flour) in a large bowl or plastic container, let it rise for two hours on the counter. The "master recipe" makes enough for 3-4 loaves. You pop it in the fridge, where you can leave it up to two weeks, and whenever you want to bake, snip off enough for a loaf, shape it rapidly and let it rest.
Another tradeoff in the book is that a longer rest time gives you better "crumb" or the texture with nice big holes in it. The authors recommend a minimum of 40 minutes but up to 90 minutes; I get great results with an hour. Once it's rested, you score it with a knife, slide it into the oven onto a hot pizza stone and cook for a half hour. Hot bread comes out of the oven 1.5 hours after you start. (Do I chow down on the hot bread? Sadly, no. The authors recommend cooling completely because the texture is best if you don't cut too early.)
If you want your bread ASAP, you can simply snip off some dough and make a Naan in a cast iron skillet. Just snip off the dough, roll it out into an oval, and cook 2-3 minutes on each side. The results are stunning: The best Naan I've had in my life! The smaller the amount of dough, the less "resting" time you need: The baguettes and the dinner rolls in the book, also made from the master recipe dough, take about forty minutes from the time I decide I want one.
This book is one of two that, in recent years, have popularized the no-knead high moisture method. The other is
My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method
. The main difference between the two are that Artisan's master recipe details an initial two-hour rise on the counter, while Lahey's method uses less yeast for a slow rise of 12-18 hours; you have to plan ahead more with Lahey but the method also involves minimal labor. Another difference is that this book's master recipe uses all-purpose white flour, while Lahey's uses bread flour--whole wheat or white, depending on the recipe you choose. (There are some whole-wheat recipes in the Artisan book but the core of the book is the all-purpose flour master recipe.)
I have used the Lahey recipes a couple times and find overall they are slightly more marvelous than the Artisan breads. However, since the Lahey method only occasionally fits into my lifestyle, I use the Artisan method regularly.
One area of significant discussion among afficionados of no-knead high-moisture breads is whether the slow rise or faster rise is better. I have been experimenting with using a longer rise on Artisan's master recipe--and I like the results. The authors recommend a two-hour rise probably because they want to keep it simple, nonfussy and accessible; longer rises necessitate more lead time and planning. But they also note (and their frankness and detail is the reason they get five stars) that many people prefer the flavor of a longer rise. They note that you can simply use less yeast and wait until it rises the proper amount. (When it collapses slightly, it's at the end of its rise.)
I did a bakeoff this weekend between this book's master recipe involving a two-hour initial rise, and a test dough which rose for ten hours. The master recipe has a tablespoon of yeast, and I used a third as much in my test dough. I baked one loaf of each side by side on the same pizza stone, and then took them to a dinner with ten friends. Both breads were delicious. But when given a side-by-side comparison, almost everyone preferred the lower-yeast long rise bread because it had a less strong "yeasty" flavor. One friend described the yeast flavor as "winey." Several people liked both about the same, but those who had a preference all preferred the slower rise. I also waited two days and did another test with more mature dough, and again, the slower-rise lower-yeast version has an edge. My conclusion is I'd rather do a longer rise when I have the lead time, but the two-hour rise is just fine if I have a deadline.
In addition to providing the basic method, this book is chock full of fun and inspiring recipes--for example, three-citrus marmelade and Asian-style pork bun which look scrumptions!
I buy very few cookbooks these days as you can find most of what you need on the Internet. However, this one is really a treasure. Even if you've been baking bread for years, the book is chock full of useful professional tips you may not know. The section on parbaking alone is worth the purchase price. When you want hot bread on a deadline (for example you want to bring fresh bread to a friend's house but have no time the day of the event), you can simply cook it most of the way, cool and freeze--and the day of the party bring it and pop it in the oven for five or ten minutes.
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The cookbook that changed my life
As far as culinary skills go, I'm just an average guy in the kitchen. For years my wife has done the majority of the cooking, because she's better at it and much faster than I am. We typically divide the duties with me outside at the grill (if the meal requires anything to be grilled) and her inside doing the real work. Because of some work schedule changes, I've had to up my game a bit in the kitchen, but I still just consider myself a B student in the kitchen.This cookbook completely changed my "average" image though. I've been baking bread with the original edition of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day since January 2011 and I have literally become renowned in my neighborhood and at work for baking amazing bread. One by one I've had half the dads in my neighborhood over and taught them how to bake amazing bread.It couldn't be simpler.For the basic recipe, you mix yeast, salt, water, and flour in a big tub and put it in the fridge to rise and chill overnight. Then the next day you can start baking. Bake however much you want, and then leave the rest of the dough covered in the tub for up to two weeks. You never have to kneed or punch the dough. And besides the initial rise, you only need to let the formed loaves (I always bake more than one) rest and un-chill for about a half hour before you bake them.I can whip up a batch of dough in less than ten minutes. I store all my ingredients in plastic storage containers out in the garage, so I just grab what I need and bring it into the kitchen. I always mix the double batch recipe that they describe as the "6-2-2-13 rule" in one of the sidebars. That way I have plenty of dough to make loaves for my family and make enough to take in to share at work.I rarely make the dough and bake it on the same day, because the dough is stickier and harder to work with at first. Although you CAN form and bake the loaves after the initial three hour rise, it's a lot simpler to let the dough chill overnight before you try to bake with it.The results are amazingly beautiful and delicious (and cheap) loaves of bread. I wish I could post pictures here, but I don't think I can add images until after the book is released to the public in October.The book has a great variety of recipes. I love making the deli rye and pumpernickel. Or if you prefer the simplicity of the master recipe, it's easy enough to stick with the master recipe and just slightly modify it by adding other ingredients. You can add fresh rosemary to make herb loaves. My wife's favorite is for me to add a cup of sunflower seeds before mixing. Another favorite of mine is to substitute dark beer for half of the water and add a cup of grated cheese and a cup of chopped fresh jalapenos.I think what I like most about these recipes is that they have a very wide margin for error. It's pretty hard to botch this up. Plus it's very easy to modify the recipes to suit your taste. If you like the flavor of yeast, then use more yeast. If you're watching your sodium, cut back on the salt. If you find that the dough is coming out too dry, add just a touch more water and cut back a half a cup of flour at a time until you find your perfect blend.Another simple thing to do is start with the master recipe and just add your favorite seeds to the top before you bake. Sesame seeds are my favorite. Flax seeds are also delicious. It's such a simple way to completely change the flavor of the loaf, all with the same batch of dough.Once you feel comfortable with the basic "master" recipe, it's very easy to branch out to the other recipes in the book. I've enjoyed all of the recipes that I've tried: whole wheat, semolina, English granary with barley malt and malted wheat flakes, and more. They're all amazing.What do you need to get started? Not much really, but I found that some extra accessories like a baking stone, pizza peel, and parchment paper really made things go better for me. I've put together a list of items in this collection:REVISED LINK: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/2UN6876ZMFBSA/ref=pdp_new_wl?reveal=all&view=nullKeep it cheap!The best way to keep the price down is to buy the staple items at a big store like Smart & Final. Individual yeast packets at the grocery store are probably the most expensive ingredient (about a buck per packet). It's a lot cheaper to buy a pound of yeast for under $4 at Smart & Final. Same goes for the flour: buy big bags of flour at Smart & Final to save money.For any of the difficult ingredients like rye flour (which is nearly impossible to find in my neighborhood) I just buy it here on Amazon. Anything I can't find here at Amazon I can find pretty easily (but not as cheaply) at King Arthur.What's new in this edition?I've been using the original edition of this book for years. The "New" edition has some nice new changes.* Weights & Measures: All of the measures for the ingredients are now listed in tables. Instead of just listing the measurements in cups, they are listed in U.S. units (cups, tablespoons, etc.), metric units, and also by weight. The most exact measurement is the weight, because regardless of how firmly or lightly you pack your scoops (resulting in different quantities), the weight is what it is. If you pack your cups densely, then 13 cups of flour will be more than is intended. But if you measure by weight, it doesn't matter how many cups you scoop.* More photos: A picture is worth a thousand words. The original edition had good photos, but this one has even more. They really help.* More recipes: The authors have a very active website with a thriving base of fans. They've done a nice job in this edition of adding some extra recipes suggested by or inspired by these fans.* FAQ: This edition includes a great list of Frequently Asked Questions that have come up on their website.* Gluten free: They've added an entire chapter of gluten free recipes.* Tips & Techniques: They've expanded the contents of the Tips & Techniques chapter to provide even more helpful items.* Improved index: The authors' description mentions an enhanced index. The advanced reviewer copy that I have doesn't include the index yet, so I'll just have to take their word for it. I thought the index in the original version was pretty strong, so I'm eager to see what they've done to improve it. Sadly the table of contents is still really bad. It just lists the chapters without any details. (Was pumpernickel listed under The Master Recipe or Peasant Loaves? Gaaah!)I am obviously a huge fan of this technique and these recipes. I've personally coaxed dozens of my friends to buy the first edition and try baking for themselves. I've also given many copies of the first edition as gifts to friends. It's been a blast to see regular guys like me learn to bake amazing breads for our families. A bunch of us even got together and had a huge "Dad's Bake Sale" to raise money for one of our kids' sports teams. It was a huge success.I'll see if I can post some photos in the comments below (you can't link to them in the body of a review like this).Give it a try and have fun with it!EDIT: I've updated the link to the collection of tools. Hopefully Amazon preserves the link.
Top reviews from other countries
Lorraine B.
Schön aufgemacht, sehr informativ, tolle Rezepte
Reviewed in Germany on January 29, 2018
