Here Are the Best Bread Cookbooks for Beginners
One of the few smells that can stir someone’s appetite is the aroma of freshly baked bread. Most baked pastries can invoke very powerful memories and cravings. Any slight whiff of freshly baked bread can easy do this. Whether you’re a first-time baker or you’re familiar with the basics and would like to learn a few more new tricks, or you follow a strict gluten-free diet and you just long for that perfect baguette. Depending on where your journey is, here is a list of some of the best bread-baking cookbooks that will get you through this bread-baking process.
Best Bread Cookbooks
#1. The Bread Baker’s Apprentice
Peter Reinhart is not only a distinguished teacher, he is also ardent about everything to do with bread making. He wrote 10 books which are devoted to bread making and he also has several decades worth of teaching experience. The book is categorized into sections that focus on recipes and techniques. The section on techniques will take you to a journey on the technique behind bread making, explaining the various types of yeast, the 12 steps of bread and how important it is to delay fermentation.
The section on recipes not only includes French loaves, but it also has different types of sourdough, sticky buns, focaccia, challah, rye, cornbread as well as Reinhart’s renowned pain a l’ancienne. Every one of these recipes comes with a commentary that will guide bakers further.
#2. Flour Water Salt Yeast
This book comprises a vast collection of pizza and bread recipes that will keep you very busy. This book is written specifically for a home baker, also the instructions on the recipe are very clear and precise. Depending on whether you’d like to prepare a Neapolitan-style or a boule pizza, the well-detailed directions are easy enough follow.
Ken Forkish enables first-time bakers to comprehend baker’s percentages as well as make a flexible timeline for baking pastries. In the book, he describes in detail the behind tips such as folding dough, using the fridge for fermenting and the use of warm water. This isn’t just a simple recipe book, it will introduce you thoroughly to the basics of baking bread, enabling everyone to cook outstanding loaves at the comfort of their homes.
#3. The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook
A bread making machine is a very useful kitchen appliance. It can be operated simply by adding the ingredients, selecting the function and letting work its magic. You will then have a freshly baked and warm loaf of bread within a few hours.
There are 300 different bread-making recipes ranging from buns, whole-grain, sourdough, white bread, rolls and quick breads. The cookbook will have you and your bread making machine very busy. Most of the recipes will work in different types of machines with help from the instructions on every machine, guidelines on various flours, high altitude adjustment and troubleshooting tips when your bread doesn’t come out like you expected it to.
#4. Tartine Bread
The main purpose and spirit behind the use of sourdough to make bread is available in every page of the Tartine Bread. Chad Robertson gives detailed information on his individual experiences using sourdough to bake, given the book’s encouraging and reassuring tone as well as it’s useful and complementary photos that complement it. The recipes for making simple country are well illustrated for easy guidance throughout the process.
This is the best book to use for someone looking to learn how to make the perfect sourdough bread. The book does a great job of explaining the other methods you can apply for fermenting and how all kinds of variance would affect the final result. This will enable you to make an open-crumb, tangy and blistered-crust bread from the comfort of your home.
#5. Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads
Since whole grains are known to be nutrient dense foods, so if you’d like to use them to break loaves of bread, then this book is the perfect choice to get you through the experience. It includes 55 formulas as well as FAQs which will explain a lot of things regarding the process and recipe.
There are different selections ranging from rye sandwich meteil, whole wheat sandwich bread, focaccia, flatbread such as roti and pita to whole wheat challah. If you love whole-grain products, this book by Peter Reinhart will keep you absorbed in everything to do with baking with the perfect results.
#6. A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes
This book was written by Jeffery Hamelman, a proficient master baker who shares his expertise on everything to do with bread. The book has 150 recipes (40 of them centered on sourdough), whose formulas and techniques explain the step you need to follow to have the perfect loaf of bread. The writer shares his proficiency, with guidance from things like instruction and diagrams for scoring, shaping bread and braiding. The book can be used as a technical manual for anyone who wants to mater everything to do with bread making.
#7. Gluten-Free Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
Being on a strict gluten-free diet doesn’t necessarily mean that you cannot eat any bread or that you are supposed to buy the different kinds of gluten-free loaves found in grocery stores. This cookbook will guide you on how to make gluten-free loaves from the comfort of your home using 90 recipes. It outlines the kind of equipment you need, kind of gluten-free flour to use and how you can make your own customized recipe. Ranging from sandwich bread, flatbread to crusty loaves, there are different types of gluten-free loaves to be created and enjoyed.
#8. The Gluten-Free Bread Machine Cookbook
If you’re limited to eating gluten-free products, there are a variety of bread making machines that can help you do the job. Regardless of the type of bread maker you have at home, Shannon Kinsella and Jane Bonacci’s gluten-free cookbook is both an inspirational and educational book. Depending on whether you’d like to make sandwich bread or buns, or you’d simply like to have an enjoyable pizza night, the cookbook includes 175 recipes.
Apart from the practical and varied recipes, there’s also great advice on baking pastries using gluten-free flours, applying high-altitude modification guidelines, troubleshooting assistance and the roles of every ingredient is outlined on the headnotes in all the recipes.
#9.Flatbread & Flavors: A Baker’s Atlas
Bread is not only a staple dish in most cultures, it’s also one of the most ancient dishes on every menu. The process pf creating loaf as well as texture varies depending on the place it originates from as every type of loaf comes with its own history. This book by Naomi Duguid and Jeffery Alford share different kinds of recipes from all over the world. If you’ve been looking for guidelines on how to make the best gluten-free products, this book will get you through your venture.
The Flatbread & Flavors cookbook comprises of at least 60 recipes for various kinds of flatbreads ranging from Afghan naans, Armenian matnakash, Uighur, Mediterranean pita, French fougasse, Ethiopian injera and many others.
Conclusion
If your baking skills are a bit advanced and would like to bake various kinds of breads, the best cookbook to use it The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. If you’re limited to eating gluten-free products and want to try baking your own bread from the comfort of your home, the best cookbook is the Gluten-Free Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.