Baking Bread

Today is Homemade Bread Day!  If you need some help or inspiration, check out these ten books.

Bread Baking for Beginners: The Essential Guide to Baking Kneaded Breads, No-Knead Breads, and Enriched Breads by Bonnie O'Hara - Baking a perfect loaf of bread is part science and part magic. Created from four simple ingredients of flour, yeast, water, and salt, breadmaking is one of the most difficult (and delicious) baking endeavors. Bread Baking for Beginners is a rare bread cookbook for true beginners to keep their bread baking on the rise.
Complete with step-by-step photographs and straightforward instructions, this beautiful bread cookbook offers a tasty collection of recipes for kneaded, no-knead, and enriched breads. In addition to important info on everything from prep and proof times to key terminology and kitchen essentials, this definitive bread cookbook covers you beyond the pan, addressing the perils of an unsuccessful bake.
From total scratch to your very first batch, this bread cookbook includes:
Knead to know--Discover the science behind the bread making process, popular techniques, and the tools needed to bake a fluffy, flavorful loaf.
Stepping scones--Progress from a beginner's, easy-to-master recipe into dozens of sweet and savory breads.
From 'doh' to dough--Troubleshoot bread-specific issues with FAQs that address everything from burnt brioche to deflated baguettes.
Bread Baking for Beginners helps make artisan bread effortless, so you can share homemade loaves with the people you love.

Bread Illustrated: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Bakery-Quality Results at Home by America's Test Kitchen - Many home cooks find bread baking rewarding but intimidating. In Bread Illustrated, America's Test Kitchen shows bakers of all levels how to make foolproof breads, rolls, flatbreads, and more at home. Each master recipe is presented as a hands-on and reassuring tutorial illustrated with six to 16 full-color step-by-step photos. Organized by level of difficulty to make bread baking less daunting, the book progresses from the simplest recipes for the novice baker to artisan-style loaves, breads that use starters, and more complex project recipes. The recipes cover a wide and exciting range of breads from basics and classics like Easy Sandwich Bread and Fluffy Dinner Rolls to interesting breads from around the world including Lahmacun, Panettone, and Fig and Fennel Bread.

Bread, Toast, Crumbs: Recipes for No-Knead Loaves and Meals to Savor Every Slice by Alexandra Stafford with Elizabeth Lowery - Alexandra Stafford grew up eating her mother's peasant bread at nearly every meal-the recipe for which was a closely-guarded family secret. When her blog, Alexandra's Kitchen, began to grow in popularity, readers started asking how to make the bread they'd heard so much about; the bread they had seen peeking into photos. Finally, Alexandra's mother relented, and the recipe went up on the internet. It has since inspired many who had deemed bread-baking an impossibility to give it a try, and their results have exceeded expectations. The secret is in its simplicity- the no-knead dough comes together in fewer than five minutes, rises in an hour, and after a second short rise, bakes in buttered bowls.
But this book isn't just about baking bread. It's about what to do with the slices and heels and nubs from those many loaves you'll bake-it's bread-baking and bread-eating. After you master the famous peasant bread, you'll work your way through its many variations, both in flavor (Cornmeal, Jalapeno, and Jack; Three Seed) and form (Cranberry Walnut Dinner Rolls; Cinnamon Sugar Monkey Bread). You'll enjoy bread's usual utilities with Food Cart Grilled Cheese and the Summer Tartine with Burrata and Avocado, but then you'll discover its true versatility when you use it to sop up Mussels with Shallot and White Wine or juicy Roast Chicken Legs. Finally, you'll find ways to savor every last bite, from Panzanella Salad Three Ways to Roasted Tomato Soup to No-Bake Chocolate-Coconut Cookies.

Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman - Hailed as a "revelation" when it first appeared in 2004, Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread is a legendary resource praised by baking luminaries from around the world. Explaining complex techniques with simple and helpful illustrations, the book includes recipes for a vast array of breads, including sourdoughs, brioche, authentic rye breads, flat breads, French breads, and much more.
Features nearly 150 detailed, step-by-step recipes, along with vivid drawings and photographs showing techniques and finished products
Written by Jeffrey Hamelman, one of fewer than 200 Certified Master Bakers in the United States and a recipient of the Golden Baguette Award (2005), the highest honor bestowed by the Bread Baker's Guild of America
Fully updated to include the latest techniques, methods, trends, and bread varieties
Whether you're an aspiring or practicing professional baker or a dedicated home hobbyist, Bread is the ultimate resource for almost any variety of bread you can imagine.

Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza by Ken Forkish - In Flour Water Salt Yeast, author Ken Forkish demonstrates that high-quality artisan bread and pizza is within the reach of any home baker. Whether it's a basic straight dough, dough made with a pre-ferment, or a complex levain, each of Forkish's impeccable recipes yields exceptional results. Tips on creating and adapting bread baking schedules that fit in reader's day-to-day lives-enabling them to bake the breads they love in the time they have available-make Flour Water Salt Yeast an indispensable resource for bakers, be they novices or serious enthusiasts.

Josey Baker Bread: Get Baking - Make Awesome Bread - Share the Loaves by Josey Baker - This is the first true entry-level bread-baking cookbook, from Josey Baker (that's his real name!), a former science teacher turned San Francisco baking sensation. Josey Baker Bread combines step-by-step lessons with more than 100 photographs, offering easy-to-follow guidance for aspiring bakers. Recipes start with the basic formula for making bread— requiring little more than flour, water, time, and a pan—and build in depth and detail as the user progresses to more complex loaves, including Josey's cult favorite Dark Mountain Rye. With chapters dedicated to pizza, pocketbreads, and treats, Josey's playful, encouraging tone makes for a fun read full of great advice for bakers of all levels.

Modern Jewish Baker: Challah, Babka, Bagels & More by Shannon Sarna - Jewish baked goods have brought families together around the table for centuries. In Modern Jewish Baker, Sarna pays homage to those traditions while reinvigorating them with modern flavors and new ideas. One kosher dough at a time, she offers the basics for challah, babka, bagels, hamantaschen, rugelach, pita, and matzah. Never one to shy away from innovation, Sarna sends her readers off on a bake-your-own adventure with twists on these classics. Recipes include:
Chocolate Chip Hamantaschen
Tomato-Basil Challah
Everything-Bagel Rugelach
S'mores Babka
Detailed instructions, as well as notes on make-ahead strategies, ideas for using leftovers, and other practical tips will have even novice bakers braiding beautiful shiny loaves that will make any bubbe proud.

My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method by Jim Lahey with Rick Flaste - When he wrote about Jim Lahey's bread in the New York Times, Mark Bittman's excitement was palpable: "The loaf is incredible, a fine-bakery quality, European-style boule that is produced more easily than by any other technique I've used, and it will blow your mind." Here, thanks to Jim Lahey, New York's premier baker, is a way to make bread at home that doesn't rely on a fancy bread machine or complicated kneading techniques.The secret to Jim Lahey's bread is slow-rise fermentation. As Jim shows in My Bread, with step-by-step instructions followed by step-by-step pictures, the amount of labor you put in amounts to 5 minutes: mix water, flour, yeast, and salt, and then let time work its magic--no kneading necessary. The process couldn't be more simple, or the results more inspiring. Here--finally--Jim Lahey gives us a cookbook that enables us to fit quality bread into our lives at home.

New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois - With more than half a million copies of their books in print, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François have proven that people want to bake their own bread, so long as they can do it easily and quickly. Based on fan feedback, Jeff and Zoë have completely revamped their first, most popular, and now-classic book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
Responding to their thousands of ardent fans, Jeff and Zoë returned to their test kitchens to whip up more delicious baking recipes. They've also included a gluten-free chapter, forty all-new gorgeous color photos, and one hundred informative black-and-white how-to photos. They've made the "Tips and Techniques" and "Ingredients" chapters bigger and better than ever before, and included readers' Frequently Asked Questions.
This revised edition also includes more than thirty brand-new recipes for Beer-Cheese Bread, Crock-Pot Bread, Panini, Pretzel Buns, Apple-Stuffed French Toast, and many more. There's nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread to fill a kitchen with warmth, eager appetites, and endless praise. Now, using Jeff and Zoë's innovative technique, you can create bread that rivals those of the finest bakers in the world in just five minutes of active preparation time.

Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson - A bread bible for the home baker or professional bread-maker! It comes from Chad Robertson, a man many consider to be the best bread baker in the United States, and co-owner with Elizabeth Prueitt of San Francisco's Tartine Bakery. At 5 P.M., Chad Robertson's rugged, magnificent Tartine loaves are drawn from the oven. The bread at San Francisco's legendary Tartine Bakery sells out within an hour almost every day.
Only a handful of bakers have learned the bread science techniques Chad Robertson has developed: To Chad Robertson, bread is the foundation of a meal, the center of daily life, and each loaf tells the story of the baker who shaped it. Chad Robertson developed his unique bread over two decades of apprenticeship with the finest artisan bakers in France and the United States, as well as experimentation in his own ovens. Readers will be astonished at how elemental it is.
Bread making the Tartine Way: Now it's your turn to make this bread with your own hands. Clear instructions and hundreds of step-by-step photos put you by Chad's side as he shows you how to make exceptional and elemental bread using just flour, water, and salt.