Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day

First things first. I have been baking bread and pizzas for more than 30 years, and within a few days of receiving this book, I learned a few things and saw some improvements. Since baking better bread is the only purpose of this book, it ranks as a success.I'd say the book is ideal for either beginners or "experts" like me, as long as you are willing to throw away (or at least forget for a while) everything you know about baking bread. In my years of baking, I learned that you can't freeze dough, yeast likes warm places, and the longer you knead dough, the better. Reinhart has a different opinion, and he seems to be correct.The Good Points* So far I have made baguettes, sourdough and pizza using recipes and techniques in the book. All turned out excellent. I can now bake "crusty" baguettes on demand, and can produce that micro-thin, slightly stretchy pizza crust in a kitchen 3000 miles from New York (although with slight additions to Peter's recipe).* I always "knew" you couldn't freeze dough, but following Peter's advice, I now regularly freeze dough for pizza, and it turns out great. Combined with premeasured bags of frozen sauce, fresh hot pizza is now a "freezer" item. Awesome, except for my diet.* I learned new techniques for working with dough, and for the most part they seem to work great. The book organizes the basic dough techniques (stretching, proofing, etc) in one section at the front of the book so you can find them easily. (More on this below).* Subject to some issues described below, the instructions are reasonably easy to follow. They are written in easy-to-understand terms, and Peter avoids the usual pedantic language often found in higher-end cookbooks. Nothing worse than needing a dictionary and a translator to make soup.* Reinhart doesn't try to convince you that you need to go out and buy $1000 worth of proofing pans, proofing boxes, special cloths, etc. Just use what is in your house already.The Bad Points (Note first paragraph in review)* The directions can get a bit carried away with themselves. Personally, quantities like 3 3/8 teaspoons of salt drive me nuts. I might breakdown and use an actual measuring spoon instead of a teaspoon, but there is no way I am not going to eyeball the last half teaspoon.* The directions are written in a narrative format rather than a list of items typical in recipes. As a result I will often end up re-reading the whole recipe numerous times just to find the next step. This can be a bit of a pain, because many of the recipes have quite a few steps. Typical will be mix for 2 minutes on low, wait 5 minutes, switch to a dough hook, mix for 3 minutes on medium, wait 5 minutes, fold and stretch dough, wait for 10 minutes in an uncovered bowl, stretch again.... You get the idea. For every step, you will end up re-reading most of the recipe. A little indenting/change of fonts/highlighting/bold/etc in the layout would do wonders for the book.* The directions can get overly detailed, but yet unclear-forcing you to interpret multiple directions to be sure you know exactly what Reinhart meant. Not a real big deal, but something one more round of proofreading should have caught.* Basic techniques such as kneading and proofing are in a separate section of the book, and then referred to by individual recipes. Except when they are not-some recipes include the details, some refer you to the front of the book. Since the directions are already somewhat bloated and poorly formatted, I'd prefer to just have references to a single section.* At least one of the recipes (sourdough mother starter) has all the quantities in cups, until you get to the final steps when everything is now in grams. I don't have a metric (or even English) scale in my kitchen.* Some of the steps are explained in agonizing detail, and them some are skipped over. It takes 5 pages to explain how to make the sourdough starter, but then the "how to refresh the starter dough process" is skipped over. List the quantities of old starter, flour and water (see above), but then makes no mention of what to do with it- proof at room temp? immediately return to the refrigerator? How long does it need to refresh?* Mom always taught me that you can't really measure flour-you have to add it to the dough as needed. The reason for this is that flour can have a vastly different moisture content, so what works once might yield overly tacky/dry dough the next time. Reinhart doesn't seem to subscribe to this theory, at least not in all his recipes. After mixing up a batch of the gooiest pizza dough on the planet, I'd say Mom was right.* Some of the baking times listed are suspect. I suspect they are worse case time for very large loafs, not typical times for baguette sized creations. Caveat baker.* None of the recipes I have tried so far are for anyone in a hurry. Every recipe so far has taken days to complete. Not a negative...yeast will be yeast. Just something to be aware of.Overall:A great guide to breadbaking-both for specific recipes and learning to update your artisan skills. I learned a lot from it, and have made a number of items, all of them unqualified successes. If you are looking to whip up a batch of bread as quickly as your bread machine, this is not your book. If you want to spend a few days working with yeast to get a baguette worthy of Paris (OK, maybe New York), this is your book.

I started my bread making adventure with the original 'Artisan bread in five minutes a day' book. That was a nice start, but for a perfectionist like me, it wasn't satisfying in the long run. I soon figured out that there was no way I could make a loaf of bread with dough that has been stored in the fridge for 2 weeks. I was never able to create a loaf of bread that came with both, oven spring and a nice tangy sour dough flavor. At best I got one of the two (a somewhat decent oven spring with new fresh dough, and better flavor with older dough), but never both.I soon figured out that dough older than 4 days doesn't hold any shape, and is best used as a pre-ferment mixed in a new batch.And I don't like volume measurements! I grew up with a cheap scale, simply dumping the ingredients into a mixing bowl on the scale, taring between measurements - so much faster and easier, and more precise, but not if the recipe doesn't come with weight measurements.I finally 'upgraded' to Peter Reinharts 'Artisan Bread Every Day' book, and have been much happier ever since. Not only does it come with measurements in grams and ounces (and volume too, if you must), I also believe that the 'stretch and fold' technique helps developing a better crumb, and thanks to the great instructions in this book I have been baking with pure sourdough starters ever since.Starting a wild yeast culture was really easy - only after baking happily with it for weeks I realized that many people online aren't quite that lucky with their 'catch' from the get go. Reinhart suggests to use pineapple juice to start the culture, or to try any acidic liquid like lemon or orange juice. I had an old organic grapefruit in the fridge that I had bought by accident, mistaking it for an orange, and used that for the initial mix, and plain orange juice on the second day. My seed culture broke all speed records in regards of foaming and bubbling from day one.I have had this first culture in my fridge for 1 1/2 years now, refeeding it on average once a week, and it still works great. In fact, it is so active and leavening that even in the recipes that call for commercial yeast on top of the pre-ferment due to eggs or fat, I get away with just the sourdough starter - I haven't bought instant yeast in a year (but if you don't want to bake with sourdough starter, there are plenty of recipes that use store bought yeast only, too).It still was a learning curve - it took me a while to ignore all the time cues and to just look at the dough. Living in an hot and humid climate like South Florida, I can easily cut all the proofing times stated in half. I ended up with tons of loaves flat and gummy simply because I always ended up over proofing the dough. Now I make sure that I proceed to the next step in the recipe after the starter doubled in size, the dough doubled in size, and the shaped loaf grew by 1 1/2 in size. If I let the shaped loaf grow any further, the yeast has nothing left to give in the oven for any oven spring. Best results always come if I stick the shaped loaves in the fridge and bake them cold the next day. But that is Florida, I might do it differently in a colder climate.All recipes I tried worked wonderful, provided I didn't end up over proofing, and I feel I was able to take my bread baking attempts to a whole new level. 'Artisan breads in Five' was great to get me into baking to begin with, but real good bread takes a little more effort, more so in managing time, temperatures and techniques than hands on work - but it is so worth it!(I uploaded a picture of crusty cheese bread, leavened with sourdough starter only, no yeast added)

I’ve been working with this book for almost a month now and the process of making breads have been enjoyable so far. On my first try, I was able to accomplish croissants with the recipe provided in this book. Sourdough starter? Doable as well. I’ve produced some beautiful breads. Reinhart’s “Baker’s Apprentice” book is on the same wavelength. Incredible books to have!

O livro é excelente, melhor, o autor trata a parte de massa madre e o starter de forma excelente, mas quando passo a desenvolver as receitas, nenhuma testada por mim funcionou de forma correta.O croisant foi a pior receita que eu testei

Peter Reinhart's new bread book, like his previous titles, will give you bread of superior quality. Unlike his previous books however, the techniques he uses are very different to Crust and Crumb or The Breadmaker's Apprentice.The most obvious alteration of his old technique is kneading the bread for short bursts of time several times rather than one long 15 minute knead (a technique similar to Dan Leppard's in The Handmade Loaf for example). Another change he introduces is overnight fermentation of the dough in the fridge to enhance flavour.The positive aspects of the book for me are that the technique of retardation in the fridge allows you to keep your dough in the fridge for up to 7 days (though ideally it should be used up until the 4th day for maximum flavour). You can have your dough ready for baking any time using this technique without having to mix, knead and proof a new batch. I also find the long overnight fermentation in the fridge very useful - this is great for when you mix your dough but have no time to let it rise and bake it 4 hours later... simply put in the fridge and use it whenever you want for up to a week.However, some of Mr Reinhart's new techniques are also a bit bothersome. I do not really like the short kneading method as it requires you to knead the dough 5 times every 10 minutes. That means 5 times of washing your hands and scraping the dough off them. I'd much rather knead once for longer and deal with sticky dough all over my hands and sink just once! Also, because you're going back to your dough every 10 minutes, there's not much you can do in between... read 3 pages of your book and then it's time to get up, knead and clean your hands again, and so on for 50 minutes. I actually find this much more time consuming than one long knead of 15 minutes. You also need a good oven for these breads - 260 C is the norm. As my gas oven only heats up to 220 C I have not achieved the oven spring that Mr Reinhart writes about.Despite this, however, Artisan Breads Every Day is a useful addition to any bread book collection as not many books use the techniques that Mr Reinhart uses here. The overnight retardation has been a great time saver as I can bake fresh baguettes first thing in the morning. And if you're ever called out of the house in an emergency with dough rising in the bowl, this technique will save your bread for the next day - or even a week! It is a beautiful book, printed on smooth paper with lots of luscious photographs that will make you want to start baking straight away. There's a lot of variety and recipes for baguettes and other white breads, rye breads, wholewheat breads, breads with grains, sourdough loaves - though if you're weary of cultivating sourdough you will still find plenty here to bake. Definitely recommend to home made bread fanatics!

Have made three of the recipes, and all have failed. If it was just one, I would suspect my own inadequacy as a baker, but three? The French bread recipe calls for 7g of yeast to 680g of flour. That is double the usual amount of yeast for that much flour. Mine exploded into a huge puffball overnight, and promptly collapsed when it was removed from the fridge. That is EXACTLY what I would expect it to do, given that much yeast. The result was a brick. Not sure how nobody else has had these problems. The ciabatta was also a brick. Even fiddling around with the French bread recipe has resulted in no decent loaves. Will have to find another bread book.

In my opinion this is the best book ever on bread making. The techniques are superb for making top-quality bread at home, and are explained very clearly. The science of superior bread is demystified in sidebars. The ingredients are in grams (also ounces and cups) so there's no guesswork. Not only for easy White bread and Wholemeal, but buns, rolls and fancy-pants baking too. Your taste buds deserve it.

All of the classics you would expect from Peter Reinhart, but with his new emphasis on greater time leading to a better flavoured loaf.Easy to follow recipes and covers off the basics really well. The only real criticism is the layout - the recipes are quite protracted, I'd prefer a clear bulleted layout to follow easily when I'm covered in wet dough, and the ingredients in cups, with imperial and direct metric conversion emphasises the US roots. Also, over 200 pages, but only 39 recipes.Overall, a good book