Bread Illustrated: A Step-By-Step Guide to Achieving Bakery-Quality Results at Home

by America's Test Kitchen

Overview

In this comprehensive cookbook, America's Test Kitchen breaks down the often intimidating art and science of bread baking, making it easy for anyone to create foolproof, bakery-quality breads at home.

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781940352602
Publisher:	America's Test Kitchen
Publication date:	09/06/2016
Series:	Illustrated
Edition description:	Illustrate
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	47,394
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 9.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

America’s Test Kitchen is well-known for its top-rated television shows with more than 4 million weekly public television viewers, bestselling cookbooks, magazines, websites, and cooking school. The highly reputable and recognizable brands of America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Illustrated, and Cook’s Country are the work of over 60 passionate chefs based in Boston, Massachusetts, who put ingredients, cookware, equipment, and recipes through objective, rigorous testing to identify the very best. Discover, learn, and expand your cooking repertoire with Julia Collin Davison, Bridget Lancaster, Jack Bishop, Dan Souza, Lisa McManus, Tucker Shaw, Bryan Roof, and our fabulous team of test cooks!

Editorial Reviews

08/01/2016
America’s Test Kitchen employed its usual exhaustive testing process for the recipes in this comprehensive guide to creating bread in the home kitchen. Each action that is vital to conquering the art of bread baking is broken down and photographed each step of the way, including mixing, kneading, rising, dividing and shaping, baking, cooling, and storing. After the basics are mastered in “Starting from Scratch,” which includes recipes for “Almost No-Knead” bread and monkey bread, graduation to honors class takes place. At this point, more complex techniques are outlined, and the authors explain how to use different flours to bake beautiful loaves of artisanal bread. As the reader progresses through each chapter, the more detailed the projects become. The beginner bread maker will benefit from the basics; the more experienced baker can start with sandwich breads or move forward to morning buns. The final chapter, “Raising the Bar,” covers recipes that involve a time commitment, such as New York-style bagels or croissants. With 1,000 photos and the expertise of the America’s Test Kitchen editors, this title might be the definitive book on bread baking. Photos. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

09/01/2016
Finally, the popular powerhouse many home cooks rely on for culinary instruction has devoted an entire book to bread. In its usual manner, America's Test Kitchen (The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001–2016) assessed numerous recipes, investigated the fundamentals and science of bread, and then tweaked ingredients and techniques to develop dependable recipes for over 100 sweet and savory breads. Organized like a class in which increasingly complex dishes build on techniques learned earlier, recipes include a lengthy "why this recipe works" narrative describing the importance of a particular item or tip. The emphasis is on precision, but aimed at home cooks, the book also explains when improvisation is okay. Specific brands of equipment and ingredients are discussed along with a helpful protein analysis of three major brands of wheat flours. Eric Kayser's The Larousse Book of Bread employs a wider range of ingredients, including spelt, rice, soy, and barley, and has more instruction on hand-kneading dough, though both titles share a similar scope and are equally well illustrated. VERDICT Recommended for novice and experienced home bakers alike, as well as anyone who enjoys learning about the science of bread baking.—Bonnie Poquette, Milwaukee

Library Journal