Bread Making Book Reviews

Area of focus: Introduction to sourdough techniques & knowledge, ranging from starters, through to baking and ultimately, storage. The few recipes are largely for illustration... but they do work.

Total page count: 194

No. of pages before recipes: 51

Metric/imperial units? Metric

Number of recipes: 3 actual bread recipes. (I may have missed a couple, but there's very few specified "Ingredients" & "Method" sections that I generally look for in a recipe.

Photos for every recipe? No.

Price range (new): Free download! The hardcover book is $50 (USD) or $79 (AUD).

Price range (used): N/A (not found)

Notable Features & FYI: Despite the extremely low number of recipes, it's enough to get you started, and understand the entire process to a very good degree. That said, the troubleshooting section is amazing and would augment any other book (sourdough or not) in this list. I also like the "Mix in" section for adding fruits/seeds/herbs, and beyond.

Firstly, you can read the entire book on the book's official site. You can download it for free in both epub and PDF formats. There are also downloadable shortened versions (under TL:DR which means "too long: didn't read") which is less empowering, but get's you most of the way to great bread in minimal time.

If you're on a budget and can't afford a book on the subject, simply offer to contribute to help the community through their Discord (forum) on www.the-bread-code.io in any number of ways. For example, there's translation, (if you speak foreign languages) there's testing and reporting of recipe results, or unusual troubles that you experience, I'm sure there's a way anyone can help if you have some spare time.

That said, you can of course, donate money, or buy the published book too if you want to help support Hendrik's efforts. I heartily encourage you to do so if you're able.

I love open source software, and I love freely shared information like The Sourdough Framework so I feel I need to re-share this information wherever I can.

The book itself...

At only 150-ish pages long, (not counting the glossary, index, bibliography and such) it covers a lot of ground, and while it's not as polished as professionally published books. You'd be pretty darn knowledgeable by reading all the way to the end. It certainly has one of the best bread baking "troubleshooting" sections I've seen, so it would augment any of the other books quite well for that reason alone.

The Sourdough Framework covers a decent introduction to the science of bread, the differences you can expect between using a regular starter, a liquid starter, or "stiff" starter, and how best to use them. It discusses different styles of breads as well as their respective pros and cons. I like the fact that there's separate chapters for wheat sourdoughs, and non-wheat sourdoughs which expands further than many books for those concerned about gluten.

Most chapters are a casual 10 pages or so. However, the most complex type (wheat sourdoughs) is a healthy 40 pages. (That's roughly 30% of the entire book). There's more steps in sourdough, so they covered that, and trimmed bloat from the rest wherever they could. That makes it a much easier read overall. However, there are also a ton of related YouTube videos through "The Bread Code" channel which depicts much of that material in a multimedia format.

The cons...

Despite being circa 150 pages, there's surprisingly few actual recipes. However, if you make one from each bread type in the book.. and learn how to tweak each in the various ways discussed, you're well on the way to making any bread you want. Consequently, it's hard to hold the number of recipes against the book, given it's shared so freely, and it is a solid bread baking book.

Conclusion:

Given it's freely available, and it augments other books well. You have no reason not to grab this book, and maybe learn a bit from the associated forums. I highly recommend it.

Area of focus: Beginner oriented. Easy to read, very pretty. The wide range of overwhelmingly bread-centred recipes, is surprising, and only about 20% of the recipes are pastries. The rest, all bread.... although a few are are sweeter breads.

Total page count: 288

No. of pages before recipes: 15

Metric/imperial units? Metric

Number of recipes: 79 total. 14 basic breads, 12 sourdoughs, 13 quick breads, 12 healthy breads, 13 sweet breads, and 15 pastries/desserts.

Photos for every recipe? Most. Many have opposite page, full-page photos. Some are more distant from the recipes too. Step-by-step images are littered here and there.

Price range (new): $30-$49 (AUD) hardcover.

Price range (used): $25-$60 (AUD) for a hardcover.

Notable Features & FYI: This has some intro/theory sections, but it's very light compared to some others. The strength of this book is the high recipe count for the price, the diverse recipe range (even expensive "Pro" or advanced books rarely include teff-based breads). Another strength is the overall extremely pretty presentation and sheer simplicity for absolute beginners.

I think the recipes are good, and most of them have turned out well, (if not exactly perfectly) on the first try. Second attempts have been solid though. That has a lot of merit in building confidence.

Would I buy this as a definitive bread book? No. It's not just designed to be that way. While I do like the book for bread making, it's not just bread that it centres around. There are of course, desserts and crackers and other things you can make with similar ingredients to bread as well.

After a great deal of thought, I feel that the book caters to a wide variety of tastes, but this is a double-edged sword for three reasons:

1. The recipe number is high-but-finite, and it has spread those recipes across a range of styles and tastes. If you're eclectic in your tastes, thats fine, but most people have their preferences and fall into particular bread styles for one reason or another.... and stick to them. I'm not a big olive fan, and so the olive infused varieties are immediately "no go's" for me. Which leads to my second issue...
2. There's a number of recipes in Simply Bread that either incorporate unusual bread ingredients that we don't always have on hand... and would have little use for otherwise. So if you have a pantry with limited space, filled to the rafters, it's a bit of a gamble if you find that you don't like that style of bread. Then you're stuck with either "trying to find a use" for the left over ingredients, or they're slowly pushed to the back of those hard-to-reach shelves gathering dust and taking up space. In short, some recipes are "too specific" in taste, even if the underlying bread is amazing. Don't be afraid to keep it a bit simpler.
3. While there's almost certainly a bread for almost everyone in this book.... You might find that you only like one or two styles of bread, (or that several recipes are too involved for you to bother making) and so most of the book will be useless to you. The recipes might be simple, but that doesn't mean they can't be time-consuming to make, particularly the sourdough varieties.

That said, if you find one or more recipe that you actually love and use a lot, (like we did because Ren adores the simple white loaf for it's quick and easy process that adapts well to tweaks) then it's fair to pay for the book in order to support those who provided it.

I really like the fact that I can read the whole book in under 2 hours because there really is a high number of pictures here. If you're the kind of person who gets intimidated by wordy tomes, this is one of the better beginner books for it's relaxed learning curve, and lots of pretty/inspiring images that help compare your results with theirs. Many of the more advanced books are a bit spotty on this point, and I think it has a lot of value to home bakers who are often working alone, so any pictorial reference point is a big help.

Area of focus: Wider-than-average range of general bread baking with a hint of brioches, biscuits, and pizza. It covers more bread types than most books, and some from underrepresented countries that aren't found in other books.

Total page count: 640

No. of pages before recipes: 97. There's also chapter-specific intros for each type of bread, and extra information at the end of the book, pertaining to both ingredients and equipment that would normally be put before the recipes.

Metric/imperial units? Both

Number of recipes: 88 total. 22 simple/batter breads, 11 flat breads (two pizza doughs), 11 sandwich loaves/dinner rolls, 24 hearth breads, 6 sourdoughs, and 9 brioches.

Photos for every recipe? No. Actually this is perhaps one of the worst image arrangements I've ever seen. There are several sections in the book, each with a selection of full-page colour photos batched together, sometimes as much as 108 pages away from the recipe. (Rosemary foccacia image is on page between pages 95-96, but recipe on page 205, despite the fact there's another colour page section between page 192/193 much closer! Eeeesh!) There are also recipes with no photo at all.

Price range (new): Kindle ebook $39 (AUD). Hardcover from $45-$130 (AUD, delivered)

Price range (used): $ $33-50 (AUD, delivered).

Notable Features & FYI: There's a lot of recipes and technical data for this price, especially second hand, so it's good value. The recipes work well and are extremely tasty. Although the broad range of recipes will definitely suit a wider audience. I also like the broader-than-average range of breads, notably the potato/sweet potato/less wheaten breads. Pictures are lacking, and in woeful placements relative to the recipes they depict. The full page photos are NOT included into the page counts, they're just 5-9 double sided colour photo pages, wedged between consecutive text pages. This makes them impossible to reference from the recipe pages. Don't assume they're in the closest batch of photo pages, either.

Area of focus: Bread, bread, and more bread. Even the "sweet treats" are sweet buns. Oh, and "pizza Napoletana", and a couple of cheese-infused "torpedoes" (which are just big buns/small baguettes)

Total page count: 321

No. of pages before recipes: 114

Metric/imperial units? Both

Number of recipes: 46 (almost all are savoury-ish breads, maybe 4-5 are sweet buns/cinnamon infused snacks, there's also a single cracker recipe, and a pizza dough.

Photos for every recipe? No. There's a few, here and there, but many don't have any images.

Price range (new): $16-30 AUD (ebook) $46-80 (hardcover)

Price range (used): $45-75

Notable Features & FYI: This has an excellent, rather detailed bread making introduction and covers quite a bit of ground... which you'd expect with 100+ pages of knowledge and techniques before the first recipe.

Once you get into the recipes, it's actually a quite-diverse and well-rounded bread recipe collection, featuring most of the more famous breads that many will at least be familiar with at a superficial level. (That helps when comparing home baked stuff to the commercial stuff you've had before). There's sure to be something for most people. Whether that's a simple white, to sprouted rice & wheat sourdough, a braided challah, English muffin, New York bagel, Italian ciabatta, or Swedish rye.... and 30 odd others!

That said, the truly non-mainstream breads like Teff flour breads, or gluten-free options... are not heavily covered in this book. So you might need to look at other books for that stuff.

While beginners could use the recipes in this book, just know that there's not a huge amount of photos to show what each recipe should look like. That said, there's a lot of good instruction in section two, and helpful photos that will help with various techniques and processes.

If you're the kind of person who doesn't blink at spending extra on "artisan bread" at the bakery and want to "have a go" at making it at home (or know someone who does), this book will get you where you want to go, and prepare you for a wide variety of bread styles if you want to go even further.

This book has a lot of fans, and I count myself as one of them. Although I must confess that I haven't felt so obsessed that I've completed "The Reinhart Challenge" (Which means you've made every recipe in the book). Yet I can see the appeal to those trying to find "their style" in the bread baking world.

Reinhart is a serious authority, who's studied bread making in multiple countries, bakeries, and culinary institutes. He artfully paints a real picture of the trends in bread making over time (particularly with the updated 15th anniversary edition) but also connects and contrasts this to the rich history of family bakeries that have been running for generations. This book goes way beyond a simple recipe book, and that's what actually makes it readable.

Ok sure, on one hand, it is a bread baking recipe book.. and the recipes have worked for us quite well in our house. However, it's one of the few books that I've actually read "cover to cover", and actually enjoyed it.

That said...

It covers a lot more material, so don't expect it to be a short read in a lunch break or something. Unless of course, you're a prodigiously fast reader.

If you're just looking for a bread recipe book, then this will work like that. However you'll get more out of it if you read the section on the basics, and the other related bits (often linked within the recipes too). That said, it's definitely the recipes that will keep you coming back to this book and why I have it in my bread-related library.

How good/accurate are the recipes?

From the recipes we've made, they've come out very well, and they do taste great. However, you may have to develop your own interpretation that separates a "sticky dough" from a "tacky dough"... and so my advice is to accurately follow the recipe by weight measurements (not volume) if at all possible. It may take a few goes to really train your senses and skills, and that's completely expected.

If any tweaks are needed, (like adding water) start by adding minimal amounts, and doing it once, then seeing how it goes after at least 30 seconds of mixing, give it time to infuse properly. Sometimes mixing takes a while to take effect!

I find that if you're not multiplying the recipe quantities, and doing it "in the stated amounts", then a tweak is usually less than or equal to one tablespoon (or 2% by weight, whichever's smaller) of water/flour total. Obviously, if you're multiplying the quantities involved, then multiply that one tablespoon limit accordingly (and you may not need all of it). Judgement is a key skill to develop in home bread baking, and that only happens when you spend more time with doughs of various types. That said, keep the changes small from most recipes while you're developing your familiarity with dough.... that way you can't go "too far off the rails". When I started, I "tweaked it by untrained eye"... and it wasn't as good as it could be... that's for sure. :~P

From absolute beginner to seasoned baker, I just don't think you can really go wrong with this book, for any circumstance. To some, I can see why it might look like a coffee table book, but it's also one of the best general bread baking books in this list. I do wish there were more pictures for each recipe.. because many simply don't have one. The recipes are good, but without pictures, I didn't always know just "how brown" I should bake the crust, nor did I have a good answer when I asked: "Is this a low-rise bread or did I do something wrong?".

The sweet pastry section is definitely my better-half's favourite, and we adore the cinnamon buns. Meanwhile, I've been really enjoying their ciabatta and lighter sourdoughs. I've fallen into the trap of making my familiar favourites... so there's a still a number of recipes on our "to do" list.

At $45-$150 Australian for a hard cover, (and sometimes ridiculous sums like $350+ for a soft cover... I'm looking at you Amazon) I highly recommend shopping around. If you're like us and tried to borrow it from the library, we found the only copy to be booked up months in advance. That told us that it might be something worthy of purchase, and when I won a Booktopia book voucher for reviewing books (what a shock) I grabbed this one with great enthusiasm. I'm certainly not regretting it at all. :-)

Area of focus: General bread making, pizzas. Focusing on techniques which incorporate time and temperature as "ingredients"

Total page count: 263

No. of pages before recipes: 77

Metric/imperial units? Ingredients are metric, equipment imperial (go figure). Temperatures, both (thankfully).

Number of recipes: 36 in total.19 bread types, 4 pizza doughs, 3 pizza sauces, and 10 pizza/foccacia topping meal ideas.

Photos for every recipe? Most, but not all.

Price range (new): .$42-70 (AUD) typical hard cover. $12-24 (AUD) e-Book

Price range (used): Same as new pretty much, depending on source and condition.

Notable Features & FYI: Interesting side notes are worth a read. More advanced bread chapters have their own introductory knowledge/techniques/tools section prior to recipes. Chapters 2-4 are key, and really do set you up for success with most (if not all) later recipe sections. Later chapters with more advanced recipes have their own training sections becore the recipes that need to be read if you want positive and reliable results.

 Ken is yet another former IT guy (who worked for IBM) who ditched it all to chase his dream of being a baker. (What is it about IT guys and baking? Said the IT guy reviewing bread books... hehe) 

This is another extremely popular bread making book that is right up there in "beginner friendliness", "informative", and altogether useful bread baking books, even to experienced bakers. Ken is not trying to simply provide reliable recipes (which he does), but the techniques to ramp up flavour intelligently, so you can really enjoy the finished product, in a multitude of situations. All of which will hopefully convince you that squeezing in a little bread making into your life here and there... however you can manage it, is worthwhile.

Honestly, I don't think many books are quite as good at bread making "public relations" as this one. They all do it to some degree and all have their "hook" to get you to read (and buy) their book.

However, if you're looking for a truly inspirational book as a gift, a coffee table book, a general knowledge/interest piece, or help you to fit bread baking into your busy schedule with few if any compromises.. this is it. Particularly if you have pizza lovers in the household.

Wait, what has pizza got to do with it?

Pizza dough is (as quoted in Flour Water Salt Yeast):

"A natural extension for the bread baker.... Similarly, bread is a natural extension to pizza making... Read the basic instructions, then start at either end of the book and once you've mastered one, the other type is easier".

Start at either end?

Because the last quarter of the book is entirely dedicated to making great pizza. So if you've got a family so set in their ways, that anything beyond the whitest, most commercial bread ever is practically a sin.. the one thing pretty much everyone can agree on is a fierce love of pizza.

So where The Bread Baker's Apprentice, Simply Bread, and many other bread books augmented their recipes with sweets like cakes and pastries to literally "sweeten the deal", Make Ahead Bread" did a little of that, but found a niche by offering tasty butters/spreads. Ken's gone a much more savoury route which I have to say, totally worked on me.

While my focus is indeed on the bread side, being able to bake a great pizza to wow the masses either indoors on a miserable day, or outdoors on a charcoal barbecue from scratch has never disappointed anyone, and I've even been asked to "invite them over" whenever I feel like making a pizza.

Timing is everything!

I truly appreciate that Flour, Water, Salt Yeast (or "FWSY" on some bread making forums), provides various suitable timelines for every recipe so that almost anyone can find a convenient time to start baking great bread, all without compromising anything in the end result. If that's not "come to the dark side, we have great bread/pizza" ...I don't know what is!

What makes this book worthwhile?

Honestly, I like how it starts with Ken's back story, of learning to bake from several teachers, then the trials and tribulations of starting a bakery. Obviously he was ultimately successful, but people's appreciation of bread just 20 years ago was much different, and people didn't always appreciate good bread if it's not what they expected or were used to. He outlines some of his greatest criticisms, misfortunes, and mistakes, along with the successes and the help he got along the way. It's not a long-winded self-pity party for one, it's just acknowledging his shortcomings, and successes. I think that makes him far more credible as a writer, but also more relatable. Any bread baker will have ups and downs too. So I think it's good to know that even the pros struggle at times.

Chapter 2: Theory/Techniques

Ken talks about time and temperature as "ingredients". It even goes so far as mentioning that sometimes, the ingredients really are less impactful on the finished bread than the techniques used. Now, of course, that will upset some people, but that simple statement, when used intelligently, seems true enough from my experience.

FWSY isn't just "Do this and you'll be good". It takes Ken's personal preferences and findings, the rationale behind them, how they were discovered, then discusses across several key techiques/processes like:

• Using autolyse techniques,
• the pros/cons of different preferments,
• how using minimal commercial yeast but increasing the hydration levels and longer fermentation times develops stronger flavours,
• the need to manage temperatures across the whole process,
• why you might want to bake your breads "dark".
• the importance of notes/observations in improving your bake from one loaf to the next.
• How to adapt to a variety of different issues.

... amongst others.

Chapter 3 covers the equipment side of things you'll need for bread, pizza and beyond, and why you'd benefit from them.

So the first 61 pages are backstory and general theory. After that, we're into recipes. That said, there's more theory and guidance in each section as the book focusses on the specific "ins and outs" needed to make different breads.

Area of focus: Artisanal loaf breads fit for routine baking.

Total page count: 249

No. of pages before recipes: 80

Metric/imperial units? Ingredients: Metric, Equipment: Both!

Number of recipes: 21

Photos for every recipe? Yes (ish)... not always the finished product.

Price range (new): Hardcover range $46-$110 (Australian)

Price range (used): Hardcover range $36-$70 (Australian)

Notable Features & FYI: This is highly reminiscent of FWSY. The new sourdough techniques (even though Ken calls them "Levain" breads in the recipe section) are definitely a refinement from the previous books. This book is aimed at getting a higher "reward to effort" ratio, and reducing the complexities somewhat.

I particularly like the discussion on various flour types, the home milling options, and the encouragement for you to simply try mixing the flours up with a little experimentation.

Area of focus: Definitely more of a recipe book than a textbook, but still very informative. While it does discuss various doughs as a focus of baking and how to make the most of them. I feel it's a bread making analogy of where beginner bakers might be in their journey. In stark contrast to "Sourdough Framework", "Bread Science", and most other bread books, Richard contends that you don't need to know how to rebuild a carburettor in order to drive a car, just know what good driving looks like and emulate it. This is his approach in most of his bread books. You just need to know what the processes and end product looks like.

All in all, it's a very pretty book that would be great as a coffee table adornment, a good example of food photography if you have camera mavens in the household, it's good as a gift, or as a reference.

Total page count: 160

No. of pages before recipes: 32

Metric/imperial units? Metric

Number of recipes: 52 total, 14 white dough recipes, 9 olive dough recipes, 11 brown dough recipes, 8 rye doughs and 9 sweet dough recipes.

Photos for every recipe? Almost all of them, 1-2 don't. Lots of useful images throughout the book though.

Price range (new 2nd ed): $25-$60 (Australian) for a paperback, although the $25 end is often part of a bundle. $45-$80 for a hardcover.

Price range (used): First edition softcover about $15-35 (AUD) and hardcovers come in at $30-$50. Second edition, $25-$50 (softcover), $35-$60 (hardcover).

Notable Features & FYI: "Dough" has been translated into 9 languages, page 16 has the best colour photo representation of just how cooked a loaf should be when made with white doughs (obviously, dark flours would be darker for each stage) and there's nine images, ranging from raw to perfectly baked, all the way to burnt. So you can compare where your bread bake is at.

Area of focus: Sourdough, levain, and longer-make bread variants... with some sweets in there too. This also looks into unusual flour types (or flour replacements/amendments) such as flours made from dried, powdered cabernet grape skins. WARNING: DO NOT USE THE GRAPE FLOUR SUPPLIER LINK ON PAGE 156, IT HAS BEEN HACKED AND THE SUPPLIER SITE'S ADOBE FLASH FRAMEWORK HAS BEEN UNSUPPORTED SINCE 2020! DO NOT TRUST THIS SITE WITH YOUR MONEY! BUY IT SOMEWHERE ELSE!

Total page count: 159

No. of pages before recipes: 53

Metric/imperial units? Both

Number of recipes: 33 (including variants of first bread, and croissants, but ignoring the recipes for sauces and other additions to the primary recipes).

Photos for every recipe? Yes, but not all the variants within the recipe.

Price range (new): First edition: e-book $15 (AUD) Soft cover $30-$50. Hard cover $30-$65 (AUD) Second edition (2025): Hard cover $35-$80 (AUD)

Price range (used): Not overly different to new prices.. for the most part. At least, not at the time of writing.

Notable Features & FYI: This is the 2025 (The second, just released edition, at the time of writing). It was officially released less than 2 weeks ago.

Honestly, if you like a lot of step-by-step photos, and nice balance between pretty and useful... then you're sure to like "Crust". Another, very pretty book. Full of no-nonsense-but-simplified information and later, recipes. There's an interesting discussion on the "health of bread" in the back, as well as what to do with leftover breads... (I particularly like "Le Pudding" found on page 154).

Area of focus: If "Dough" was about the fundamentals of bread baking, and"Crust" focussed largely on improving flavour/colour further. "Crumb" is structure and texture centric, along with additional flavour enhancements, and further adaptations to appearance. In short, getting fancy without too much stress!

Total page count: 224

No. of pages before recipes: 60

Metric/imperial units? Metric

Number of recipes: 50 in total. 20 breads/rolls, 1 pizza, a sourdough cracker, some tarts, cinnamon scrolls (which are really good), crumpets, blue corn pancakes, and several meal options, each more decadent than the last.. basically recipes that involve cooking with bread, or dipping it in something like gazpacho.

Photos for every recipe? Almost, there's a couple that don't... but they're very few. Lots of step-by-step "how to" series of images though!

Price range (new): e-book: $20 (AUD).Hardcover: $50-$100 (AUD)

Price range (used): Unfortunately, there are very few found at the time of writing, some more expensive than the new ones!

Notable Features & FYI: This is another very pretty book. I genuinely like how he's broken these books into differing, but interrelated themes. Honestly, I don't think you need to read "Dough" or "Crust" to benefit from this book. Again, if you're even vaguely comfortable with sourdough then I think you'll be ok! I've made some of these recipes several times (occasionally on demand) and even the fancy cinnamon scrolls really aren't that hard at all to accomplish. Just make sure your butter is nice and soft and you won't go wrong! The Miche is delightful, although I sometimes tweak the recipe to make it a little more to my tastes, and the Brioche icecream is exactly as amazing, decadent and fattening as you'd expect it to be.... because.. I know that... now. It's also excellent with a hint of cinnamon and Irish cream. So much so, I bought Ren a case of Irish cream.

Area of focus: Explicitly and perhaps exclusively limited to Italian baking. It's dominated by bread (if you include the sweet breads with the savoury bread and pizza recipes), but adds numerous Italian baked goods to augment those breads too.

Total page count: 234

No. of pages before recipes: 20

Metric/imperial units? Both.

Number of recipes: 99 Total. 45 breads/pizzas, 11 pies/tortes, 12 sweet leavened breads, 11 sweet tart-related recipes. 12 biscuits, and 8 cakes.

Photos for every recipe? Most, although some a few pages away.

Price range (new): $30-$50 (AUD) for the hardcover.

Price range (used): $20-40 (AUD) for the hardcover.

Notable Features & FYI: Some reviewers state that this book has 120 recipes, but I disagree. I've literally gone through this book from start to finish, counting recipes as I go and I have no clue where they're getting the additional 20-odd recipes that I'm not seeing. I might have missed one or two for whatever reason, but to miss 20... that would require an entire chapter (or two)... and I'm just not that absent-minded... (at least, I hope so, given that I sometimes operate heavy machinery).

This is a slightly "off the beaten track" book here in Australia. However, if you're looking to more Italian-inspired bakery as opposed to the often-French inspired books that dominate the bread making book world, then you've come to the right place.

There's some breads, tarts, and pies that are genuinely not in the other books I've got (and again, I've looked... whatever that's worth).

Honestly, the book is quite pretty, it's not gorgeous, but it's worth reading. Again, there's a lot of olive-infused this, or nut-encrusted that, and sometimes, there's strange mixes in there that as an Aussie, I'm probably not going to make. That said, the Tuscan sweet bread (Pan Dolce Tuscano) was a welcome change when we're inundated with citrus. We'd drowned ourselves in marmalade, and added juice to everything in sight.. a little extra zest usage for something less overtly citrusy was greatly appreciated.

The "focaccia con patate cipolle rosse e pancetta" (or Focaccia with potato, red onion and Italian bacon) is literally one of my most favourite comfort foods I've ever made. (I sometimes slip a little hot salami in, perhaps a Calabrese, or Soppressata for a little extra kick, and maybe a sprinkle of parmesan if I've got one open). If I listed all the recipes I liked... I'd waffle on. So let's just say I like the book, ok?

Area of focus: Make ahead bread, basically making the dough when you can, then baking on demand.

Total page count: 201

No. of pages before recipes: 12 (this is largely a recipe book with a bare minimum of theory).

Metric/imperial units? Imperial only with volume as backup. Urgh!

Number of recipes: 117 total. 30 loaf breads (some sweet), 32 buns/rolls/breadsticks (again, some sweet), 16 flat breads/pizzas, 9 pastries, 14 "leftover breads", BONUS, 16 jams/spreads.

Photos for every recipe? No. There are 34 pics for 117 recipe (barely 29% of recipes). That said, there are several recipes with images and the recipe variants would be extremely similar... If that helps. This isn't true of all the recipes though. None of the "Leftover bread" or "Spreads" have dedicated images.... just so you know.

Price range (new): $30-$75 (AUD) softcover.

Price range (used): $12-$25 (AUD) softcover.

Notable Features & FYI: I wasn't kidding when I said that there are no metric measurements. So if you're in metric-loving lands, I recommend spending a rainy afternoon going through and noting the metric equivalents for each of the 117 recipes. Yes, that's going to be tedious.

This book, while usable by beginners, would probably best suit bakers who are familiar with the overall bread baking process, and only need clear instructions to get the job done. For this reason, I'm putting it at slightly less beginner friendly and more for intermediate bakers.

Now not every recipe is "pure bread" but from the recipes I've read (and remembered) the "non-bread" recipes include things that bread can be a component of, (bread pudding) or the other recipes pair well with bread.. like soup. Don't worry, there's quite a few flavoured/infused/enriched/sweet breads too!

One of the interesting things about this book is the numerous ways to make flatbreads! There's literally "Flatbreads on the grill" recipes, there's "Frying pan flat breads", even how to bake naan on a metal baking sheet in the oven. So unless you're down to "sticks over a fire"... in which case, I'd simply add a hot flattish rock to the fire, and then pull it out to bake on... chances are, you can use at least one recipe with whatever you've got.

Honestly, there's a huge range of recipes, many with various means to make them, and they do it by easing the time requirements to make the breads in question. That's got to help right?

So for the less visusal folks, those with a bit of bread making experience behind them. then this book is really quite a good book to get. If you're looking for detailed knowledge and instruction with lots of pretty pictures... this isn't for you.

I have to say the "Whole wheat and parmesan pizza crust" is not only convenient for a cheese/bread making hobbyist for myself, it's absolutely divine with a less pungent 4 year aged Parmesan (I intentionally dropped the lipase, which often gives Parmesan that pungency), and it worked so well with a home grown tomato passata! If you buy your ingredients, I'm sure it'll still be an excellent recipe.

 This book prioritizes bread making speed and efficiency over extracting the best possible flavour from your ingredients. It makes no secret of this fact, and is the fundamental point of this book. However the benefits do outweigh the drawbacks. Other reviewers have criticised the book with lower scores because they've forgotten this fact, and I personally think that's unfair.

The point of this book is to get people who would otherwise never have time to bake bread, be able to squeeze it in to their busy lives and get them baking. From there, we can worry about the "honing of the craft" later. Viewed in this light, Donna has done an exceptional job. Even I as a guy who uses preferments all the time, and will bake for half a day, appreciate the fact that last-minute situations can be solved using these techniques. This isn't an either/or thing, it's a "This can help in difficult situations, as well as everyday use... " thing.

Of the recipes I've tried, I have noticed that the breads don't always rise as much as the more-involved recipes, but I'm ok with that. If it gets me hot crusty dinner rolls, or freshly made burger buns for my next barbecue in spontaneous situations, then I'm happy with that! I don't want to sell this book short though.... The results I've had are often still more than enough to rival many the better examples of store bought bread, by the simple virtue that it's as fresh as it gets, and even a simple 2 minute tweak or added ingredient can take it from "good" to "wow". That's a great "cost-to-benefit" ratio. Even if the original recipes seem a little "ho-hum"... or if you're of a much younger/younger persuasion... I guess that would be "meh" and "blah" respectively. :-) (See, I'm hip with oldies and newbies alike.... or not. Hehe.

Area of focus: A general bread and bakery book, specialising in recipes that can be made in bulk easily then baked as needed.

Total page count: 381

No. of pages before recipes: 53

Metric/imperial units? Both with volume measurements as backup.

Number of recipes: 115 total. 11 variations from the master recipe, 46 "peasant loaves, 23 flatbreads/pizzas, 8 gluten-free breads, & 27 enriched breads/pastries.

Photos for every recipe? No, there's a selection in the "colour photo pages" but they are not necessarily near the recipe in question. That said, the photos are labelled with the page numbers of the appropriate recipe.

Price range (new): $40-75 (Australian) for the hard cover.

Price range (used): $45-$105 (be careful with shipping.. it really adds up here, but if you're in the US/Europe.. then things are much better. Australians are likely best served with buying new, and taking advantage of any sales as they arise. There's also an original edition called "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" (Note the lack of "The New..." in the title, which can be as low as $5 second hand. It doesn't have the updates of this edition, but if you're on a budget, maybe it's worth looking into. Just keep those shipping costs in mind when you order it. It's not always the best deal.

Notable Features & FYI: This book has a wide range recipes. From Wurzelbrot, to Limpa, "Tapenade bread" to "Vermont Cheddar Bread". In short, it's all over the map, including many of the popular well known breads around the world. So that's a huge plus.

My greatest complaint is the publishing style....

There are three clusters of glossy photo pages, at roughly 25%, 50%, and 75% through the book. However, while these photos are very beautiful... there's only 34 images (none of which are actually on a numbered page themselves, they're just "wedged in there". 34 represents a mere third of the recipes. Now the astute die-hard fans/readers will point out that there's a single image showing "the loaf breads" (6th image of the first cluster of photo pages) However, these are not labelled to identify which recipe corresponds to which loaf in the image. So in my view, they don't have an identifiable image.

Personally, I detest this bizarre placement of photo pages together. I'm sure it makes the books cheaper to produce, but I find it hugely inconvenient. You have to look at the picture first, then use it's label to find the recipe. If you're looking at the recipe, you have to flip through each and every image in the book until you find it, and just hope one is there (the photo pages are not numbered). You see, I work from the recipe, not the pictures... so this is a pain in the neck. Honestly, I think in the 2020s and beyond.. a half page image in or next to the recipe isn't hard. If a picture is worth a thousand words, and you're books all about saving time.... skipping most of the recipe images... is ironic at best... crazy at worst. The problem seems to be across all the specifically make ahead bread books.

Overall, the range of recipes and price point make it a compelling choice on its own, regardless of the time-saving focus of the recipes. As the first (and most generalised) book in the "Bread in 5" series, busy hobbyist bread bakers will truly appreciate this book. Although for visual learners... I honestly think there must be more compelling options in the "make bread quickly" category... I just haven't found them... because they all given about a third of the recipes an actual picture.

Area of focus: Make ahead/time saving bread baking, specialising in the gluten-free breads.

Total page count: 291

No. of pages before recipes: 63

Metric/imperial units? Both, with US volume measurements as a backup

Number of recipes: 72 total. 10 variations from the master recipe, 26 "peasant loaves", 12 flatbreads/pizzas, & 22 enriched breads/pastries.

Photos for every recipe? No, 36 colour images (roughly 50% of recipes represented). They've done the exact same thing as the original "The New Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day"... and placed the images in three separate clusters of glossy photo pages at roughly 55%, 66%, and 85% of the way through the book. Again, these pages with the photos are not numbered or part of the page count. So you have to look at the pictures first, use their label to find the recipe... but the reverse is not possible. Please read my slight rant about this layout in the equivalent section of "The New Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" above.

Price range (new): $50-$85 (Australian) for the hard cover.

Price range (used): $35-$100 (Australian) for the hard cover. Please be careful with shipping.. it really adds up here, but if you're in the US/Europe.. then things are much better. Australians are likely best served with buying new, and taking advantage of any sales as they arise.

Notable Features & FYI: If you've read "The New Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day"... you might be forgiven for thinking you're reading that book.

In "Gluten-Free Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" they've obviously culled the "Gluten free" chapter (since every recipe in this book is already gluten free) and basically used exactly the same layout, chapter titles, and even the recipes are named the same. The only distinction is that they're written with instructions and ingredients to make a gluten free alternatives.

I can see how this might be dangerous if you own both books (as I do) and aren't paying attention. Which I've been known to do... Or if you've jotted the recipes down in your notes in your baking log/journal... and may have omitted the "Gluten Free" bit since the recipes in this book assume that without specifying it.

At first glance, the 72 recipes (as opposed to the 115 of the original book) might seem quite the drop. I mean it is 38% fewer recipes. However, some recipes just aren't designed for gluten-free breads... so it's quite understandable from this perspective.

72 recipes is still more than many of the books listed here, and given the extra dietary constraint, Jeff and Zoë have done a commendable job.

That said, I'd like a 1:1 ratio of photos to recipes, and for the pictures to be placed with the recipe. Again, ditching the pictures that convey so much information in a book aimed at saving time... <cue melodramatic slap to the forehead here>

Area of focus: A "less nerdy" intro into sourdough baking than "The Sourdough Framework" so I think it will appeal to a wider audience. It's an easier read, with lots of pictures, and nearly 10x the recipe count!

Total page count: 232

No. of pages before recipes: 76

Metric/imperial units? Metric only

Number of recipes: 30 total. 10 basic sourdoughs, 10 wheat-free sourdoughs, 5 savoury sourdoughs, & 5 celebratory sourdoughs.

Photos for every recipe? Yes! Big honkin' double page spreads.. although there's blocks of text over bits of them sometimes... not over the loaf.

Price range (new): $30 AUD for the softcover

Price range (used): none found at the time of writing.

Notable Features & FYI: Not available on Amazon (Although Yoke's other books can be) so you're best bet is Yoke's direct web site:

https://wildsourdough.com.au

Yoke is a sourdough veteran based in Western Australia, and she travels around the country doing sourdough workshops... and obviously writes books too.

What I really like about this book is it teaches you a variety of ways to make great sourdough on a budget.

You don't need fancy $700+ (Australian, delivered) cast iron "Challenger" loaf pans, or fancy pizza stones (although that's great if you have them) she talks about buying stone tiles to use as baking stones, or simple plate steel from a metalworking supply shop for a baking base. The rest of the gear you can probably buy from a $2 shop.

It's this "out of the box" and "beginner friendly" thinking that can save you a lot of money, all while elevating your baking capabilities. If you end up making a mistake, you can clean the cheap gear up, or simply replace it.

While this is labelled "Book One - By Hand", it's actually not the first book Yoke has written. Also, despite the "by hand" label, you can absolutely use a stand mixer if you have one. Although, with that said, you don't get a literal "feel" for the dough if you do so. That tactile sense from the dough is sometimes very helpful. If you intend to use a mixer, Yoke's Book "Wild Sourdough for the Thermomix" might also suit. Although that's not the book I'm reviewing here. She also has e-books for those outside of Australia and even a sourdough app, which from what I understand augments her e-books too.

From this book, I've gained a lot of meaningful sourdough-related guidance, especially when talking about gluten free variations or ones using unusual flours/seeds as a base. I love classic flour sourdoughs, but mixing it up with spelt, and other ingredients adds a great deal of flexibility.

The cons:

This is a simplified book that is not going to give you the "science" or much detail on "why" things work the way they do. Sure you can experiment (and you're encouraged to do so) but you're not going to consciously adapt to changing situations, or fix things when they go awry without a great deal of experience. It's for this reason, I put "The Sourdough Framework" first. Which complements this book beautifully.

So I shouldn't get this book?

It's not inferior, at all... it's just "not free", and it's aimed at practical folks who are more likely to simply want a quick introduction to sourdough breads. That's a slightly different audience to "The Sourdough Framework's" tech-heads. Having said that, I think this book would become less useful to intermediate bakers once they've found their way... but still recommend periodically looking at these base recipes and/or ingredients to branch out from.

Wild Sourdough is not free. (Nor am I implying that it shold be). That said, it's still very affordable, and pays itself off by teaching you how to set yourself up without spending much money. If you bought the e-book for $16.90 (Australian) and saved $20 or more from the advice provided... which is easy to do, this book pays you to read it and act upon the information.

To contrast this with "The Sourdough Framework"... and others.:

Some of the links for The Bread Code (affiliated with The Sourdough Framework above) are for premium baking tools that are nice, but completely overkill for those starting out (or just doing it casually). Honestly, you just don't need all that to make a great sourdough. Please stick to the basics, and put your money where it's most useful.... buying ingredients so you can gain skills and experience, not gear. Perhaps most importantly, there's a sense of frivolity and family in "Wild Sourdough" instead of "The Sourdough Framework's" more... technical/historical delivery of the material. If you're looking for a wider range of recipes in a book, then this crushes Framework.

Form vs Function...

I don't want to devalue the contents of this book. It's a great book from a content point of view. The presentation is certainly not going to be for everyone's taste if you're looking for a gorgeous coffee table book with pretty rustic kitchen scenes or cloth-covered fine-dining aesthetics. (Which almost every book does to some degree, have you noticed that?)

If you're looking for the pretty modern bread books. I feel "Wild Sourdough" isn't ideal. Honestly, it's closer to a colour coded school textbook from the 90s, with pages from each chapter given tones of bright greens, oranges, pinks, and deeper purple, and if they didn't have a double page spread image for each recipe, I'd have described it as "cluttered" or "unnecessarily busy". (That's just my view point.. your tastes will almost certainly vary from my own). None of this rustic/down-to-Earth bread making theme is matched by the overall layout of the book itself. So if you're looking for "classy cookbook gifts", I'd lean more to "Homemade Sourdough" (below), "Tartine" (below that), or a more generalised book with that specific "Food fashion" look.

That said...

For the scruffy sourdough battler's out there... this book is worth reading, and we'll make a fine sourdough from this book, that anyone would be privileged to eat. :-)

Area of focus: General sourdough baking, mostly bread but with a few sweet breads up the back.

Total page count: 160

No. of pages before recipes: 24

Metric/imperial units? Metric (with volume measurements as backup)

Number of recipes: 42 Total. 5 batter breads, 9 rye sourdoughs, 14 plain wheat sourdough, 8 flavoured sourdoughs, and 6 sweet breads.

Photos for every recipe? Almost, but there are few doubled-up recipes without their opposite page photos.

Price range (new): $23-$55 (AUD) for a hardcover.

Price range (used): None found that weren't more expensive.

Notable Features & FYI: This is a clean, very pretty bread book aimed at beginners. The sourdough theory section is basic but should absolutely work. Although in colder climates, it may take a bit longer than indicated to get a sourdough starter going from scratch. If you live in the tropics... that might be different. :-)

"Homemade Sourdough" certainly has a wider range of bread recipes than "The Sourdough Framework" or "Bread Science", so there's a much greater diversity to learn from this book as is. There's Shaobing (also known as "Beijing Sesame Buns"), Bagels, English Muffins, Kamut, Raisin Rye, as well as the sourdough varieties of the usual suspects like French Baguettes, Ciabatta, Pumpernickel, & "Everyday loaf".

I particularly like the batter breads which are about as easy and forgiving as you can get, and vary in finished products from "flapjacks" to "fruit bread". That's pretty diverse!

I'm not the biggest sweet tooth in the household (but let's be honest and say the cinnamon rolls are amazing, by the way... and work just as well with home made jam or any sweet pie filling you care to name..... if it's made with fresh cherry pie filling, made from freshly picked, luscious, almost black home grown cherries... you're in for a real treat!) That said, Ren is a huge fan of the waffles... and it doesn't seem to matter which recipe she used. :-)

Area of focus: Sourdough/Levain breads, and pastries taught by one of the most famous sourdough professionals in the world, but the recipes are designed with the home baker in mind.

Total page count: 304

No. of pages before recipes: 41.. although the first recipe has a ton of extra information, as it's the basis for many recipes in the book.

Metric/imperial units? Metric only (surprising for a baker in San Francisco).

Number of recipes: 58 total. However, there are variations and semi-separated recipes for component foodstuffs (meat pattied for hamburgers for example) so that number is on the conservative side. In the main chapters, there's 1 country bread dough (although there are 6 variations), 4 semolina/whole wheat breads, 9 baguettes/enriched breads, 42 recipes to use "days old breads"

Photos for every recipe? All the ones that matter.

Price range (new): ebook (kindle) $32 Australian. Hardcover $45-$65

Price range (used): Few genuinely worth considering, as they're often more expensive.

Notable Features & FYI: Tartine is actually the original book in the "Tartine Series". The other two books are: "Tartine: A Revised Edition, A Classic Revisited: 68 All New Recipes and 55 Updated Favourites", and finally, "Tartine No. 3: Modern, Ancient, Classic, Whole".

Far be it from me to complain about long-winded passages, but the titles are a mouthful. From here out, I'm calling them book 2 and 3 respectively.

Honestly, I think I like the much shorter "Tartine Bread" more. However, book 2 probably offers a better value, given that it has more recipes, and revised favourites. That said, I just had to include this book in the list.

"Tartine Bread" is an amazing book, it's full of beautiful (albeit matte finished) photographs, and my hard cover is padded which feels odd in my hands.

The layout is reminiscent of Ken Forkish's "Flour Water Salt Yeast", with the back story/introduction called "Bread in Time", and then moves into the chapters that each have different recipes. Honestly, this is like many of the less textbook/technical books.

The overall book layout:

Chapter 1 has the core recipe "the country bread dough" which is the keystone recipe which the book centres itself around. Chapter 2 covers the recipes for "Semolina and Whole-Wheat Breads". Chapter 3 focuses on "Baguettes and Enriched Breads", then the fourth and final chapter "Days-old bread" is what you can do with bread (new or old). It's more recipes that use bread up, than specifically make it, but there are a few more bread recipes in there as part of more complex concoctions.

The recipe selection:

Honestly, from a "purely bread" perspective, this is a very mainstream Western European bread book. Once you get past the core recipe. The most exotic bread recipe is Kugelhopf (a German brioche).. but you're not going to find much in the way of flatbreads outside of pizza, nothing of the nordic breads, and the Middle East/Africa/Central or South America... forget it. This book is about what Tartine makes and serves, so you have to keep that in mind.

That said, once you leave the bread section and read the "Days old bread" chapter, things do get more interesting. There's a recipe for Banh Mi (although the bread recipe isn't explicitly outlined.. I'd just choose a baguette recipe from earlier in the book) and surprisingly, there's no paté in their Banh Mi recipe. Sacrilege! Although the "Baker's Foie" toward the end of the book in the condiment section would fix that.

Side note: The "green aioli" found in the banh mi recipe goes exceptionally well on steak sandwiches/steak burgers, even roast chicken/potatoes... if you're feeling a little decadent and are in the mood for an Asian twist.

To sum up...

I think Tartine has a lot to offer for beginner bread makers, sourdough enthusiasts, and bread bakers who don't know what to do with any leftover breads. In this regard, it's fantastic. For those discovering general cookery, Tartine also makes a compelling addition to anyone's food library. If you're looking for exotic bread types outside what Tartine sells, then it probably best to find a more suitable book.

There's a wide range of general meal recipes from leavened waffles, meatball sandwiches and burgers, to porchetta, "bread salads", sauces and jams, and of course, puddings/desserts as well.

Area of focus: Incorporating freshly milled flours into home made bread/pastry cooking.... Generally using your own grain mill or milling attachment for a stand mixer.

Total page count: 255

No. of pages before recipes: 76

Metric/imperial units? Metric only, no volume measurements at all.

Number of recipes: 36 main recipes total, but including the "add ons" 63. The break down is:

8 in "Making Bread" (add 1 for honey butter), 7 in "Making Pasta" (and 10 pasta fillings/sauces, and meal recipes), 9 in "Making Pizza" (add 16 topping recipes), 12 in "Pastry, Cookies & Cakes"

Photos for every recipe? Yes for the main recipes, no for the add ons. Glossy, often full-page photos and lots dotted throughout the book to shop key steps.

Price range (new): $20-$140 (Australian) for the hard cover. I don't recommend Amazon's $140 when Book Grocer in Australia sells it for just $20. Which is exactly the same price as the e-book.

Price range (used): N/A (none found)

Notable Features & FYI: This book is full of useful information in a practical, no nonsense guide. It's we'll illustrated, and the recipes easy to understand. That said, it's not without some issues.

Let's start with the white elephant-shaped con in the room.

Warning: This is a "gateway" guide. Most people looking into buying this particular book will want several new things to equip them for the fresh flour mission, most notably:

• A source of freshly milled flour at an absolute minimum... Or if milling flour at home...
• Probably need some wheat berries (and/or other grains) to grind up. That needs contacts (at least here in Australia) and/or a willingness to pay a premium for exotic/heirloom varieties.
• Naturally, a mill or milling attachment for a stand mixer to make this all happen.
• A cool, dry place for storage. Failing that, more space in the freezer to store the fresh flour, even some unmilled grains, and enough air-tight containers to handle that.

I'm not saying it can't be done affordably, but you need to go into this with open eyes. My mill attachment was bought on sale for $149 Australian (delivered) but the wheat berries added another $110 (for 20Kg or about 44lb). To order less berries would have tripled my shipping rate per kilo, making the transport fees over 80% of the price... so I didn't have much choice.

Back to the book!

I'm so glad the first recipe in the book starts with 1Kg of flour (that's a big loaf, even by my standard recipe which only needed 400g)... otherwise my 20Kg purchase might have been a "bit much".

Let's talk pros:

Now Flour Lab isn't unique in the grains-to-flour thing. However, while it's U.S. centred, and you can definitely look up their grain and flour references and use what you have. It's not trying to emulate other countries in either wheat varieties or milling techniques. It's letting regional recipes be true to the region they come from and maximising the results.

Other books on the subject (Most notably The Taste of Bread by Raymond Calvel et al, also reviewed here) is perhaps a little more French-bread centric, and discusses that through a "this is how we do it in our country" perspective. It's also far less pretty as a book, it's a harder read, and covers more techical baking knowledge than Flour Labs. Both are aimed at extracting the best results from the ingredients, but the presentation, and let's face it, price puts Flour Lab as a more modern, more affordable, and easier-to-understand bread baking book.

Flour Lab is very handy if you're interested in figuring out how different species of wheat and other grains impact the bake itself, or how the coarseness of your flour impacts hydration levels. This will help you to use fresh flours much more confidently. In this regard, it's comparable to the slightly more technical, Sourdough Framework discussed above.

Of course, Flour Lab discusses how fresh flour enhances the flavour of the bread and the outlines the health benefits. For me this led to a variety of questions about:

"Where do I get these precious wheat berries?"

"Why is good wheat so expensive and hard to find?"

Personally, what makes the book an interesting read for me, isn't just the recipes and tips, it is the "broader perspective".

Flour Lab discusses the state of the flour industry as a whole (I like the one-word summation, "broken"... although I do feel that's a little unfair given how reductive one word is, despite the obvious problems with the industry). Yet Flour Lab does helpfully provide context including a slight jaunt into the rich history of wheat and other grains, their various impacts on societies across the globe.. and potential directions current wheat/agricultural/food science research is heading. Perhaps most intriguing is how farmers are responding and collaborating with artisanal bakers across the globe to address numerous industry and societal issues.

That's all great.. but how does that help everyday home bread bakers?

For me, it helped by providing ways to avoid problems I would definitely have had if I was "winging it", and helped me to tweak my online searches while looking for grains to mill. Ultimately, I was led to farmers who've partnered with bakers in Victoria.. not exactly local to me, but I'll take it. Australia, for it's many strengths, has a small population, and consequently, smaller conclaves of fresh flour communities. They exist, but if you live in a country like Australia, expect to reach out further than others in more populated countries.

The other huge pro of this book is the full colour, glossy step-by-step photos on key steps. For anyone who has battled various hand-drawn images, and the fuzzy black and white photos of yore... rejoice! You're no longer trying to decypher (or "decipher" if you're a millenial/American) a doctor's chicken-scratches that could be interpretive dance manoeuvres, or squinting at some detail that may (or may not) be there in the image. Fold it like this, let the dough tell you when it doesn't want to stretch any more, and then shape it like that. Easy peasy!

You can apply this information just as well to any recipe in all the other books or online videos too!

The everyday cons (not the white elephant):

Let's talk about ingredients for a moment...

Many "Flour Lab" recipes assume you can find the appropriate grains to make your own exotic flours using U.S. varieties as suggested examples. ("Kansas Turkey" or "Blue Beard" are a couple of instances). Other ingredients such as potatoes (for potato gnocci) often suggest U.S. varieties too, like "Idaho" and "Yukon Gold", and while they may be readily available in the U.S., this certainly is not the case here in Australia and other countries. Honestly, if you're in doubt, skip the supermarket for a week and ask your fruit and veggie shop friends for their advice for local equivalents. While you're there, ask what the equivalents might be in different seasons, so you're ready "year round".

I'm rustic, not pompous/Bourgeoisie!

If you ask yourself, "What on Earth is Muscovado Sugar and why is it special?!"

If your pantry is a little basic, you probably have white sugar, maybe a brown for porridge, and a castor sugar for cakes. If that describes your pantry, never fear, you're not alone!

Unfortunately, in "Flour Lab", there's a lot of unusual ingredients, like "Muscovado sugar" which is just a deep brown sugar with a slightly stronger molasses-ish? flavour.... and you can totally use that, or plain sugar with a couple of teaspoons of molasses, or skip the molasses all together and use brown sugar.. or whatever sugar you have. Muscovado sugar is now widely available in Australian supermarkets,(that wasn't the case 20 years ago) but it is a little pricier.

Back to the wheat....

Just know that most of these wheat varieties are often described below the name with some phrase like:

"a hard winter wheat", or a "durum", or a "spelt".... etc. Just get whatever you can in your area that meets the broader description. It does not have to be the precise species they list, ok?

Now that I've tried some of the recipes, is milling your own flour worth it?

It's difficult to describe what the first and simplest recipe does, let alone the more complex ones. But here goes....

Think of a good bread flavour (no, not your commercial white bread in a plastic bag... a proper artisan loaf, fresh from the bakery)... then amplify the smell, the taste, and consequently, the overall flavour. You can smell the difference before you even start baking the dough. During baking freshly milled doughs lends a "baked bread aroma" that is even stronger than home-made breads with commercial flours. Later, when eating it.. the flavour is significantly more pronouced.... so bread becomes more than a mere transport for spreads and toppings, it has a flavour that makes you far more aware of it's presence.

Now, for those with families (and particularly, children of all ages... some of you will know what I'm talking about) will find that there are plenty of people who will find it disconcerting that bread can have such a flavour, while others will be absolutely delighted. Die-hard white bread fans probably won't like such breads overnight. If that's the case, starting with 5% freshly milled flour to a 95% commercial flour mix, and ramping it up slowly in successive batches to a 30:70% (fresh milled : commercial respectively) mix will help family members to adjust.

However, for all those people paying $7-20 for bread loaves at the fancy bakeries.... particularly the ryes, the rustics, the grainy and/or sourdough breads will adore fresh milled flour breads. Doing it yourself will save you an absolute fortune.

In conclusion:

A useful, attractive, to-the-point, easy-to-understand hardcover book that not only made home milling seem more approachable, but immediately made a notable improvement to my bread knowledge and skills one I implemented the recipes. All this for just $20 Australian... it's totally worth it for bread mavens out there. I don't think it's ideal for beginners because it needs equipment that most would not have. However, once you're established in the hobby, and looking to get healthier or just want to make better bread in general, it's hard to criticise anything about the book itself.

Two dough-covered thumbs up! :~)

Area of focus:The food science behind bread making. The interwoven roles of biology, physics and chemistry during fermentation/respiration, oxidation and baking. It discusses where flavours and colours come from, the diversity and potential pathways for flavour compound development. It also discusses the physical changes done during mixing, resting, kneading and of course baking too.

Total page count: 254

No. of pages before recipes: 203

Metric/imperial units? Both (and volume measurements for "in a pinch" moments).

Number of recipes: 4

Photos for every recipe? No. Black and white photocopy-grade images, shrunk to 5cm x 3cm (2 square inches)… the rest of the images are largely hand drawn… like really-meticulously drawn class notes.

Price range (new): New edition kindle: $10.64 (AUD), Softcover $40-$80 (AUD)

Price range (used): Old edition softcover, $8-25

Notable Features & FYI: All the bread science you'd need without paying the "Modernist Cuisine's" eye watering $900-$1500 for the five volume "Modernist Bread" set, or even the stripped down "Modernist Bread at Home" single volume, which still commands a $350 sum, and over $250 used!

Ok, "Bread Science" isn't directly competing with such weighty tomes, but it is definitely an extension on "The Sourdough Framework", and with cheaper print editions, and more in-depth research.

This book is almost entirely bread science, with over 80% of the entire book dedicated to theory and technical knowledge, and how to apply it in a general manner. That extends the theory of most of the books in this list. As such, it fits a particular niche in my library, and apparently, many other bread libraries as well.

Area of focus: What makes a good bread. Specific to French bakery (mostly bread)

Total page count: 207

No. of pages before recipes: 90 (lots more technical data at the beginning of each recipe chapter, and for each style of recipe).

Metric/imperial units? Both

Number of recipes: 37 bread types (not including variants), 24 sweet breads/brioche/croissant etc.

Photos for every recipe? No, some black and white images but few recipes have any images.

Price range (new): $143 for an ebook?! Are you high Amazon?! $150-$240 (Australian) for the soft cover, and hard cover...

Price range (used): $380-$445 in hardcover USED! (I've never seen a hardcover one though, and I'm not sure it's translated into English or in French). Used soft covers seem to be very few and far between. If they are locatable, they're sometimes more expensive than the new ones.

Notable Features & FYI: Literally written by the man who coined the term "autolyse". Raymond insipired a whole generation of French bakers and was a key influence in restoring the quality of French baking... that had eroded due to "profit-driven" modern industrial baking methods. This downward trend in French bakeries occurred between WW2 and the late 70s, when he started his research into "what makes a good bread?". He used modern science and applied that to rediscovering traditional baking methods and ingredients, all while incorporating modern techniques intelligently into the finished recipes. This is a book that I read periodically. You can't expect to remember most of what it teaches you in one hit, and I learn something different each time. While it centres on French baking, many of the techniques will work for other styles of bread and pastries too.

The Pros:

The authors really know their stuff. Raymond and his "crew" has given you the tools to make a range of authentic French-styled breads, and improve your other varieties as well.

When Raymond wrote this with his co-authors, he was one of France's foremost professors working on "what makes good bread". Through his work, he is often attributed to inspiring a whole generation of french bread bakers. It's a shame he died in 2005.. at the ripe age of 92.

However, you do not have to learn French to read this book, it was translated into English into what is the most fundamentally expensive bread baking book I own.

Technically, my 207 page edition is a softcover, and at well over $150 USD ($255 Australian, delivered) it's a very expensive book that I frankly debated for months before buying. In short, it was cheaper than doing the 5 week "Boulangerie" course at the Sydney campus of "Le Cordon Bleu" which would have cost me $8000 after including course fees, accommodation, living expenses and course-related expenses). Unfortunately, this book doesn't give me the shiny certificate of completion or access to live instruction along the way. Not that it was ever meant to.

However, The Taste of Bread covers a range of in-depth topics from a uniquely French viewpoint. It's somewhat technical in nature because it covers topics from the effects of the wheat type and milling processes, the characteristics of "bread flour" (as opposed to "All purpose" varieties), dough composition, the role of oxidation during mixing, leavening and fermentation, the effect of dough division and shaping, as well as the basic (and industrial) equipment used in bread baking, and finally the storage of bread.

I'd say it extends on both Sourdough Framework, and Flour Lab (reviewed here too) in terms of technical detail. Flour Lab and Sourdough Framework are aimed at hobbyists... while The Taste of Bread is probably amongst the text books of several french culinary institutes... and carries the higher price tag to prove it. :~(

Most of the content is fundamentals and with smatterings of bread science here and there. Yet combined, this is getting fairly technical. It's not that the beginner couldn't understand it, but it's just that there's a lot of stuff you don't necessarily need to know if you're running from recipes.

However, if you want to extract every scrap of flavour from your breads, and want the softest crumb or flakiest crust while paving your own path, then this book will be extremely helpful.

If French bread is your goal, this is essential reading.

Cons:

While this was published in 2013, roughly 8 years after Raymond's death and translated into english, it's not without some linguistic quirks.

Furthermore, this is not going to have the pretty pictures of more modern/stylish/coffee table books. Most recipes do not have any images of any kind.

It's quite a dense read, with little to break up the text. So expect it to take some time.

It has recipes (good ones at that) but I find that if you have a more powerful stand mixer, the times need to be somewhat reduced to avoid "over kneading/mixing".

If "French" bread is less important, and simply good bread is your goal... that $150 USD price tag for a soft-cover... will not appeal.

To put that price in perspective, that's roughly... five times more expensive than many of my other books on this list. You have to consider that investment carefully. You could buy a Kitchen Aid grain milling attachment, ($149), Flour Lab ($20 at a discount book seller), and still have $86 Australian dollars to buy 20Kg of hard winter wheat berries... Doable if you pick up from the store. You can probably buy some nice seeds to add on top!

That is the choice between advanced theory and getting a jump-start in practical. Both can render tasty results, just in entirely different ways.

Conclusion:

With all that said, if you are:

• considering becoming an apprentice/professional baker,
• a "bread nerd" in the making,
• you have a bread maven/francophile in the household, or...
• you just want to be knowledgeable enough/empowered to chart your own course in your bread making journey by strategic recipe adaptations

...then this is an essential read. For everyone else.. a cheaper more practical book is likely a better choice.

Area of focus: French/European breads, (130 odd pages), French/European pastries and cakes (110 pages), 15 pages of "snacks" (sandwiches, pizza, quiches & muffins). Decent intro/theory too!

Total page count: 319

No. of pages before recipes: 59

Metric/imperial units? Metric

Number of recipes: 80

Photos for every recipe? Yes, but sometimes two or more recipes are depicted in the one image (unlabeled unfortunately), sometimes arranged in pleasing patterns, not necessarily with instructive details in mind. Lots of step-by-step series of images in method areas though.

Price range (new): $55-$120 (AUD)

Price range (used): $50-$100 (AUD)

Notable Features & FYI: This is truly a beginner-friendly text book. While it doesn't have the author's backstory, or anecdotes about where the grains come from, or reminiscences of "the good old days", it combines the goals of traditional bread baking with modern methods. It's a very detailed, but practical (no fluff) book. It's not as advanced as the "Advanced Bread and Pastry" or "The Taste of Bread", or even "Bread Science", but it still has a respectable intro/theory section that is more than enough to get going.

I really like the sheer number of step-by-step photos and the images of the finished products, but sometimes, those finished product images are combined with the finished photos of other recipes in images sometimes 2, or even seven pages away. That I don't like so much, considering they're not labelled. So unless is obvious, I can't say for certain which of five baguettes corresponds with which recipe.

Area of focus: An actual text book on "bakery"/"viennoiserie", "pastry", & cakes.

Total page count: 1041

No. of pages before recipes: 186

Metric/imperial units? BOTH

Number of recipes: Almost 300

Photos for every recipe? No.

Price range (new): $195-240 (AUD)

Price range (used): $120-270 (AUD)

Notable Features & FYI: This suits serious baking enthusiasts, baking apprentices, and professionals.

The recipe break down is incredibly hard to identify as there's a lot of cross-referencing in the five full pages of separate recipe index. There's definitely over 30 recipes for bread, easily over 100 of cakes and pastries, including detailed separate recipes for fillings, icings, and accompaniments.

There's the highest number of graphs I've seen in a bread book to date, and much more applied science in the 170+ pages of theory.

Area of focus: General baking book specialising in the wide variety of baked goods that are made across northern Europe, Iceland & Greenland.

Total page count: 575

No. of pages before recipes: 99

Metric/imperial units? Both

Number of recipes: 481 total. 32 wheat breads, 17 rye breads, 28 flat breads, 13 rusks/crackers, 10 sandwiches/filled pasties, 1 nordic pizza dough, 25 pancakes/waffles, 28 porridge & grain soups, 37 sweet levened pastries, 6 sweet kringles (pretzel), 11 doughnuts/fried pastries, 62 short pastries and cookies, 22 muffins/individual pastries, 10 sweets & chocolates, 46 soft cakes, 34 layered cakes/tortes, 7 crumbles/pies, 27 desserts, 12 jams/jellies/cordials, 18 sweet soups/compotes, 35 basic recipes (that usually augment the other recipes). Phew! That took a while! I bet few reviewers went to this much trouble!

Photos for every recipe? No.

Price range (new): .

Price range (used):

Notable Features & FYI:

Area of focus: Part bread book, part travel book, part lifestyle book that hops from one country to another, and culinary experiences (many based on breads and pastries of the area) and ends up in San Francisco with a recipe for Rugbrod (Tartine Danish-style rye bread... see "Tartine" review on this page).

Total page count: 239

No. of pages before recipes: 35

Metric/imperial units? Metric, with occasional imperial units thrown in.

Number of recipes: 46 total. 10 breads/pastries/cakes/waffles/pancakes. but many not bread related, there's soups, even cocktails, a burger, home made condiments, and even museli.

Photos for every recipe? Err. lots of photos about the travel/journey where she's making bread.. but which bread amongst the sea of very pretty images of places and culture... but not a whole lot of images directly linked to the bread.

Price range (new): E-book $20 (AUD) Hard cover $45-70

Price range (used): $35-70 (AUD) for a hardcover

Notable Features & FYI: Honestly, this book stands alone in the "hey I bartered my way across the world making bread for people". It's a fun read which gives a much-needed reprieve from looking at the rest of the world through the lens of "the news" which of course is a seemingly non-stop torrent of depressing information with glimpses of almost-normalish everyday life thrown in occasionally.

Area of focus: An in-depth guide to bread with one of the largest recipe counts I've seen. The recipes are split into loaves, flatbread/unleavened breads, specialty breads/sides, pizza/calzones, pies, and finishes with sweet breads and tarts.

Total page count: 841

No. of pages before recipes: 64 (although this recipe is somewhat illustrative, rather than part of the recipe section)

Metric/imperial units? Imperial only with volume measurements for backup. Sorry metric lovers, 300+ recipes will need conversion... or merely switch your digital scale to imperial and work from that.

Number of recipes: 319 total. 83 loaves, 19 flat/unleavened breads, 66 specialty breads/sides, 48 pizzas/calzones (check out the sweet fillings in the dessert pizza), 61 pies (mostly the sweet kind), and 42 sweet breads/tarts.

Photos for every recipe? There are a lot of recipes with full-page or partial page images. However, there are just as many without any imageswhatsoever. 121/319 38% (or conversely, 62% with images).

Price range (new): $31-78 (Australian) for the hardcover.

Price range (used): None cheaper (delivered) for less than the new ones.

Notable Features & FYI: One one hand, this is a high-density recipe book. So if you're looking for one of those, then you're in luck. On the other side, the theory sections are some of the most in-depth I've seen so far, in any book. It may not go into "Bread Science" levels of proteins, but it does discuss a lot of factors that most other books fail to do.

Pros:

You get a lot of value here. Both in recipes and information.

Barbra has gone "all out" in many ways where she's included recipes like Injera which is an African bread rarely seen in other books.

Not only does it discuss water as an ingredient, but various factors of water like "water hardness", the pH, along with the more usual water temperature... a lot of books just don't cover all that.

I particularly like the section "Encyclopedia of Grains and Pulses" which, along with descriptions of various wheats, oats, ryes, barleys, rices, corns, buckwheats, millets, quinoa, sorghum, numerous seeds, but even tubers, beans, legumes and coconuts. There's oftean a drawn diagram and brief synopsis about each variant of each type too.

Don't skip the biographies!

Throughout the recipe section there's a lot professional baker biographies. It also discusses their respective bakeries, pizzerias, boulangeries and baking schools across the world and it's really interesting to see how they got started, why they bake, and their particular interpretations of recipes. It's not a travel book but it is one of the most interesting range of recipes from across the globe, all in one handy book. Want to compare a Detroit pizza to a New York one, and a true Italian one from Naples... or perhaps even an Australian one? You can do that!

Cons:

Honestly, I have never liked bold claims like "The Ultimate....." or "The best..." or "The most...." anything. Because it's easy to get unfounded expectations... and even if such claims might have been true at the time of writing. Things change!

Now, I don't want to devalue Barbara's work here. It's an excellent book to be sure. However, every book has limitations.

To me the limitations are that this isn't going to suit everyone despite it's encyclopedic nature.

I mentioned the Injera recipes above, it's is great that the recipes were included.... although none of those recipes have actual pictures. :-(

If certain pictures had to be culled, I persionally think we could have skipped the pictures of some of the baguettes or uncovered pizza bases or unfilled pie crusts (we've all seen baguettes, pizza and pie bases) and focused on the ones most readers would not know what they look like. Perhaps this is what the second edition fixed... but I don't know.

The one thing I felt this book didn't have, is a savoury pie crust. You know for meat pies, shepherd's pie, that sort of thing. There are many sweet crusts, in the book though. Unfortunately, I've long sought a short crust that has little if any sweetness to it, but for some reason, they end up with a weird sweetness that doesn't match the the slow roasted lamb, chicken & leek, or pepper steak filling. That said, despite this trivial disappointment, I've gotten a lot of great results from this book.

Conclusion:

This is an excellent book for bakers who have a little bit of experience already. You can use it as a beginner, but you're probably not going to have the hand-holding instructions that some other books offer. I particularly like the sheer number of recipes for the money, and it is ultimately, a very pretty book. It's not the glossy coffee table books that you might expect, but it's very good and I think it'd be a great addition to any baker's library.

This is work in progress. While I have owned many of these books for years, I just want to make sure I finish a refresher reading before I comment here. Check back soon.. However, I have a lot going on right now, so this is "spare time" dependent.