Dough: Simple Contemporary Bread Paperback – October 1, 2016

The recipes in this book are solid. I've made bread for years and I've found the white bread recipe in this book just works. I rarely need to adjust the amount of flour or water to get a consistent dough. Techniques are described plainly and the slap and fold kneeding technique the author presents works incredibly well.

Wow, I really want to like this book. The pictures are great, and there's a nice breakdown of bread-making basics and terminology.However, as the majority of the book is recipes, that is what we must measure it by, and it is here, unfortunately, that the book really disappoints.After explaining why it's always important to weigh all ingredients when baking, the author proceeds to use a combination of weight and volume measurements for the recipes (without giving equivalents). Even worse, the weights are given in ounces instead of grams.I suspect the problem here is in the "Americanization" of the book. It sounds like the hardback edition of the book is the original edition in which, I assume, all ingredients listed in weights by grams. However, the paperback version, which I have, is the "Americanized" one, and has weights in ounces and has some ingredients given by volume instead of weight, and that volume is usually teaspoons or tablespoons.For example, the white dough recipe gives fresh yeast by weight (ounces), flour by weight (ounces), salt by volume (teaspoons) and water by weight (ounces). Another recipe that uses a small amount of semolina flour gives it by volume (teaspoons) instead of weight.This is really a mess, and makes me wonder at how any of these recipes turn out. Even worse, if there is a problem with any of the recipes, I'll never know if it was due to something I did, or due to the fact that some of the ingredients are given by weight, some by volume, and the weights are given in ounces rather than grams (less precise). Add in the fact that many people don't understand the difference between ounces (weight) and fluid ounces (volume), and there's a lot of unneeded confusion and lack of precision with the recipes.Some reviewers mention that fresh yeast is hard to get in the U.S. I kind of doubt that, with online ordering, and the recipes do give equivalents of dry yeast to use instead. What would have been nice, though, would have been some discussion on using sourdough starter instead of baker's yeast in these recipes. A paragraph or two could have given us what we need to go that route with all the recipes if we wanted.All in all, I'm pretty disappointed with this book. There are a few gems in the techniques described, but I have zero confidence in the recipes themselves, which is what the majority of the book is.It's too bad they couldn't find an "Americanizer" who actually knew anything about baking in the U.S. If they had, they would've known that we weigh ingredients and measure by grams just like all the other bakers in the world! Also, you have to wonder if this person actually did the conversions correctly, considering their lack of attention to detail otherwise.

Love this book. Been baking bread off and on for years. Whole wheat in 1960s. Recently no knead breads. Absolutely love good baguettes and Jewish rye. Struggled to make a good baguette or epi until getting Dough. Too much flower versus water because I added so much flower while kneading the dough. Dough corrected my problem by showing how to go from sticky shaggy dough without more flour. Wa la! Video is great help to photos and text, even though video is somewhat amateurish. If you struggle to make first rate French breads, this book is sure to help you achieve that goal.I like to par bake and freeze loaves for later. Also like adding sesame seeds to top. Crust is excellent after spraying oven with water. So much easier than buying pricey containers to bake bread in as suggested by mothers such as Sullivan street no knead book. Also like to bake or thaw a par baked epi just before dinner. I will enjoy making many breads in Dough, to be sure.I paid too much to buy fresh yeast as book recommends. Dry yeast works fine for me. The recipes are a bit a trouble to use because you have to flip back to several early sections to get basic info, however photos, videos, and text is beautiful and informative. I love working with dough more because of Dough.

Richard Bertinen was an epiphany for me. I could not bake bread before I saw him “work” the dough. The clouds parted, the sun shined down, and it all made sense. I’m no expert. But I put my KitchenAid away and now I “work” all my dough. I would never imagine I could throw that sticky mess on my dry countertop with no flour with my sticky fingers and within five minutes I have a beautiful, supple piece of dough. I can feel it changing by the minute. And the bowl scraper? Where has that been all my life? I had another book that I still refer to that is so obsessive, requires/suggests so many ridiculous pieces of equipment, has so many minutiae of steps I was going insane. So, I take the recipes from there and apply Chef Bertinen’s techniques. Ive watched his videos on YouTube. He’s laid back, he wants people to love, enjoy baking. I’m ordering all his books. He’s my style, not OCD about every little detail. But then again, He’s French 👍.

Five simple doughs with lots of variations, and step by step instructions for french-style kneading with high-hydration doughs., Lots of luscious photos to whet your appetite. This is an excellent book for the beginning baker, or for an experienced baker who wants to experiment with adding flavors and new shapes to her repertoire. First thing I tried was the fougasse, because it's just so much fun, and it came out perfectly -light and chewy with a great crust. Comes with a CD showing Bertinet's kneading and shaping techniques, which is a nice bonus, even though most of it's available on YouTube. The only problem (I have the paperback edition) is the little round rubber thing that's supposed to hold the enclosed CD on the front cover. It's just not efficient and the CD kept falling off, so I had to file it separately from the book. a minor inconvenience.

I'm not sure why this author likes bread so much but this is clearly not the Homer Simpson autobiography I wanted.

I have now used most of the recipes, with complete success. I nearly lost my nerve on the first batch of bread and considered adding more flour, but decided to trust the recipe and carry on. It seemed hopelessly sticky at first. By the second batch I had the hang of it. When I progressed to the sweet recipes my first batch was just a little too sticky so I added only about a teaspoon of flour at the end. I think it may have been needed because the eggs were a little large.I have weighed the liquid for every recipe as it is much simpler than trying to measure it. I put everything in cold, but sometimes put the dough in the microwave for twenty seconds at the end of the kneading. It takes the chill off nicely while the weather is cold.I have resisted buying any special equipment as I have very little storage space. I have used an upside down baking sheet to drop the bread onto a pizza stone in the oven. I first put the bread on silicon baking paper and slid that out onto the stone with the bread still on it. Very easy.For the Pain Campagne I used a sieve (stood in a saucepan) and a colander lined with t towels as rising baskets. They worked perfectly, if not elegant to look at. I used a sharp knife or scissors to slash the dough. I am too clumsy to want to try razor blades.The only instruction I the recipes I have ignored is to put the oven on at the start of the recipe. It would cost far too much in electricity.I thought I knew how to make basic bread but this book has simplified the whole process and given me much better results. The only problem I have now is to stop eating so much of it.

Here is an masterpiece on all facets for crafting and baking traditional breads, taught by Richard Bertinet whose love for baking bread began at age 5 in his native Bretagne. You are never alone wrestling with sloppy wet dough; he's with you every step of the way, encouraging you to keep working it until it's the right feel and texture. I am baking my way through it right now! I also bought his sequel Crust, even more wonderful.

I've read a few baking books recently, but most were either too complicated or too simplistic.Thankfully this book came to the rescue. There's just enough information to teach you how to make amazing bread, but not so much information that you get overwhelmed.I've made a few of these recipes from the book, and adapted some of the others to my own tastes. Every one has been brilliant so far!The dough making method is brilliant too, so much easier than normal kneading.

As a complete beginner at bread making I did a bit of research to find a good book when starting out and I am really happy with this purchase. The instructions are clear and the book gets you started with a minimal amount of kit and with confidence. It's very encouraging in tone! I like the fact that there is a DVD to show you the kneading technique, although I had a good stab it at just using the pictures and instructions in the book which are great. I find it's got a really tempting selection of recipes - I've tried the baguettes, the pizza dough, and the apricot and oat loaf so far. Will definitely be doing many more. Highly recommended.It lost a star as I found it a bit confusing to switch between the basic steps and the recipe-specific steps, takes a bit of working out!