The River Cottage Bread Handbook: [A Baking Book] (River Cottage Handbooks) Hardcover – June 15, 2010

I borrowed this book from the library, and after reading through the book, I ordered it. It explains how to make sourdough starter correctly, and most important, it has a real recipe for rye bread which I have been searching for. I started the sourdough, and I am about half way through the process. I have never created a starter because I did not have time to bake frequently. This book explains how to store starter for 2 weeks, so now I do have time to make sourdough bread. As other reviews have said, this is not exactly a beginners bread book, but if you read through all the instructions, the author does explain how to make bread that a beginner could follow. The only part a beginner may have a problem with is the amount of time to knead the bread dough. I know what it should feel like and act like before baking. It just takes practice, and every one makes mistakes at first. I plan on ordering a bread form for rising rye bread, and I will go from there. The measurements are both in English and Metric, so I can use either. The book also has other basic bread recipes, and ways to use old bread. I will use this book alot.

This is one of the most confusing culinary books I've ever read. In an early chapter called "Bread Making Step-by-Step" Stevens purports to take the reader chronologically through the steps involved in making bread. On page 53 is a sub-chapter called "Prepare For Baking." Here he tells you to preheat your oven "to maximum" (ideally 500 degrees). Ten pages later, under the sub-chapter called "Let Proof," he tells you that proofing "is the final rising of your shaped loaf before baking...you want the dough to double in size; this could take as little as 20 minutes or as long as two hours." Does he really want us to begin preheating the oven prior to the commencement of the proofing process, and to continue preheating the oven during the proofing process -- even if the process takes 2 hours? Shouldn't the sub-chapter "Let Proof" come before the sub-chapter "Prepare for Baking"?Almost all of Stevens instructions are equally confusing. The sub-chapter called "Transfer the Loaves For Baking" begins "If you are using a baking sheet, get it out of the oven, shut the door quickly, and set the hot pan close to your bread. If you are using a baking stone, lay the peel on the work surface." Presumably, by "hot pan" he is referring to the heavy roasting pan mentioned in "Prepare For Baking." This pan is to be filled with boiling water and placed in the oven to create steam while the bread bakes. But in the above-quoted paragraph he says to set the hot pan close to your bread after shutting the oven door, so I'm assuming you take the pan out of the oven at this point, although that would seem to defeat its purpose. Also confusing is the sentence in which he tells you to lay your bread peel on the work surface. By "work surface," does he mean your kitchen counter or the business end of the baking stone? Shortly thereafter, Stevens says to pull the wooden bread peel quickly away from the baking stone "like a tablecloth party trick." Unless you have experience at pulling tablecloths out from under a bunch of dinner dishes, this step is likely to send your bread rolling off the peel all the way to the back of the oven where it will rest up against the hot metal. Stevens never explains why the peel is necessary in the first place. Why can't the baker just slash the bread, spray it with water, and then set it carefully by hand onto the baking stone?Stevens seems to have written his book for professionals who are already familiar with the fine art of breadmaking. Anyone else reading this book is likely to find it more confusing than helpful. The information is constantly being supplied in an order that seems random at best. And Stevens offers little in the way of helpful explanations (i.e. -- why is the peel even necessary?).

I have always wanted to learn to bake bread, but never thought I had the time or talent to do it right. On vacation this summer I ran across this book in a cookbook shop and requested it for Christmas. Lucky me that my husband was listening! This book is super. I spent a good plane ride reading it from start to finish. The step-by-step guide to bread baking, almost a breadmaking 101, introduced the equipment and explained the importance of each ingredient.The basic recipe that can be altered at will was a great way to introduce creativity into baking, something I've always thought of as quite rigid. I have made almost 10 batches of bread (30 loaves!) now using the basic recipe and I'm having a blast! It's wonderful to see, feel and taste the difference one ingredient can make. I'm also gaining great confidence in my ability to "do it right" and yet be creative. From this book I now understand what the dough should "feel" like, how the yeast should smell and what happened when my first loaves came out too chewy.I've also made the breadsticks, foccacia and, this evening, the bagels. All of the recipes were straight-forward and easy to follow - especially after taking the time to read the book cover-to-cover. My family is thrilled with my new hobby and so am I. This book is great. I recommend it for everyone, especially beginners.

I'm comfortable in the kitchen and have put together many a good meal, both from recipe and from good old fashion scratch. That said, baking bread always gave me pause. The litany of bread baking advice found online and in many cookbooks ranges from scientific to something like alchemy and none inspired in me much confidence to knead or even not knead bread (nor did the few I tried lead to well baked bread!).This book changed all that. I can bake bread now.The style is detailed in a way that most recipe books are not and in a way that I actually learn from. For example, if you are the type of person who encounters in a bread recipe "shape the dough into a round" and angrily wonders "HOW IS THE RIGHT WAY TO DO THAT?!" then this book is for you (hint: the Handbook describes in detail how to shape dough into a round).Best of all, the resulting bread is fantastic. I've not tried all the yeasted dough recipes but those I have (doughnuts, bagels, english muffins, pizza dough) all turned out better in texture and taste than others I'd tried pre-Handbook.Sourdough took me a while to get but now I kick ass at that too. All thanks to the River Cottage Bread Handbook.

I've never thought about making my own bread. Not until I watched an episode of River Cottage last week. I then bought the book and some simple ingredients and materials and I was on my way. The beginning of the book is a little complicated. There is something like 60 pages of data regarding how to make bread. What ingredients to buy, what they mean, what materials are needed, what they do, etc.I followed the directions for the bog standard bread recipe (not the technical name :) and within a few hours I had one of the best tastings breads I've ever tried. And I made it all myself with good quality, organic ingredients.I would urge anyone who likes to cook and who wants to eat healthier, better food to get this. I'm stunned!Just be aware that this is the US version. Suites me fine as I'm a Yank, but the temps and measurements will have to be adjusted.

Delivered ontime

It's a good book but to complicated for me. Gave it to a friend who has more time than me and have gone back to my breadmaker.

Love the book but disappointed that I had chosen the US version so all amounts in cups etc. I didn't realise at the time of buying it. When I bought it I don't like they had it noted as such. Or perhaps just my mistake! It hasn't stopped me from making sourdough, and getting better at it.

Das Buch entspricht voll meinen Vorstellungen, da ich oft Sendungen vom River Cottage anschaue, wollte ich unbedingt einmal einiges nachbacken und ich bin sehr zufrieden mit dem Buch.