Product Description

Recipes from the back rooms and basement bakeries that produce Europe's best breads.

When Daniel Leader opened his Catskills bakery, Bread Alone, twenty years ago, he was determined to duplicate the whole-grain and sourdough breads he had learned to make in the bakeries of Paris. The bakery was an instant success, and his first book, Bread Alone, brought Leader's breads to home kitchens.

In this, his second book, Leader shares his experiences traveling throughout Europe in search of the best artisan breads. He learned how to make new-wave sourdough baguettes with spelt, flaxseed, and soy at an organic bakery in Alsace; and in Genzano, outside of Rome, he worked with the bakers who make the enormous country loaves so unique that they have earned the Indicazione Geografica Protetta (IGP), a government mark reserved for the most prized foods and wines. Leader's detailed recipes describe every step that it takes to reproduce these rare loaves, which until now were available strictly locally. 32 pages of color illustrations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11881 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-13
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Leader's new bread-baking book is distinguished from his earlier classic Bread Alone by its focus on regional specialties, from the Alsatian classic pain au levain to Tuscan black olive puccia, from German laugenbrezeln or pretzels to the dark Silesian rye of the Czech Republic. The book opens with 50 pages of well-written and thorough instructions on everything from ingredients to equipment. The most helpful part is the explanation of the basic steps of any bread-making process, which serves as a primer on the procedural elements that are universal across the various European traditions. Leader, who founded the heralded Bread Alone bakery in Woodstock, N.Y., is most interested in teaching holistically, so that his readers will feel comfortable becoming apprentices and then experts themselves. One can't help imagining, however, that bread baking is best learned in the flesh. Leader advises that the only way to figure out if the dough is ready is through experience, and a hapless home baker might agree. Still, the book is an excellent primer on the best breads of Europe, and the traveler who has returned home with a longing for the Roman specialty pane di altamura might be satisfied with a mouth-watering trip down memory lane. (Aug.)
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From Booklist
After perusing the remarkable recipes in Leader's compilation of the best of Europe's artisanal breads, only the most resolutely self-controlled baker will be able to resist marching to the kitchen to reproduce one of these captivating loaves. Leader explains how to create a sourdough from airborne yeasts, and he uses that starter for many of these breads to yield superior, deep flavor and thick, crunchy crusts. Ranging from baguettes to chocolate croissants, from Italian ciabatta to dark Silesian rye, and from Czech country bread to potato pizza, these recipes give access to bread bakers' highest art. For those lacking the courage and patience to ferment a real sourdough starter, Leader offers several different shortcuts to success. Line drawings guide the novice, and full-color photographs render ideals for Leader's students to emulate. Question-and-answer sections throughout the book succinctly clarify potential problem areas. Leader's Auvergnat blue cheese rye rolls alone make this book a must for devotees of the baker's art. Knoblauch, Mark

About the Author
Daniel Leader is the founder of Woodstock, New York's legendary bakery, Bread Alone, and author of Bread Alone, which won an International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Award. He lives in the Catskills.

Customer Reviews

Daniel Leader continues his love affair with artisan bread
I have always felt that Bread Alone was the best bread primer on the market both because of the simplicity of the recipes and Mr. Leaders description of his journey to great, simple breads. This book is far simpler in many ways but his love and respect for bakers, their tools, and their craft still comes thru. This is a much better book for a beginning baker, much broader and deeper explanations then in other books. He has also expanded his repertoire with the addition of Italian breads, Biga based recipes, and many of the other non-French recipes.

If you are a "sourdough" baker this is the book. If the section on starters and theirproblems and fixes had been around 10 years ago when I started baking life would have been a lot easier, he has all of the hard lessons that I have learned over the years.

All in all a good first bread cookbook, and a great addition to the bookshelf

A must have book!
I've been making sourdough bread for 5 years with two cultures I've sustained. I have numerious bread books which all are good. The sourdough books I had were very informative. While it's important to understand the science behind sourdough bread, I feel it's equally important to understand the techniques and styles. That's something other books don't emphasize. They basically provide a recipe with directions. With Local Breads, I've learned so much more!! I never realized all the different techniques for making the various types of bread, ranging from the moisture of the bread (and tips to handle it) to the various ways of kneading the breads. Some breads need more kneading.. others need less. It's all fully explained in his book. While it may not cover every country in Europe, I don't thing that was his scope for this book. I think you'd need volumes of books to cover that!! But it does give you a flavor of the various regions of bread making in Europe, with each one being distinctly different. It's a book well worth the money!!

Great book for sourdough/biga baking
Customers that are looking for 101 bread recepies, based on quick yeast, suitable for bread machine should look elsewhere. I would recomend this book to anyone that would like to start baking bread by using sourdough or biga.

Daniel Leaders book is great collection of authentic French, Italian, and other European recepies, based upon sourdough, polish, biga and yeast.
There are clear instruction, how to handle different types of levains.

There are two sections dedicated to French breads. First one using liquid levain like conpemporary baker e.g. Eric Kayser, other one using stiff levain. I like wholewheat miche recepie.

Following is section covering different Italian breads, and section covering different rye breads.

Before each chapter, there is story, explaining background for particular region. Also different techniques and ingrediens are introduced. There are suggestions for local substitutes, for example, what to use instead of 'doppio zero' flour.

Besides that recepies are great, I apreciate authentic note.