Product Description

Co-founder of the legendary Brother Juniper's Bakery in Sonoma, California, author of the landmark books Brother Juniper's Bread Book and Crust & Crumb, and distinguished instructor at the world's largest culinary school, Peter Reinhart has been a leader in America's artisanal bread movement for over fifteen years. Never one to be content with yesterday's baking triumph, however, Peter continues to refine his recipes and techniques in his never-ending quest for perfect bread. In THE BREAD BAKER'S APPRENTICE, Peter shares his latest bread breakthroughs, arising from his recent pilgrimage to study in several of France's famed boulangeries and the always-enlightening time spent in the culinary academy kitchen with his students. First you'll peer over Peter's shoulder as he learns from Paris's most esteemed bakers, people like the brothers Poilâne and Phillippe Gosselin, whose pain ancienne has revolutionized the art of baguette making. Peter then walks readers through the twelve steps of building great bread, his clear instructions accompanied by over 100 step-by-step photographs. Then it's on to over 50 new master formulas for such classic breads as rustic, chewy ciabatta, hearty pain de campagna, old-school New York bagels, and the book's Holy Grail—Peter's version of the famed pain ancienne. En route, Peter distills hard science, advanced techniques, and food history down into a remarkably accessible and engaging resource that is as rich and multitextured as the loaves you'll turn out. This is original food writing at it most captivating, teaching at its most inspired and inspiring—and the rewards are some of the best breads under the sun.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1478 in Books
• Published on: 2001-12
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Amazon.com
"A bread baker, like any true artisan or craftsman, must have the power to control outcomes," says Peter Reinhart, author of The Bread Baker's Apprentice. "Mastery comes with practice." As in many arts, you must know and understand the rules before you can break them. Reinhart encourages you to learn the science of bread making, but to never forget that vision and experimentation, not formulas, make transcendent loaves. The Bread Baker's Apprentice is broken into three sections. The first is an amusing tale of Reinhart's visit to France and his discovery of pain à l'ancienne, a cold-fermented baguette. The second section comprises a tutorial of bread-making basics and Reinhart's "Twelve Stages of Bread." And finally, the recipes: Ciabatta, Pane Siciliano, Potato Rosemary Bread, New York Deli Rye, Kaiser Rolls, and Brioche, to name a few. All recipes include bread profiles and ingredient percentages. Reimagined for modern bakers, these mouthwatering classic recipes are bound to inspire. --Dana Van Nest

From Library Journal
Author of the well-respected Brother Juniper's Bread Book and Crust & Crumb, baker-turned-culinary instructor Reinhart draws on his baking and teaching experience to provide an authoritative but unintimidating guide to baking professional-quality loaves of all sorts. He begins with an account of a recent tour of specialty bakeries in Paris, including Gosselin, where he learned to make the young baker's unique pain l'ancienne which, Reinhart says, would be better called pain moderne, as it uses a modern invention (the refrigerator) to produce a "cold-dough delayed-fermentation" baguette, the best he has ever tasted. He found this technique revolutionary, and he includes the recipe here, along with a wide variety of other artisan and classic breads, from Ciabatta to Poilene-Style Miche to Tuscan Bread. The recipes are preceded by a 50-page primer on the "twelve stages of bread," and there are dozens of photographs, including particularly helpful ones of shaping different loaves. Valuable for both the professional and the novice, this is highly recommended for all baking collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The staff of life, homemade bread satisfies many a craving. In The Bread Baker's Apprentice, Peter Reinhart, noted bakery operator and author, has written a thorough, well-organized, and helpful introduction to bread baking that nearly everyone can profit from. Classifying the types of breads and presenting ingredients in tables helps the baker understand relationships and commonalities among seemingly dissimilar breads. Reinhart covers only yeast breads except for a single recipe for a triumphal cornbread full of fresh corn and topped with bacon. If a cook can do the math, Reinhart's tables of bakers' "percentages" allow for adjusting the recipes to any model bread machine, and the truly expert may use the numbers to create wholly new breads. A bibliography, a directory of ingredient sources, and a comprehensive list of bread-baking Web sites make this book a fount of practical, valuable baking lore. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Review for The Bread Baker's Apprentice
This is another great book to have if you want to make bread! Once you start reading you can't put this book down. The breads bake up so wonderfully. I highly recomend this book.

Required reading for a begninner baker
Reinhart demystifies the creation of bread in this book. This is more than a cookbook - it includes his personal philosophy, a LOT of background info and then detailed recipes.

I skimmed through the section on his evolution as a baker, simply out of personal interest (or lack thereof). The Background / Basic chapters are especially valuable to people, such as myself, who are new to baking bread.

The Recipes are detailed with lots of useful instructions and ideas to improvise. Would reccommend this book for anyone with an interest in baking, regardless of level of experience. Attractive and informative.

Speaking as someone that has actually read this book...
I was nearly put off of buying this book by some of the bad reviews I read. (I always read the bad reviews to get a broad picture.) If I hadn't taken the time to check the book out for myself I would have greatly missed out. Please read the following comments that discuss some of the negatives brought out by others and my opinions on the subject.

(This first part was before I read the book.)
I found some of his comments (the reviewr who gave the book a 1) to be interesting and some to be just plain nit picky. If you really want to get an idea of what Nopasho thinks is a good book, check out the reviews on the two books he recommended. It makes me wonder what his standards really are?!?

That being said, I am interested in improving my technique and making better bread. I'd imagine that the best way to do that is to study with a baker. However, since that isn't an option for me, I think I'll try the book and get what I can out of it. If it doesn't work, I'll sell it and try another one.

UPDATE:
I got the book from my local library and I must admit that I am VERY impressed. I have been so captivated by this book that it has been hard to put it down. I almost passed it by because of the bad review and I was utterly disgusted to find that a majority of the complaints listed were r-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s!
1- Using crisco in pizza dough - first of all he lists OLIVE OIL, vegetable oil, OR crisco and repeatedly says "olive oil" when describing how to make the dough. The one point Reinhart stresses again and again is that he is trying to make good bread making ACCESSABLE to the home baker. "If you don't have this, you can try this..." type of attitude. He states time and time again that you should try different things to see what YOU like.
2- The problem between weight and volume measurements would be quickly cleared up if people had actually read the discussion on the subject in the book. As Reinhart states weight measurement is always best because volume will vary by the location, brand, etc. So it makes perfect sense that what 1 lb turns out to be in cups would not be the same somewhere else. AS HE CLEARLY STATES, bread is about feeling what is happening, not being exact. If it needs more flour add more flour, etc.
3- Ego - I can't tell you how many times he states what he has learned from others. I never got the feeling of being talked down to or like he has an overinflated image of himself.
4- Instant yeast - As I stated, Reinhart is trying to bring bread making into the home. Given the short shelf life of fresh yeast, I agree with Reinhart that for the majority of us, it just isn't practical. But if you can use the fresh yeast than go ahead!
5- Reinhart doesn't say that he wanted to make the book's title "The Bread Revolution," rather that it was a name he toyed with but decided against because he didn't feel it acurately described what he wanted to get across to people. Doesn't sound like ego to me.
6- Lastly, I don't feel like I was shorted out of recipes by the "white space" and pictures. I found it to be a beautiful book and one I am excited to own.
This is a book I borrowed from the library to test it out. I plan to take it back today and buy a copy. If that doesn't explicitly give my opinion, than nothing will.