|
Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers
|
| List Price: | $35.00 |
| Price: | $23.10 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
65 new or used available from $14.49
Average customer review:
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: #20885 in Books
- Published on: 2007-08-13
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 448 pages
Editorial Reviews
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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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
A wonderful artisan bread resource
A wonderful, extremely well-written book that should be on the bookshelf of any bread baking fanatic, or anyone who wants to delve into the world of artisinal breads. I would give it 4.5 stars, but that is not an option here.
The book focuses on breads made with starters and sourdoughs, and provides easy, step-by-step instructions to make them. Leader's book covers some of the breads of specific regions of France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic. If you area looking for European breads from other regions, they are not in the book.
Overall, the recipes are clearly written. Even the most complicated recipes are very doable because Leader provides clear instructions. Novice bakers may have a bit of trouble if they stick to the recipes exactly, because anyone who bakes bread for a while will tell you that flour measurements are ESTIMATES, so be ready to add a bit more flour than called for in the recipes, especially if you live in a humid climate.
There are also some problems with typos. For example, in his recipe for Flax, Sesame, and Sunflower Rye (Dreikornbrot) pg p. 282, Leader calls for 22 CUPS of water - a pretty significant typo. There are also errors in baker's percentages. Luckily, one of the strengths of the book is that it provides measurements in US volumes, US weights, metric weights, and baker's percentages. So, I would recommend reading the recipes carefully before starting, and while you don't need a kitchen scale, it would be a great investment for anyone who is serious about bread baking. I also think that a few photos of properly kneaded bread dough would be very helpful for a future edition - the rye breads look a lot different than the semolina breads, and photos of this (and more detailed descriptions) would help.
I've made about 6 different breads from the book so far, and they have ALL been absolutely outstanding. My family raves about them, and even though I've had the book for only a few months, it's already looking pretty worn. I highly recommend this book, and hold back on a full 5 stars is because it could use a few more photos, and needs some more careful editing of the amounts and baker's percentages.
Local Breads Review
Growing up with my grandmother, who always baked homemade rolls and pastries, I loved watching her mixing the dough and kneading the mixture.
I wanted to duplicate it, somehow it never turned out right. So in reading the book, it showed me many reasons where I could of went wrong. I was enlighten on the poofing, the yeast and so many other areas in bread making, that I am sure that when I do start making the breads and roll again, it's sure to be a success.
Exceptional. Especially for experienced bakers.
Here, Daniel Leader explains starters that can be done in the home without tons of flour. Beautiful stuff. Beyond recipes. Exceptional formulas plus a narrative about fermentation, flours, yeasts. Applause, applause.
I have a collection of BREAD books, including those from France and Italy in their original languages -- because I love bread.
This is one of the best bread books: clear, accurate, and
remarkably easy to understand.
When I originally made bread in France, it took about 6-8 days to get a good loaf. I usually had to make a huge amount to get good results. Here, the home-scale versions are very true to the originals, and you can see the details in the formula ratios.
