Product Description

The anniversary edition of the book that started a generation of Americans baking--now with exciting new recipes--hailed by the Washington Post as "the bible for bread baking." Includes 113 fabulous recipes for breads, pastries, desserts, and more. 2 halftones. 31 line drawings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99938 in Books
• Published on: 1995-08-22
• Released on: 1995-08-22
• Format: Deluxe Edition
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Review
"The bible for bread baking."—Washington Post



"Rarely has such a book of such simplicity underscored so well the joy of culinary discovery."—Bon Appetit

"This was the first cookbook I ever bought for myself, back when it was first published. To this day, I consider The Tassajara Bread Book to have been a major influence not just on my cooking and baking, but on my attitude and philosophy about food in general. Thank you, Ed Brown, for this lasting gift."—Mollie Katzen, author of The Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest

About the Author
Edward Espe Brown is the best-selling author of a number of popular cookbooks and past president of the San Francisco Zen Center. He helped found and run the internationally acclaimed Greens Restaurant in San Francisco with the renowned chef Deborah Madison. He lives in Fairfax, California.

Customer Reviews

The only bread book you need
If you want to live simply but not blandly, this is the only bread book you need. Written in a gentle voice, this book encourages all to bake wholesome, delicious breads - sweet and savory - and love every bite. Now, I have many bread cookbooks and I do love all of them - from Elizabeth David to Amy to Laurel - but I cannot stress how much pure enjoyment and encouragement I've gotten from this modest tome. Reading his words and following his advice (which is open and even inexact at times) has always led me to greater independence and faith in my own instincts and never fails to turn out wonderful results!

An ideal starting book
I wrote my first review of this book back in 2003 when I had first learned to bake bread. I didn't have much to say about it, other than I liked it.

It is now more than three years later. This is the book that I give to people as a gift quite often. I suggest it to people interested in learning to bake bread. I even suggest the book to people with stress problems since I've found that hand kneading dough can be quite therapeutic.

There are a lot of great bread books out there, and a literal mountain of bad books. This one doesn't dwell on the science of bread, or dedicate pages to explaining how modern flour is inferior to old flour, or to rallying against modern yeast as opposed to traditional sourdough. The author merely gives some relatively simple insutrctions which, if followed, will produce praiseworthy bread.

If you want to learn to bake bread, I suggest never using a food processor or stand mixer for it. At least in the beginning. Mixing by hand provides familiarity with the materials and the techniques. Save the gadgets for after you know how to bake bread. This book is purely about hand mixing and hand kneading.

Excellent for first-time bread bakers
This book is THE BEST for anyone with zero experience baking bread - or rolls, or bagels, or breakfast pastries -- this book covers EVERYTHING.

Best stuff:
1) Clear, very detailed instuctions on all the nuts-n-bolts tecniques that seem so intimidating, like how to knead the dough properly (well described and well illustrated)
2) Wonderful array of variations on the basic bread recipe
3) breakfast pastry section will really wow anyone coming over for brunch
4) Said it before but I'll say it again: Anyone who wants to learn to bake bread will succeed. Really, anyone.
5) Bread machines simple do not turn out anything as good as the 'real deal'.

Hard-to-find book but WELL worth the search.