Product Description

A warm slice of bread, fresh from the oven and spread with butter, is one of life's simple pleasures. Whether it's a traditional whole-wheat loaf, a crusty baguette, or tender blueberry muffins, the delicious taste and aroma of home-baked bread appeals to all of our senses. Best of all, delectable baked goods will delight friends and family alike.

Williams-Sonoma Collection Bread offers more than 40 delicious recipes, from traditional yeast breads to convenient quick breads, including breakfast treats such as muffins and scones. Whether you are in search of a savory sourdough loaf to serve with soup, simple dinner rolls to enhance the holiday table, or classic banana bread for an afternoon snack, this book includes recipes for every occasion. In addition, a final chapter on international breads, such as Italian focaccia or French brioche, rounds out this essential collection for the home baker.

Enticing photographs of each recipe make it easy to choose which bread to bake, and photographic side notes give insight into each recipe. Including all the techniques essential to mastering the art of making bread -- from mixing and kneading to rising and baking -- here is everything you need to bake the perfect loaf.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76663 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-14
• Released on: 2002-11-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 120 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Even accomplished cooks sometimes shy away from baking their own breads, since the task leaves such considerable room for error. How long to knead? How long to mix? How to add fruit or nuts without turning a loaf to lead? This attractive and informative volume, part of Williams-Sonoma's series of slim cookbooks, answers questions even the most nervous baker might have, providing step-by-step instructions for classics like Popovers and Corn Bread, as well as for more complicated yeast breads such as Swedish Rye and Oatmeal-Molasses Bread. Like all Williams-Sonoma guides, this book emphasizes the practical, providing a section in the end called "Bread Basics," which clarifies the difference between quick breads and yeast breads and explains the way breads should rise. The recipes themselves, accompanied by mouth-watering photographs, offer a comprehensive tour through the wide world of bread, with stops in Wales (for a fruity Welsh Bara Brith), Italy (for a deliciously salty Onion Foccacia and a sweet Christmas Panettone), and the Middle East (for firm and chewy Pita Bread).
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Beth Hensperger is a widely acclaimed expert on the subject of bread and has written many books on baking, including Bread for Breakfast, Bread for All Seasons, The Best Quick Breads, and The Bread Bible, for which she won a James Beard Award. Her articles have also appeared in such publications as Bon Appétit and Cooking Light. Ms. Hensperger lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Customer Reviews

Excellent book!
This is the first bread book I owned and the one that started a baking frenzy that still goes on! It's a beautiful book with incredible recipes. The challah is outstanding, the banana nut muffins are SOOOO good!, the orange date cake delicious, the brioche ease and delicious, the gruyere pullman loaf is amazing... I can go on and on. The only minus is the lack of sourdough breads. A book definitely worth having.

Best recipe book for bread making, ever!
I have tried over a dozen of the recipes and they have all turned out fantastic! Sometimes I have substituted ingredients and still produced excellent bread. Favorite recipes include: yogurt french bread, Taos pumpkin bread, country bread with golden raisins and walnuts, and more!

Beth is the Bomb!!
I bought this book in college back in 1988. A budding baker and cook, Beth inspired me to knead my arms out. Bread machines are great but nothing connects you to the bread more than hand kneading it. The magic I derived from watching a rising loaf motivated me to become a professional brewer!!

Beth's recipes are wonderful and she guides even the novice quickly through producing top notch loaves. Favorites including the Whole Wheat Basil Bread, the Olive Baguettes and the Seeded Dill Rye. Her muffin recipes are also fabulous--I've made them all. I'm especially fond of the Wild Rice and Shiitake Mushroom muffins and the Fresh Lemon muffins.

After all these years, I think I may go buy another book on bread--one of Beth's new ones!!