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The Panera Bread Cookbook: Breadmaking Essentials and Recipes from America's Favorite Bakery-Cafe
Nothing satisfies or delights the appetite quite like bread, from rustic sourdough sandwiches and crostini piled high with Roma tomatoes to Sunday morning French toast and savory Thanksgiving stuffing. No one knows better than Panera Bread that well-made bread is the centerpiece to a great meal. Now America’s favorite bakery-cafe offers a practical guide to baking artisan breads at home, along with more than 120 recipes for tantalizing dishes that begin with handcrafted bread—whether you’re baking your own or starting with a warm, crusty loaf fresh from your local bakery.Panera’s expert bakers guide you through the six easy steps to successful bread-making at home, outlining the ingredients, tools, and techniques that guarantee a perfect loaf. Learn how to work with fresh yeast, adjust recipes according to the baker’s percentage, and craft more than a dozen varieties of white, wheat, and rye breads.Too often, great bread is relegated to the sidelines during a meal, so the Panera Bread team also serves up creative ways to cook with artisan breads in appetizers, breakfast and brunch fare, sandwiches, soups, salads, sides, and even desserts. Innovative sandwiches such as Fuji Apple and Fontina Panini and new twists on family favorites like Bananas Foster French Toast showcase the bold flavors and remarkable textures of breads like Kalamata Olive, Raisin Pecan, Three-Cheese, and Focaccia. Panera Bread also shares, for the first time ever, a handful of recipes from their award-winning bakery-cafe menu.A thorough introduction to bread-making for beginners and an indispensable reference for experienced bakers, The Panera Bread Cookbook is a celebration of this eternal comfort food—a must-own for bread lovers and bakers everywhere.
Unknown Binding
First published November 9, 2004
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85 people want to read
About the author
Peter Reinhart
23 books99 followersPeter Reinhart is a master baker, educator, and award-winning author, renowned for his deep exploration of bread and pizza. His books, including The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza, and Bread Revolution, have redefined the way people think about baking. With multiple James Beard Awards under his belt, he is considered one of the most influential voices in the world of bread and artisan baking.
A passionate teacher, Peter serves as a Chef on Assignment at Johnson & Wales University, where he shares his expertise with aspiring bakers. He has also worked as a consultant for major food brands, helped develop innovative baking techniques, and even delivered a TED Talk on the transformative power of bread.
His lifelong quest for the perfect pizza led him on a journey across the U.S. and Italy, documented in American Pie, and continues through Pizza Quest, a blog where he explores the art and craft of pizza-making.
Peter’s work goes beyond recipes—he delves into the history, science, and philosophy of baking, believing that bread is not just food but a metaphor for transformation and discovery. Whether you’re a home baker, a professional, or just someone who loves a good loaf, his books offer inspiration, technique, and a deep appreciation for the magic of fermentation.
A passionate teacher, Peter serves as a Chef on Assignment at Johnson & Wales University, where he shares his expertise with aspiring bakers. He has also worked as a consultant for major food brands, helped develop innovative baking techniques, and even delivered a TED Talk on the transformative power of bread.
His lifelong quest for the perfect pizza led him on a journey across the U.S. and Italy, documented in American Pie, and continues through Pizza Quest, a blog where he explores the art and craft of pizza-making.
Peter’s work goes beyond recipes—he delves into the history, science, and philosophy of baking, believing that bread is not just food but a metaphor for transformation and discovery. Whether you’re a home baker, a professional, or just someone who loves a good loaf, his books offer inspiration, technique, and a deep appreciation for the magic of fermentation.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 30, 2016
This is unquestionably a book about bread baking, and not cooking the Panera Bread menu. But I bought the book at a brick and mortar store, so I had the luxury of reading the back cover, which makes that very clear.
I really do adore this book. It is the first and only bread baking book in my extensive personal collection of cookbooks for a few reasons. First and foremost, I find the exactitude of baking to be too fussy so I tend to avoid baking in favor of other kitchen activities. Therefore, I don't own many baking books at all due to lack of interest. Second, the twenty or so pages of fundamental bread making instruction in this book are so well written and illustrated that I never felt like I needed a second bread baking book. Third, the variety of recipes in this book is so wide ranging that I found pretty much everything that I was looking for, and did not need to look elsewhere.
Of course, I skipped all the basic bread recipes and went right to the advanced sourdough recipe. It was very easy and a lot of fun actually to create my own perpetual sourdough starter, although it took the better part of a day to accomplish both stages. There was a certain satisfaction to coming downstairs in the morning to a kitchen smelling of yeast and a starter that was audibly bubbling away quite merrily. The sourdough bread took about 25 hours to do properly - 16 hours in the refrigerator, 6 hours on the counter, 3 hours proofing after being shaped. Despite numerous attempts, I could never get my loaves to rise in the oven or to have that distinctive sourdough sour taste. And I got creative and experimented with whether the quantity of starter was supposed to be measured cold and then let warm to room temperature, or whether the quantity of starter was supposed to be measured at room temperature. I deviated from the recipe proportions of whole wheat and white flour to see if that would make a difference. I even brought my starter down to my parents' house an hour away to work with my mom's KitchenAid mixer to see if that would develop the dough better than my hand mixing. No matter what I did, my loaves were always flat. I'm on my third batch of sourdough starter in about five years - I keep forgetting to feed them so they die of malnutrition and neglect - and I plan to keep experimenting with the sourdough bread recipe.
The sourdough starter and bread recipes have been the only recipes in the book that I've tried so far. Despite their flatness, the sourdough loaves have had a great taste and texture, so I really haven't felt the need to try any others. Especially since I have so much sourdough starter in my refrigerator to use up!
I really do adore this book. It is the first and only bread baking book in my extensive personal collection of cookbooks for a few reasons. First and foremost, I find the exactitude of baking to be too fussy so I tend to avoid baking in favor of other kitchen activities. Therefore, I don't own many baking books at all due to lack of interest. Second, the twenty or so pages of fundamental bread making instruction in this book are so well written and illustrated that I never felt like I needed a second bread baking book. Third, the variety of recipes in this book is so wide ranging that I found pretty much everything that I was looking for, and did not need to look elsewhere.
Of course, I skipped all the basic bread recipes and went right to the advanced sourdough recipe. It was very easy and a lot of fun actually to create my own perpetual sourdough starter, although it took the better part of a day to accomplish both stages. There was a certain satisfaction to coming downstairs in the morning to a kitchen smelling of yeast and a starter that was audibly bubbling away quite merrily. The sourdough bread took about 25 hours to do properly - 16 hours in the refrigerator, 6 hours on the counter, 3 hours proofing after being shaped. Despite numerous attempts, I could never get my loaves to rise in the oven or to have that distinctive sourdough sour taste. And I got creative and experimented with whether the quantity of starter was supposed to be measured cold and then let warm to room temperature, or whether the quantity of starter was supposed to be measured at room temperature. I deviated from the recipe proportions of whole wheat and white flour to see if that would make a difference. I even brought my starter down to my parents' house an hour away to work with my mom's KitchenAid mixer to see if that would develop the dough better than my hand mixing. No matter what I did, my loaves were always flat. I'm on my third batch of sourdough starter in about five years - I keep forgetting to feed them so they die of malnutrition and neglect - and I plan to keep experimenting with the sourdough bread recipe.
The sourdough starter and bread recipes have been the only recipes in the book that I've tried so far. Despite their flatness, the sourdough loaves have had a great taste and texture, so I really haven't felt the need to try any others. Especially since I have so much sourdough starter in my refrigerator to use up!
January 22, 2017
I love how baking is explained in detail. Whether you're an experienced baker or novice, all the steps to get started are covered. The recipes use mainly healthy ingredients, too. (Not sure that vegetable shortening or chocolate total counts as healthy.) The cultural history of breads was interesting.
May 12, 2010
I was so very disappointed in this book. None of the food recipes are things I recognize from Panera's menu and most of the bread recipes aren't even completely whole grain. Also, the one bread recipe I did try didn't even rise up nicely.
March 10, 2017
Liked the salad dressing recipes
January 10, 2018
Wish it had more recipes from Panera but overall got good ideas for new things to make.
July 30, 2018
Mostly complicated bread recipes, not many recipes of what is served in the restaurant.
March 15, 2022
I've only eaten at Panera a couple of times. This cookbook is a fair representation of their offerings. Nothing too exciting but good flavor combinations.
August 1, 2024
Does not have the cheddar broccoli or chicken and rice soup recipes, but a very nice cookbook with some great recipes.
May 28, 2013
"The Panera Bread Cookbook," put out by the Panera Bread Bakery-Cafe, is a cookbook with recipes for bread, soups, sandwiches, and recipes designed to use up leftover bread.
The bread recipes I tried were disappointing. The white bread had too soft/squishy a crust (which, yes, is a personal complaint) and other types of bread seem to simply be that recipe with add-ins. The cinnamon raisin bread, for instance, was exactly the same but with raisins and cinnamon chips tossed in, no other changes. It... wasn't super good. Most of the bread recipes didn't really interest me, same with the soups etc, either because they weren't to my taste or because they looked pretty generic/basic. The bread recipes all called for a poolish (or a sour dough starter) and it was cool working with a poolish, which I don't normally do.
The best part of the book, however, was the introduction which talked about the mechanics of baking bread. I picked this up from the library and now have a better handle on telling when bread dough is kneaded enough. It's not a terrible book, but I prefer "Beard On Bread," which is full of interesting recipes and step by step instruction.
The bread recipes I tried were disappointing. The white bread had too soft/squishy a crust (which, yes, is a personal complaint) and other types of bread seem to simply be that recipe with add-ins. The cinnamon raisin bread, for instance, was exactly the same but with raisins and cinnamon chips tossed in, no other changes. It... wasn't super good. Most of the bread recipes didn't really interest me, same with the soups etc, either because they weren't to my taste or because they looked pretty generic/basic. The bread recipes all called for a poolish (or a sour dough starter) and it was cool working with a poolish, which I don't normally do.
The best part of the book, however, was the introduction which talked about the mechanics of baking bread. I picked this up from the library and now have a better handle on telling when bread dough is kneaded enough. It's not a terrible book, but I prefer "Beard On Bread," which is full of interesting recipes and step by step instruction.
February 3, 2009
Although I don't love their food, their bread is fabulous! We're addicted to their Sunflower Bread. Bought the book for that particular recipe. I haven't found it included in the recipes yet. There are some nice tips for bread making though. Hope I find the recipe I'm looking for!
Haven't tried any of the recipes yet...and I didn't find the Sunflower Bread recipe. Darn!
Haven't tried any of the recipes yet...and I didn't find the Sunflower Bread recipe. Darn!
July 11, 2008
So far, I loved all the recipes I've tried. They do take a little longer than normal and require more yeast and kneading time than I'm used to. And using a pizza/bread stone has really improved the quality of the crust. I just need a brick oven now and my bread/pizza will be superb.
May 23, 2015
I was disappointed with this book. Maybe I misunderstood what it was all about, but I thought it would have the recipes from the Panera menu. I was particularly interested in the recipe for their black bean soup. Nope! Not in the book. :( It is an interesting book, just not what I was looking for.
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October 9, 2009The Panera Bread Cookbook: Breadmaking Essentials and Recipes from America's Favorite Bakery-Cafe by Panera Bread (2004)
June 21, 2011
it was interesting mainly to look at, thought it would have more items that they made at Panera Bread, but mostly just told you how to make bread.
March 17, 2016
Excellent recipes, especially for the breads!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews