Bouchon Bakery

by Thomas Keller, Sebastien Rouxel

Baked goods that are marvels of ingenuity and simplicity from the famed Bouchon Bakery. The tastes of childhood have always been a touchstone for Thomas Keller, and in this dazzling amalgam of American and French baked goods, you'll find recipes for the beloved TKOs and Oh Ohs (Keller's takes on Oreos and Hostess's Ho Hos) and all the French classics he fell in love with as a young chef apprenticing in Paris: the baguettes, the macarons, the mille-feuilles, the "tartes aux fruits." Co-author Sebastien Rouxel, executive pastry chef for the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, has spent years refining techniques through trial and error, and every page offers a new lesson: a trick that assures uniformity, a subtlety that makes for a professional finish, a flash of brilliance that heightens flavor and enhances texture. The deft twists, perfectly written recipes, and dazzling photographs make perfection inevitable.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference, Culinary, France

400 pages, Hardcover

First published October 9, 2012

About the author

Thomas Keller is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook writer. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation, notably the Best California Chef in 1996, and the Best Chef in America in 1997. The restaurant is a perennial winner in the annual Restaurant Magazine list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World.
In 2005, he was awarded the three star rating in the inaugural Michelin Guide for New York for his restaurant Per Se, and in 2006, he was awarded three stars in the inaugural Michelin Guide to the Bay Area for The French Laundry. He is the only American chef to have been awarded simultaneous three star Michelin ratings for two different restaurants.

Reviews

[Optimist ♰King's Wench♰ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must confess that I'm a bit biased in that I heart all things Thomas Keller. I have both Ad Hoc & Bouchon that I use regularly. There are a few renown chefs that I follow, some for the sole reason that they are great at what they do others for their personality & of course the recipes but TK is one that embodies both.

This book has major contributions from 2 of his chefs Sebastien Rouxel & Matthew McDonald. There's a wealth of information to be had from these 3 chefs & if you love to bake or are a starting chef, you should start here after picking up a scale that is. What I most love about TKs books are the tips, just little hints that maybe you would think about & maybe you wouldn't but things that actually make it feel like he's somehow right there with you. I guess more succinctly the details of cooking/baking that happen "in the moment" are all here. The books are all extremely accessible & user friendly. Explanations are given for every method that is encouraged & basic recipes always are in the back of the books-staple recipes like pastry cream & buttercream that can translate to so many other recipes. I often use TKs basics when I'm cooking even if I'm following someone else's recipe or if I'm creating something myself.

This is a great book. Essential if you love to bake or are a huge TK fan. The man just knows his stuff period.

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book. What I have cooked from it is delicious. However it is definitely a coffee table cookbook. The recipes were poorly edited and made rolling out tart dough incomprehensible, which rolling out tart dough should not be. The brioche recipe is the most finicky yeast dough I have ever worked with and I regularly work with yeast. Bouchon Bakery also markets itself to home bakers, although most recipes need professional equipment, ingredients, or plenty of four-handed maneuvers. It is also expensive to cook from this book for the same reasons it is not for home bakers. All in all, 5 stars for attractiveness, 4 for flavor, 2 for workability. For a beautiful cookbook that is far more straightforward I suggest Homemade Summer by Yvette Van Boven.

[Arnaud · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some easy recipes, some not-so-easy. Good cookbook overall, the recipes are well written with clear instructions to follow

[Marion · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book hurt my back and wrists trying to carry it home from the library. Also, the recipes are ridiculous and will make you want to punch someone. Side note: 1 cup of eggs equals 5 large eggs.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Restaurant recipes that are changed so that they can be used in the home kitchen - includes bread. Most of the recipes are familiar but some of the hints and techniques are variations and may be helpful for those hoping to elevate their baking.

I will be taking down 4 or 5 recipes, mainly from the tart area of the cookbook. There a is rhubarb recipe that uses a technique of cooking the rhubarb first and then making a tart around it. One of my favourite things is rhubarb and this looks so stunning that I am going to have to try it. I only hope that I can get enough rhubarb in the next few weeks to keep my dreams of trying all the recipes I have on the go.

Another one that has made me go yum was a caramel nut tart using pate brisee and so there is that. All in all, not enough new for me to buy but at least a few for me to try. It is another beautiful book by the Thomas Keller team.

[Yaaresse · Rating 5 out of 5]

2-2024 Sampled with high hopes. It looks amazing, but, holy Hell, $44 for the Kindle edition?
I realize it's Thomas Keller and to him $44 is the cost of an appetizer, but let's get real here.
And why is the print version actually cheaper (by only $2, but still) than the Kindle version? That make no sense at all.

Have to be honest, though, if print was still an option for me, I'd be haunting used book stores for this.
____
3-2024. Received as a gift and devoured slowly. Probably wasn't the best thing to have in hand when being told to watch my A1c levels, but needs must. :)

Some of this is a bit ambitious for me, but the pecan sandie and peanut butter cookies are so worth it. Will be going back to study the bread chapter in much more detail.

[Annabel Dunstone Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book! So far I've made the French macarons, double chocolate chunk cookies, & Italian buttercream. Yes, the book is enormous but I found the size useful- it lays open to the correct page on my counter. And as others have pointed out, you have to weigh absolutely everything (including eggs), but I find it comforting to know I'm baking with the exact right measurements.

A couple notes-
- You can find Dutch process cocoa at Sur la Table
- I didn't care for Kosher salt in the cookies- way too salty for me. Next time I'll use a finer grain.

[Dana Al-Basha | دانة الباشا · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to try my hands and make something oh-so-French! Looks yummy... and a bit challenging but I'm in!

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I try to get better each day, to do my job just a little better every day. Not a lot, but a little. Every day. [- Thomas Keller, The Road to Bouchon Bakery]

This is so heartening. I couldn't wait to read about what makes the Bouchon Bakery bread so special.

Bread is the reason Bouchon Bakery exists. I conceived the bakery to make bread for my restaurants. [...] I love bread. Bread is both the simplest of foods—flour, water, yeast, and salt—and infinitely complex. It's one of the easiest foods to make (if it were difficult, it wouldn't have been around for millennia), but it's also fantastically nuanced. Truly great bread does indeed take great care.
[- Thomas Keller, Breads]

And yet. And yet. Wait I did.

Before even getting to bread, the book covers cookies (the sandwich cookie, Better Nutter (a nod to, unfamiliar to me, the commercial brand 'Nutter Butter') includes "basic buttercream" in the ingredients list, with a link to the recipe that is several pages later in the basics section. Also, the instructions say to make insanely large cookies, "only 3 on each pan"... to give them a little credit, they do include a sidebar on how to make "bite-size cookies"), scones and muffins, cakes, tarts, paté à choux, brioche & doughnuts (with links to the basic brioche recipe at the back(!!) of the book), puff pastry and croissants. After the bread chapter are confections (caramel corn, toffee, mint patties, nougat, etc., etc...), and finally, basics. At the end of the book! Scoring instructions are also at the end of the bread chapter, rather than the beginning. Perhaps this is all part of their instruction in the "Work Clean" section to "read each recipe before you dive in. Read the recipe at least once from beginning to end, so that you understand the process".

I confess that after reading right to the end, I'm still waiting to learn what makes the Bouchon Bakery bread so special.... Ha. Bread is the reason I got this book out of the library.

I tried to ignore the instructions on each bread recipe to "Spray a large bowl with nonstick spray before mixing the dough. I also averted my eyes from "Place the flour and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook and give it a quick mix on the lowest setting to distribute the yeast evenly" - as if using a hand whisk won't do exactly the same thing without racking up any more charges to your electric bill.

There are several photographs included with the Bread shaping instructions. Alas, even with the photos, the instruction for shaping a boule is clear as mud.

It's not that there's anything really terribly wrong about the bread recipes, or indeed any of the recipes. They are just not quite up to snuff. They are clearly written by people who make huge amounts of bread to be sold in their high-end bakery - bread that must be consistent in taste, texture, looks, or the bakery will go out of business.

Sure, they say that all the recipes were tested in home kitchens. But the kitchens used were all equipped with fancy stand mixers. How to mix bread by hand is glaringly missing. How to make bread using only a levain (sourdough starter) and zero commercial yeast is glaringly missing. Every single so-called sourdough bread calls for at least a little commercial yeast to be added, in spite of the following:

There are all kinds of myths and theories about starting a yeast culture: Put organic grapes into the flour and water, or purple cabbage. You can only develop a true sourdough in the Bay Area. So-and-so's grandmother's 400-year-old starter has amazing complexity and distinction. Nonsense. Sourdough is the world's oldest leavened bread and it's all more or less the same, with the variations depending on climate, amount of hydration, how often you feed the starter, and so on. The distinction of sourdough is the level of sour you bring to it. The French tend to make milder sourdoughs. Generally, the looser the starter, the less sour it will be. This boule is tangy but not super sour. [Breads | Sourdough Boule]

It begs the question, why on earth is there any commercial yeast included in a bread entitled "Sourdough Boule"? Don't they trust their starter?

They also include a "Note to Professionals" to "hold back some of the water during the hydration phase so that you can better control the dough and achieve the consistency that works best for you" and to "use an autolyse [...] so that it will require less mixing". This seems backwards. A more experienced baker can handle the higher hydration. Also the home baker can certainly benefit from using the autolyse technique.

However, it was the section on how to make a levain (sourdough starter) that really accelerated the downhill plunge, when Thomas Keller wrote, "Feeding the starter frequently also means that you'll be throwing a lot of starter away. There's really no avoiding it when you're growing a culture". Sigh. This is just false. And wasteful.

At least there is this cautionary note: "Don't throw extra starter down your drain. Gluten is not water-soluble (as your sponge will show you, if you've ever used it to clean dough out of a mixing bowl), and it can clog your pipes over time. It's better to dispose of the starter in the garbage can or compost heap".

Keller isn't kidding when he says "a lot of starter" is going to be thrown away! At the 24 hour mark he's throwing away 350 grams starter, or 175 grams flour. With the first feeding, he now has a total of 500 + 150 grams starter, or 325 grams flour in the mix (I think). With the second feeding, he's throwing away 500 grams of starter, or 250 grams flour. Then he is adding 250 more grams flour. So that makes 425 grams flour thrown away (enough to make a decent loaf of bread). And that's just after day 2! Apparently, the starter is ready to use after 6 days of twice-daily feedings, but will be "at optimal strength after 2 weeks of twice-daily feedings". Clearly, Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel have an unlimited supply of flour in their home kitchens....

Don't get me wrong. There are many really good aspects to the book. I particularly like the suggestion to use a timer as a reminder to stretch and fold the dough. But it is most definitely not a book for beginners or for people hoping to learn more about the hands-on aspect of bread making. It is ideal for people who have invested in a stand mixer equipped with a dough hook, with itemized speeds and timing for each step of mixing. But, arguably, they really go too far by rashly saying, "Once you've made a stand mixer a part of your kitchen, it's hard to imagine doing without one". Why??? In a bakery, when mixing zillons of loaves, yes. But for one loaf or two at a time? It's silly. The thought of washing the thing (let alone find space to keep it) is enough to keep a stand mixer out of our tiny kitchen.

However, everyone can benefit from the section entitled "Throw Out Your Measuring Cups—and other notes on using this book" by Susie Heller and Amy Vogler

WEIGHING VERSUS MEASURING [...] [T]he merits of weighing are not only about accuracy: weighing is also more convenient. Weighing is a much easier and cleaner way to measure peanut butter, molasses, or corn syrup, for example—you simply set the mixing bowl on the scale, tare the scale (set it to zero), and measure the ingredient into the bowl, rather than having to scrape it into and out of a measuring cup. And, of course, there is the additional bonus that more than one ingredient can be measured into that same bowl.

[...]
You'll see that most of these recipes have what may seem crazily specific weights: 519 grams of flour, for instance, or 234 grams of sugar. [...] However, when converting those weights to volume, we often had to round them off (despite Sebastien and Matthew's preference that we not). In a short time it should become readily clear why weighing is the preferable route.
[...]
There are so many variables present every time you begin a recipe: the heat of the kitchen, the ingredients, the calibration of your oven, to name just a few. Weighing rather than measuring by volume is a simple way of eliminating one big variable. [...] When you measure by volume, the weight of an ingredient can differ each time. Once you get a scale, you can see for yourself how wide a range of weights a cup of flour can be, depending on how it is spooned or scooped or packed; it can vary in volume by as much as 50 percent depending on who's doing the measuring, how the flour was stored and measured, and the humidity. [...] Another example is salt—different salts are not equal in weight when measured by volume. A tablespoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt (used in these recipes), for example, weighs only 60 percent of what a tablespoon of Morton kosher salt weighs. [- Susie Heller and Amy Vogler, Throw Out Your Measuring Cups]

Also, in the ingredients lists, "when an ingredient, such as sugar, is used more than once in a recipe, we split the measurements accordingly". They also include water in the ingredients lists if water is an actual ingredient. How radical! (I wonder how much they had to argue with rule-bound editors who are stuck following an arbitrary set of rigid recipe-writing guidelines devised by a small but powerful group of non-cooks from sometime in the middle of the 20th century.)

With the knowledge that many kitchens now have convection ovens, there are specific instructions and times given for both convection and standard ovens, as well as the recommendation to check on things in the oven by "turning on the oven light rather than opening the oven door, which will lower the temperature significantly". And at long last, there is a reasonable explanation for why so many bread baking books suggest preheating for an hour or so:

All ovens cycle, meaning they heat up to over the designated temperature and stop heating, then start heating up again when the temperature drops below what is set. An oven will bake or cook food most evenly if it has cycled three times [Throw Out Your Measuring cups]

Useful:
Uses for different temperatures of butter
How to temper chocolate
Key Sugar temperatures (soft-ball, hard-ball, hard-crack, caramelizing, etc.)

Regret:
The ingredients for Cup4Cup gluten-free flour mixture that can "be substituted cup for cup, gram for gram, for wheat flour" are not included in the book.

Favourite Passages:

Every Morning in Paris When I was twenty-eight, I lived on the top floor of 15, rue de Vouille. On the ground floor was a tiny boulangerie. [...] [M]y most enduring memory is of waking up every morning to that smell of baking bread. [...] It had quickly become clear to me how central bread was to life in Paris. The boulangerie in my building was maybe 100 square feet of retail space; the ovens were in the back. I was fascinated by the man who baked the bread. I saw that a man could devote his life to baking bread, and that it was a good life, a worthy profession and one to be revered. [...] [A] bakery is an anchor—it draws a community around it. People would sit in the bakeries to eat their croissants; they would gather in the morning, and in the afternoon. People come together at and around bakeries. Baking is a unifying force. [- Thomas Keller, Every Morning in Paris]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Today grocery store bakeries tend to use bake-off operations or heat-and-serve operations, or a combination of the two. But in 1993, that Safeway still baked from scratch every day. [- Matthew McDonald, A Bread Baker's Journey]]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The recipes in this book are the same ones, though scaled down, that Bouchon Bakery uses daily, along with many tips to make them easier to prepare at home. We tested them all multiple times, and we think your results will be as stunning as ours were. [- Susie Heller and Amy Vogler, Throw Out Your Measuring Cups]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When using butter to make a firm tart dough or an elastic brioche dough, you are literally shortening the long strands of gluten, the protein network that makes dough elastic. [...] When water and flour are mixed together, long strands of proteins are released, but they're all in a clump, a big mass. [...] The more you work the dough, however, the more the strands line up in a row, get connected, and become parallel. They can stretch, and the dough becomes elastic. [...] When you add fat, however, you weaken the bonds of those long gluten strands, separating them, preventing them from hooking up and making the dough strong and elastic. You keep those cords short and disconnected. We want a strong dough for pasta and bread, but for brioche, tarts, or cookies, we want a tender one. [- Cookies | The Short of It]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The only way to know if you are mixing the dough right is through practice, and by keeping track of your results. We don't believe that being able to stretch a piece of dough until it becomes translucent, as is often taught, is adequate to determine if dough is mixed enough. Also, our doughs are fairly slack—that is, loose—so you couldn't use this "windowpane" test anyway; when you scrape them out of the bowl and onto your work surface, they will spread out into fairly flat blobs. Slack, or wet, doughs can ferment longer and develop more flavor. [-Breads, Second stage : mixing]

Bookmarked:
» Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
» TKOs (chocolate wafers with white chocolate filling - resembling Oreos but with, clearly, a much better center)
» Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins
» Gingerbread (Pain d'épices) "favorite afternoon snack of Sebastien's when he was a schoolboy"
» Devil's Food Cake
» Craquelins
» Docking method for a Campagne Boule
» Multigrain bread (but omit the needless commercial yeast) - "[T]he most important aspect of a multigrain bread is its taste [...] If it's got some extra nutritional value, that's great, but if it doesn't taste good, why eat it?"
» Rye bread scoring method (they suggest scoring it before proofing) - "the dough [for rye bread] is actually a little more fragile"
» Pain Palladin (but omit the addition of needless commercial yeast) - "this recipe uses less commercial yeast" Why does it include any when it calls for liquid levain?!
» Vegetable Stock
» Nougat aux fruits
» Fuhgeddaboudits
» Basic Buttercream

re: "All of the loaves of bread (except for brioche) are illustrated in timelines here. Each step is illustrated in a different color."

The timeline illustrations are completely useless on a black and white e-reader that has no way of enlarging the image. Unless you have a really fancy e-reader, if you are going to purchase this book, get the hard-cover.

+ + + + +
With regards to the 3 star rating, if the instructions included how to mix by hand, I'd assign 4 stars to the book. However, if rating for only for sourdough baking, I'd assign just 2 stars - simply because Keller advocates such profligate waste.

Thomas Keller's Liquid Levain:

Here are guidelines for starting and feeding a levain, with amounts given for the first six feedings.
[...]
 Starting your levain
» 250 grams All-purpose flour
» 250 grams Water, ideally at 75°F/23.8°C
[Combine, cover, and leave on counter for 24 hours.]
 [...]
Feeding your levain
» 1500 grams All-purpose flour
» 1500 grams Water, ideally at 75°F/23.8°C
  
Combine 250 grams each water and flour in a plastic or glass container. Add 150 grams of the 24-hour-old starter; discard the rest. Stir to combine well, then cover and return to the same place.
[...]
Repeat the feeding every 12 hours, using 250 grams each flour and water and 150 grams starter (discard the excess starter). [...] It will grow stronger with continued feedings and will be at optimal strength after 2 weeks of twice-daily feedings.

 
At the 24 hour mark Keller is throwing away 350 grams starter, or 175 grams flour. With the first feeding, he now has a total of 500 + 150 grams starter, or 325 grams flour in the mix (I think). With the second feeding, he's throwing away 500 grams of starter, or 250 grams flour. Then he is adding 250 more grams flour. So that makes 425 grams flour thrown away. This is enough flour to make a decent loaf of bread.

Not sure if I was figuring this correctly, I asked my sister (a math whiz) if my logic - or lack thereof - was way way off.

She replied:
> I think you're right. He's throwing away an enormous amount
> of flour. After 2 weeks, 14 feedings (or rather 14 throwings-away,
> it would be ... calculating ... calculating ... wait ...
> a gazillion grams of flour.

[M.A. Kropp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't baked everything in this book, but I think there will be many recipes that get made before long. Thomas Keller is a renowned chef and owner of very upscale restaurants including per se and the French Laundry. He wanted to start baking the breads for his restaurants, and opened the first Bouchon Bakery in 2003. He wanted to provide the bread for the restaurants, of course, but also to have a small cafe to sell pastries and breads similar to the ones he'd loved so working in Paris. He hired Matthew McDonald to run the bakery operation, and Sebastian Rouxel as pastry chef. The Bouchon Bakery has expanded to five bakeries.

Keller is mainly a savory chef, but he grew to love the aroma and flavors of bread and baked goods in Paris, as well as growing up where cookies were an everyday treat. The bakeries recreate some of these childhood memories in their own way. There are versions of Oreos, Nutter Butters, and Pecan Sandies, among others, in the book. I've made the Pecan Sandies, and they are delicious.

The book is beautiful, with clean, white pages, and stunning photography. It is large and a bit heavy. The recipes are clearly written, with ingredient lists in both metric weight measures (which Keller highly recommends using, and I do, too), and the more usual volume measures. Some recipes use specific ingredients, but there is a source listing in the back of the book. There are sections on Cookies, Scones and Muffins, Cakes, Tarts, Pate a Choux, Brioche and Doughnuts, Puff Pastry and Croissants, Breads, and Confections. There is also a chapter on Basics which gives recipes for frostings, fillings, glazes, and other things that don't necessarily fit in the other chapters, but are things every baker should know.

This is not a learn to bake book. Some of the recipes are a bit involved, and some are not, probably, for the novice baker. It certainly has a place on the cookbook shelf of anyone who loves to bake and wants to make some really wonderful treats.

[Pattie Tierney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautiful, if weighty cookbook. The sheer volume of this book, for me, made it less than practical; it was just too big to lug from counter to counter. It is full of stunning photography, informative tutorials, and lots of delicious sounding recipes. It is not, however, for the novice baker. Much of the equipment needed for at least half of the recipes would not be found in the average kitchen. It is also not for the inexperienced cook who would be unable to spot the numerous inconsistencies throughout this book. Weights of ingredients will occasionally differ or contradict what is listed in the instructions. In some cases there seems to be an over abundance of one ingredient or other, possibly resulting in a less than successful outcome (too much flour, too much butter, not enough sugar) are just a few examples. Many of the recipes are also very time consuming to prepare. Those that I did make were very good. The oatmeal raisin cookies, for one, were bakery shop quality.

Do I recommend this book? Well yes, and no. If you enjoy, as I do, reading cookbooks, then you will certainly enjoy this one. I found both text and photos very inspiring and took notes while reading. If you buy a cookbook for the sole purpose of making the recipes, then I would suggest passing this one by.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I picked this book up at the library, I was attracted by the cover and hooked by the beautiful photos I saw as I flipped through. In fact, it wasn't until I began reading it that I realized the author(s) own/work in some highly-regarded (famous?) restaurants.

That said, the more I read of the recipes, the more I realized that this cookbook, unlike others I've enjoyed, would be something to aspire to - something inspirational that I hope, "one day," to cook from. Even though the authors seem to do a good job translating their professional and large-scale recipes into smaller dimensions and clear instructions, the techniques and such are just a bit more than I feel ready to try.

The recipes sound (and look!) delicious, though, and it's obvious the chef authors care about their craft.

[Douglas Hitzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Keller is a man of precision, taste, and understanding when it comes to baking. His understanding of ingredients and baking processes are immediately clear. You do not have to read far into his book to see he is passionate, creative, and knowledgeable. All bakers alike will benefit from what Keller provides here. One of my favorite aspects of this book is his clear explanation of why weighing ingredients is essential to great baking. One of the most annoying aspects about him can also be his moderate pretentiousness. "...again playing with the American cookie idiom..." (Insert eye roll and big sigh here). All of that said, this book is an incredible resource for any and all who love baking!

[B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I have not tried to execute any of the recipes in my own kitchen although I have eaten almost every type of baked goods, salads, soup, sandwiches from the Bakery, even a bite of the dog biscuit. And it is not overrated.

I did spend a couple of hours reading this and the passion these three men have for their profession and their work ethics are admirable. Their personal stories of family and childhood events are touching. All the recipes have measurements in the metric system which I find so convenient and wish was the case for all American cookbooks.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you bake, want to bake, dream about baked goods and are a Type-A personality, then invest in this book! Thomas Keller is a genius in the kitchen and in business as evidenced by the success of his restaurants coast-to-coast. If you are a foodie, own a restaurant that is struggling, or are contemplating getting into the business, follow this man's lead and you will never go wrong. Yes...I am a fan :-) Oatmeal Raisin cookies are the best I've ever had!

[Zomick's Bakery · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a good book, containing some interesting recipes. Some of them, like the challah bread, I tried preparing at my Zomick's bakery and the results from customers were generally positive. I'm still reading it when I like to try something new. Even thou those are not kosher recipes, some of the can be modified and offer delicious foods. Big plus is for having nice photos of the food recipes. - Zomick's Bread

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sad about giving this a one star. I love to cook and bake and love to read cookbooks. There was nothing in here that I want to make, and I love sweets and bakery. It was also written from a very holier than thou standpoint which turned me off. This should be an excellent book, but it just didn't do it at all
for me.

[Kelsey Forkner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains the best muffin recipe I've ever tried.

[Isabella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bouchon Bakery (Hardcover)
Author: Thomas keller
Publisher: Unknown
Year published: 2012
Genre: Cookbooks
Subgenre: Cooking/Bakery

Author Info:

Thomas keller: Born in October 14, 1995, is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook writer. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California.

Awards:

He has won multiple awards From The James Beard Foundation, notably the best California in 1996, and the Best Chef in America 1997. The restaurant is a perennial winer in the anual Restaurant Magazine list of the top 50 Restaurants of the world.

In 2005, he was awarded the three star rating in the inaugural Michelin Guide for New York for his restaurant Per Se, and in 2006, he was awarded three stars in the inaugural Michelin Guide to the Bay Area for the Bay Area for The French Laundry. He is the only American chef to have been awarded simultaneous three star michelin ratings for two different restaurants. He currently holds 7 Michelin stars stars total: 3 at Per Se, 3 at The French Laundry, and 1 at Bouchon.

The New York Times food citric William Grimes called Bouchon Bakery "a real cookbook" but noted that "going to to keller for a blueberry muffin seems a little like hiring Frank Gehry to desing your birdhouse.

The book awards are: Beard by astronomical Photography and The James Beard Foundation.


This book is huge. Which is awesome, because you can see the gorgeous photos large-scale. Still, I don't know how you'd wrestle with this in a kitchen.

"I also learned that a bakery is an anchor -- it draws a community around it. People would sit in the bakeries to eat their croissants;

This cookbook was wrote in California, USA.

If I have to compare this story with another story I would say that It it very similar to the Tanya Burr cookbook.

Isabella Maria Tejada

Thanks for reading it.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Out of coincidence this book made a great lift for G!

This book elevates baking to a level above Julia Child and even Martha Stewart. Maybe they are able to bake at this skill level though their books do not indicate this. I've gotten accustomed to weighing ingredients though this is the first book I've encountered to whisk eggs and put thru a sieve prior to weighing for a recipe. I also appreciate the brand identification of items for example the chocolates. I truly hope this is a book for the home baker. I can't wait to try some of the recipes!

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

To relieve the stress of selling our home and buying a new one, I've dove into perfecting the art of fermented breads. Of the many bread books I've recently read in pursuit of the homemade sourdough boule, this one is my favorite. The only thing I would change is breaking each chapter of this book into it's own book: cookies, cakes, breads, ect. It is a monster of a book and contains much more than I am interested in.

[Mairzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written and illustrated but totally impractical cookbook. While the recipes are well written, they are very involved and require too many expensive and difficult to find ingredients or utensils/equipment. Also I really don't understand this new trend of making cookbooks the size and weight of coffee table books. The size and heft are not conducive to easy use.

[Maria Angelica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eu curti muito esse livro por ter explicações muito detalhadas nas receitas. Testei a do macarron, mas com o meu forno à gás louco ficou difícil acertar. Tentarei novamente e tantas outras receitas do livro.
Meu único porém é que as receitas são super "francesas frescas", então várias coisas não me interessam tanto. No resto achei muito bom!

[X · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a real contrast to other books from the Bouchon series authored by Thomas Keller, this one is very down to earth, even when it describes and explains complex recipes (e.g. for pastries).

Helpful explanations and great context for what the base of a recipe is (vs. what the authors substituted or added for their specific use case).

[Amanda Bright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book -- read online but now added to my list of books to purchase. I already picked up a number of tips and am looking forward to owning a copy so I can start making some of the things I read about.

[Ligaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I checked this out of the library, read it, and it is now on my BUY list. Fabulous, comprehensive, challenging—all great things from a cookbook. I learned so much through reading, I can't wait to learning through the actually baking!

[Ioan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have tried the TKOs and have been disappointed. Their white chocolate filling is way off. It doesn't work, it comes out very runny, also the colour they show in the pictures is white, but if using white chocolate the colour of the feeling becomes yellowish.. I am disappointed.

[Megh Toth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking for more photos I guess? I wasn't too impressed with this book - the recipes were also pretty extreme so perhaps I am just a lazy baker? It made my mouth water but I wasn't inspired to bake anything from it.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

One day, I will probably delude myself into trying something from this book. Whatever recipe I choose, I am sure it will savor of disappointment.

[Miguel Ángel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cookbook full of knowledge, tips and recommendations to be a better baker. The images are illustrative and accompany the text, which reminded me, due to its similarity, to an art gallery.