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The Bread Bible
The Bread Bible gives bread bakers 150 of the meticulous, foolproof recipes that are Rose Levy Beranbaum's trademark. Her knowledge of the chemistry of baking, the accessibility of her recipes, and the incomparable taste of her creations make this book invaluable for home cooks and professional bakers alike.
"Understanding" and "Pointers for Success" sections explain in simple, readable language the importance of various techniques and ingredients demonstrated in a recipe, providing a complete education in the art of baking, with thorough sections on types of flour, equipment, and other essentials. Easy-to-use ingredient tables provide both volume and weight, for surefire recipes that work perfectly every time.
Recipes include bread made with yeast starters, quick breads, flatbreads, brioche, and much more. From ciabatta, semolina, rye, and sourdough breads to bagels, biscuits, crumpets, and pizza dough, The Bread Bible covers all the baking bases.
"Understanding" and "Pointers for Success" sections explain in simple, readable language the importance of various techniques and ingredients demonstrated in a recipe, providing a complete education in the art of baking, with thorough sections on types of flour, equipment, and other essentials. Easy-to-use ingredient tables provide both volume and weight, for surefire recipes that work perfectly every time.
Recipes include bread made with yeast starters, quick breads, flatbreads, brioche, and much more. From ciabatta, semolina, rye, and sourdough breads to bagels, biscuits, crumpets, and pizza dough, The Bread Bible covers all the baking bases.
632 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 11, 2003
548 people are currently reading
12511 people want to read
About the author
Rose Levy Beranbaum
19 books216 followersRose Levy Beranbaum is an award-winning American baker and cookbook author.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews
April 24, 2014
Nothing will make you feel better about yourself and the world than pulling from the oven a golden brown miracle of aromatic sustenance. This book will enable you to do that, assured that you've created the real deal, exploding the myth that bakery bread can't be matched at home.
Unfortunately, doing real deal bread at home is significantly more time-consuming than the quickie recipes on the internet or in the pamphlet that came with your bread machine. If you think it's worth it, this book is a valuable investment. The title isn't an overstatement: this book is serious.
The Bread Bible's magical formulas do not use the single-ferment process found in most bread recipes, with a few exceptions (such as Pizza Dough or The Pullman Loaf Sammich Bread--Pain de Mie). Even the plain old white dinner rolls and basic soft white sammich loaf require the initiation of a dough starter (or sponge) for the pre-ferment phase, followed by additional flour and ingredients later to make the actual dough. Doing all this just to make soft American white sammich bread makes as much sense to me as home-manufacturing your own Velveeta or Cheez Whiz but to each her own and hey, it's just more proof that this book is serious.
Now, serious does not necessarily mean "hard." In cooking or baking I usually think of there being two kinds of hard: 1) time consuming with a lot of steps, 2) really easy to screw up. Now that I have tried a wide representative sample of the recipes in this book, if any of them are hard it is the #1 variety, as opposed to the #2 kind which is more common with candy or desserts involving eggs omg don't even get me started.
Keep in mind that time consuming can be misleading when it comes to bread, as it's sort of like doing laundry: short bouts of work separated by stretches of time when you can go off and do other stuff. If a recipe calls for an hour or so of first rising time, you don't have to watch over it or jump to a timer, and accidentally letting it go too long can be a plus, as the miracle of yeast has produced enzymes that have been busy breaking starches down into tasty sugars that brown up so nicely under heat. The best thing about this book is the science: it goes into detail on all the variables impinging on every ingredient from flour (type/quality) to water (hardness/softness), to eggs, yeast, etc. None of the recipes I tried called for any exotic ingredients that weren't readily available at the supermarket. To add to The Bread Bible's fabulousness, there is detailed information on subsitutions, with explanations of not only what will and won't work but why.
There are also in-depth explanations of each stage in the process of baking bread that will keep you from committing those recipe alterations that will result in a major bread-fail, while giving you the knowledge and confidence to try ones that will work.
Yeast, as a living being, knows when you don't know what you're doing and it will contrarily refuse to cooperate if you lack confidence. This book will help you show the yeast who's boss.
The range of recipes is impressive: brutally authentic baguettes, exotically tasty flatbreads (focaccias, pitas, parathas), the little things (muffins, biscuits, scones), fun stuff for the kids (monkeybread, sticky-buns, cinammon rolls), and go-all-out-foodie-hipster specialties (brioche, challa, pugliese). This book even teaches you how to capture your own local wild yeast for one-of-a-kind sourdough scrumptiousness.
While it has a decent amount of pretty photography (full-page pictures in their own sections), this book is quite text-heavy compared to so many of those food-porn coffee table artbooks masquerading as recipe collections. The instructions are explicit and presume little, while the ingredient ratios (cups, ounces, grams all pre-converted) are presented clearly in charts.
If you'd like to go from novice to accomplished baker in a minimum amount of time, this is the only book you will need. I swear on it.
Unfortunately, doing real deal bread at home is significantly more time-consuming than the quickie recipes on the internet or in the pamphlet that came with your bread machine. If you think it's worth it, this book is a valuable investment. The title isn't an overstatement: this book is serious.
The Bread Bible's magical formulas do not use the single-ferment process found in most bread recipes, with a few exceptions (such as Pizza Dough or The Pullman Loaf Sammich Bread--Pain de Mie). Even the plain old white dinner rolls and basic soft white sammich loaf require the initiation of a dough starter (or sponge) for the pre-ferment phase, followed by additional flour and ingredients later to make the actual dough. Doing all this just to make soft American white sammich bread makes as much sense to me as home-manufacturing your own Velveeta or Cheez Whiz but to each her own and hey, it's just more proof that this book is serious.
Now, serious does not necessarily mean "hard." In cooking or baking I usually think of there being two kinds of hard: 1) time consuming with a lot of steps, 2) really easy to screw up. Now that I have tried a wide representative sample of the recipes in this book, if any of them are hard it is the #1 variety, as opposed to the #2 kind which is more common with candy or desserts involving eggs omg don't even get me started.
Keep in mind that time consuming can be misleading when it comes to bread, as it's sort of like doing laundry: short bouts of work separated by stretches of time when you can go off and do other stuff. If a recipe calls for an hour or so of first rising time, you don't have to watch over it or jump to a timer, and accidentally letting it go too long can be a plus, as the miracle of yeast has produced enzymes that have been busy breaking starches down into tasty sugars that brown up so nicely under heat. The best thing about this book is the science: it goes into detail on all the variables impinging on every ingredient from flour (type/quality) to water (hardness/softness), to eggs, yeast, etc. None of the recipes I tried called for any exotic ingredients that weren't readily available at the supermarket. To add to The Bread Bible's fabulousness, there is detailed information on subsitutions, with explanations of not only what will and won't work but why.
There are also in-depth explanations of each stage in the process of baking bread that will keep you from committing those recipe alterations that will result in a major bread-fail, while giving you the knowledge and confidence to try ones that will work.
Yeast, as a living being, knows when you don't know what you're doing and it will contrarily refuse to cooperate if you lack confidence. This book will help you show the yeast who's boss.
The range of recipes is impressive: brutally authentic baguettes, exotically tasty flatbreads (focaccias, pitas, parathas), the little things (muffins, biscuits, scones), fun stuff for the kids (monkeybread, sticky-buns, cinammon rolls), and go-all-out-foodie-hipster specialties (brioche, challa, pugliese). This book even teaches you how to capture your own local wild yeast for one-of-a-kind sourdough scrumptiousness.
While it has a decent amount of pretty photography (full-page pictures in their own sections), this book is quite text-heavy compared to so many of those food-porn coffee table artbooks masquerading as recipe collections. The instructions are explicit and presume little, while the ingredient ratios (cups, ounces, grams all pre-converted) are presented clearly in charts.
If you'd like to go from novice to accomplished baker in a minimum amount of time, this is the only book you will need. I swear on it.
July 7, 2013
What an appropriate title. I cannot think of a bread making book that is nearly as archaic, overly verbose, hypocritical and self f*cking righteous as The Bread Bible. It's people like her that would have you think that making bread is a skill only bestowed upon a chosen people who have the internal knowledge and inborn divinity to bring dough to rise again! Baking, like anything else, has old techniques and old origins. But thanks to science we now know how bread is made and we have thus come up with all these nifty shortcuts so we don't need to have all these imported special yeasts, forever tended sourdough starters, and a twelve step process to get the kind of loaf you are looking for. And like a Christian ready to pounce on any money making opportunity for her creed, you don't need all these fancy gadgets she talks about either. She even advertises the Bread Machine! Seriously! Like saying, "oh, I only use it for the mixing," makes it any less ridiculous? Save your time, your money and your sanity. Bread making is not this complicated. Don't fall for the hype. The heavenly bread you seek can only be found when you come back to earth.
January 6, 2024
What I really like about The Bread Bible is that it truly is written for the home cook. Not that Beranbaum talks down or leaves out an essentials. She just isn't in the least way elitist. I liked her immediately when I read her thoughts on hand-kneading in the introduction. Has she been in my kitchen too? Did she hear me say pretty much the same thing?! I hope that she doesn't mind me quoting from her book:
I too find it impossible to get out aggression with bread dough. I simply cannot stay mad the moment I start kneading. The dough won't let me. It's just too pleasing. All that happens when punching it is that it simply turns the other cheek. Not to mention that the punch is immediately softened as the dough refuses to be hit and simply gives way.
Although I haven't made many of the recipes from the book (there are several), the ones that I have made have been wonderful. Thanks to Beranbaum's instruction to refrigerate shaped baguettes overnight and bake them in the morning, at last our baguettes are rivaling even the best baguettes we've tasted in France.
And the section entitled "The Ten Essential Steps of Making Bread" at the beginning of the book has been invaluable. She has even swayed me into accepting (almost) the label "barm". I do hope I'm not offending Beranbaum or her publishers by quoting her again:
She goes on to define each of these "strange-sounding names" in lay-terms. Further on are handy tips on how to adjust existing recipes to make them "suit your taste", how added ingredients can affect dough, ideal mixing and rising temperatures, pros and cons of hand vs various machine mixers, shaping techniques, etc. etc.
Only two aspects of the book are somewhat jarring:
1.) A recipe may go over several pages. For instance, the bagel recipe goes on for 8 pages. Granted, there are excellent drawings and detailed instructions. Mostly, the several page aspect is okay but unfortunately, the bagel ingredients list is over 3 pages, with the half recipe and full recipe spelled out for the starter and the final dough. There is not a big enough distinction in the headings for the ingredients' lists so great care must be taken (I really dislike having to turn the page in the middle of measuring).
2.) There are percentages at the end of each recipe for easier scaling. However, these percentages are not listed within each recipe so calculations have to be made when scaling a starter.
The back section of the book has extensive descriptions of ingredients. While the examples of flours are USA brands, it is still a valuable resource for any reader. The section on freshness is particularly interesting, especially now as flour prices are soaring and some people are foolishly buying up large quantities to hoard before the price goes even higher.
Again, I hope to be forgiven for quoting the book one more time:
There are also yeast conversion charts, including a paragraph on how to convert a recipe calling for commercial yeast into one using wild yeast. And another section on how to adjust the liquid content if using honey rather than sugar or vice versa.
Occasionally people suggest that making bread, particularly kneading it, must be a great way to get out aggression. The irony is that when I start making bread, I am immediately blissed out and any possible aggression immediately evaporates. I don't need to pound the bread with my fists to arrive at this blessed state.
I too find it impossible to get out aggression with bread dough. I simply cannot stay mad the moment I start kneading. The dough won't let me. It's just too pleasing. All that happens when punching it is that it simply turns the other cheek. Not to mention that the punch is immediately softened as the dough refuses to be hit and simply gives way.
Although I haven't made many of the recipes from the book (there are several), the ones that I have made have been wonderful. Thanks to Beranbaum's instruction to refrigerate shaped baguettes overnight and bake them in the morning, at last our baguettes are rivaling even the best baguettes we've tasted in France.
And the section entitled "The Ten Essential Steps of Making Bread" at the beginning of the book has been invaluable. She has even swayed me into accepting (almost) the label "barm". I do hope I'm not offending Beranbaum or her publishers by quoting her again:
Don't be put off by strange-sounding names, like barm, biga, chef, desem, levain, madre bianca, mother, pâte fermentée, poolish sponge, starter or sourdough starter. At first these terms put me off, and I was resolved to avoid them in this book, thinking that the all-encompassing term starter was all I really needed, but gradually these special words became familiar friends.
She goes on to define each of these "strange-sounding names" in lay-terms. Further on are handy tips on how to adjust existing recipes to make them "suit your taste", how added ingredients can affect dough, ideal mixing and rising temperatures, pros and cons of hand vs various machine mixers, shaping techniques, etc. etc.
Only two aspects of the book are somewhat jarring:
1.) A recipe may go over several pages. For instance, the bagel recipe goes on for 8 pages. Granted, there are excellent drawings and detailed instructions. Mostly, the several page aspect is okay but unfortunately, the bagel ingredients list is over 3 pages, with the half recipe and full recipe spelled out for the starter and the final dough. There is not a big enough distinction in the headings for the ingredients' lists so great care must be taken (I really dislike having to turn the page in the middle of measuring).
2.) There are percentages at the end of each recipe for easier scaling. However, these percentages are not listed within each recipe so calculations have to be made when scaling a starter.
The back section of the book has extensive descriptions of ingredients. While the examples of flours are USA brands, it is still a valuable resource for any reader. The section on freshness is particularly interesting, especially now as flour prices are soaring and some people are foolishly buying up large quantities to hoard before the price goes even higher.
Again, I hope to be forgiven for quoting the book one more time:
I have to confess that for years I never believed flour could get stale, as long as I couldn't smell any off flavors, but I was dead wrong. I learned the now-unforgettable lesson when developing the recipe for the baguette. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get those lovely open holes in the crumb. [...] I learned that unless you freeze flour, it is essential to date it the moment you bring it into the house and then ruthlessly throw it out after 3 months if it's whole wheat or rye, after one year if it's white flour. No ifs, ands, or buts. As flour ages, it loses its strength. [...] Flour isn't expensive enough to risk wasting your time with an expired one.
There are also yeast conversion charts, including a paragraph on how to convert a recipe calling for commercial yeast into one using wild yeast. And another section on how to adjust the liquid content if using honey rather than sugar or vice versa.
October 29, 2008
I should love this book. This should be the first book I go to when I need to make bread. I mean, its the freaking Bread Bible. But it's not. Beranbaum takes all the fun out of making bread with her teaspoon level measurements, lectures about proper flours, and rants about flavor development.
I get it. Bread is a science to Beranbaum. And to someone who feels the same way (which is probably most other bread bakers out there), I'm sure this book is the Bible. But to me, bread baking is an art. Okay it's kind of like a three-year old with fingerpaints, but you get my drift.
I get it. Bread is a science to Beranbaum. And to someone who feels the same way (which is probably most other bread bakers out there), I'm sure this book is the Bible. But to me, bread baking is an art. Okay it's kind of like a three-year old with fingerpaints, but you get my drift.
October 5, 2008
I checked this book out from the library because I just learned to bake a couple types of bread, and I wanted to be a bread expert. This book, if you read it and take it seriously, WILL make you a bread baking expert. I didn't realize until I spent about 30 minutes with this book that I have no interest in exerting the time and energy it takes to BECOME a bread expert....so it wasn't entirely what I was looking for. Maybe I need a book about how to fake being an expert baker without exerting the energy. For now, if I want fine artisan breads, I'll let the bakery do the work.
November 21, 2011
One of my very favorite cookbooks, from one of my very favorite cookbook authors. Do not be food by the impostor "Bread Bible" that's out there! You need RLB to guide you in baking.
Detailed, thorough, with the whys explained as well as the hows. Mixing & ingredient options (hand, mixer, food processor) included in many recipes, plus the "Ultimate full flavor variations" (short version: put the dough in the fridge for a day or three on the first rise). I sell bread based on these recipes. Get this book, then practice, and you will make awesome bread.
Favorites: Flaxseed bread, pugliese, the Stud Muffin (triply cheesy awesomeness, shaped like a giant muffin). Have yet to try her baguette recipe, but if anyone can make that work in a home oven, Rose Levy Berenbaum can.
Detailed, thorough, with the whys explained as well as the hows. Mixing & ingredient options (hand, mixer, food processor) included in many recipes, plus the "Ultimate full flavor variations" (short version: put the dough in the fridge for a day or three on the first rise). I sell bread based on these recipes. Get this book, then practice, and you will make awesome bread.
Favorites: Flaxseed bread, pugliese, the Stud Muffin (triply cheesy awesomeness, shaped like a giant muffin). Have yet to try her baguette recipe, but if anyone can make that work in a home oven, Rose Levy Berenbaum can.
May 10, 2021
Best blueberry muffins EVER!
January 2, 2012
Let me say first that Beranbaum is undoubtedly a master. After all, she developed most of the the recipes in this book on her own, using her own knowledge and the direction, ingredients, perhaps even the recipes of others. Let's just admit that writing a cookbook is darn hard work and nearly impossible. Aspiring cooks can't actually see and feel texture and notice those little indescribables that are so important in creating something completely new to them. All this is prelude to my frustration with her recipes. They seem to me to be overly complicated and particular to her. That is to say, they are not terribly sraightforward. I am used to adaptations of recipes for commonly used foods from around the world. They tend to be simple enough for whole cultures to adapt to their tastes.
One thing that mattered to me this holiday season was making for the first time a Pannetone, my favorite holiday bread. I was determined to delight myself with making a loaf to celebrate my re-connection with the dear Italian friend who first introduced Pannetone to me years ago with a commercially-bought loaf purchased from New York City’s legendary delicatessen, Zabar’s. Presumptuously perhaps, I determined that Pannetone would be my gift for family this year—one sibling, one loaf. Little did I know how many weeks and how much treasure would be spent on trying to achieve a bread that pleasured four of the five senses: eyes, nose, tongue, as well as the “lightness” of touch. I am now proud to say I almost succeeded. However, “almost” was simply not good enough for me at first.
I flatter myself, I know now, that I am something of a bread master. I should have known this when I read in Daniel Leader's Simply Great Breads: Sweet and Savory Yeasted Treats from America's Premier Artisan Baker that one should attempt to master one type of bread and become known for that. Well, really.
Beranbaum has a recipe for Pannetone in her book. I almost never follow recipes exactly, usually because I lack all the called-for ingredients, but I did follow this one pretty closely (except for the suggestion that the ambient rising temperature be 75-90 deg F). At 2 a.m. (silly me, I should have just gone to bed & let it rise overnight), I rushed this into the oven because it needed to be on the road early the next day. It didn't have the rise I was expecting, but it tasted good. It was gifted to someone who had never seen a Pannetone, so they didn't care. But I did. After this, I went in search of other recipes, finding one I didn't end up using in my standard bread book, The Bread Bible: 300 Favorite Recipes by Beth Hensberger. I finally used a richer variation of Peter Reinhart's basic recipe in his classic The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread.
Why all the recipes call for low heat for an hour or more mystifies me. It dried the bread out terribly. I ended up going by internal temperature, which was reached far in advance of everyone's suggested baking times. Go figure.
Anyway, I did read much of Beranbaum's book, which is packed with information for those interested in breadmaking. I learned how to make the onion smear usually found on commercially-produced bialys, and I tried the bagels (not a grand success--prefer Leader's in his book referenced above). I also tried the Swedish Limpa because I am trying to recreate a rye bread I tasted in Colorado years ago and which I finally learned is created through a singular process created specially at Dimmer's Bakery on Dahlia Street in Denver. Anyway, I'm still eating the Limpa a week later. It's still moist, but it isn't Dimmer's...
One thing that mattered to me this holiday season was making for the first time a Pannetone, my favorite holiday bread. I was determined to delight myself with making a loaf to celebrate my re-connection with the dear Italian friend who first introduced Pannetone to me years ago with a commercially-bought loaf purchased from New York City’s legendary delicatessen, Zabar’s. Presumptuously perhaps, I determined that Pannetone would be my gift for family this year—one sibling, one loaf. Little did I know how many weeks and how much treasure would be spent on trying to achieve a bread that pleasured four of the five senses: eyes, nose, tongue, as well as the “lightness” of touch. I am now proud to say I almost succeeded. However, “almost” was simply not good enough for me at first.
I flatter myself, I know now, that I am something of a bread master. I should have known this when I read in Daniel Leader's Simply Great Breads: Sweet and Savory Yeasted Treats from America's Premier Artisan Baker that one should attempt to master one type of bread and become known for that. Well, really.
Beranbaum has a recipe for Pannetone in her book. I almost never follow recipes exactly, usually because I lack all the called-for ingredients, but I did follow this one pretty closely (except for the suggestion that the ambient rising temperature be 75-90 deg F). At 2 a.m. (silly me, I should have just gone to bed & let it rise overnight), I rushed this into the oven because it needed to be on the road early the next day. It didn't have the rise I was expecting, but it tasted good. It was gifted to someone who had never seen a Pannetone, so they didn't care. But I did. After this, I went in search of other recipes, finding one I didn't end up using in my standard bread book, The Bread Bible: 300 Favorite Recipes by Beth Hensberger. I finally used a richer variation of Peter Reinhart's basic recipe in his classic The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread.
Why all the recipes call for low heat for an hour or more mystifies me. It dried the bread out terribly. I ended up going by internal temperature, which was reached far in advance of everyone's suggested baking times. Go figure.
Anyway, I did read much of Beranbaum's book, which is packed with information for those interested in breadmaking. I learned how to make the onion smear usually found on commercially-produced bialys, and I tried the bagels (not a grand success--prefer Leader's in his book referenced above). I also tried the Swedish Limpa because I am trying to recreate a rye bread I tasted in Colorado years ago and which I finally learned is created through a singular process created specially at Dimmer's Bakery on Dahlia Street in Denver. Anyway, I'm still eating the Limpa a week later. It's still moist, but it isn't Dimmer's...
January 25, 2013
I've gotten frustrated not being able to find my favorite breads when I want them, so I've decided to make my own. Having made bread with my mother 30 years ago, I remembered many of the frustrations and having no solutions. This book is an excellent guide.
The instructions are absolutely specific. She has separate instructions for using a bread machine, a stand mixer or kneading by hand. While this means the recipes cover multiple pages, if I follow them exactly, I will have success. I've made her ciabatta twice now. The first was to die for; to slather it in butter or dip it in oil would have been a crime. The second is just as delicious but even airier than the first. I'm in heaven.
If you want to learn the craft of bread making, this is an excellent guide. The batches are small, which makes them manageable and encourages continued play. Her instructions are clear although the wordiness makes you want to skip them. Don't do it. Read the recipe through from beginning to end at least once before you start. I've only been at this for three weeks, but I'm well on my way to becoming the bread baker I want to be.
The instructions are absolutely specific. She has separate instructions for using a bread machine, a stand mixer or kneading by hand. While this means the recipes cover multiple pages, if I follow them exactly, I will have success. I've made her ciabatta twice now. The first was to die for; to slather it in butter or dip it in oil would have been a crime. The second is just as delicious but even airier than the first. I'm in heaven.
If you want to learn the craft of bread making, this is an excellent guide. The batches are small, which makes them manageable and encourages continued play. Her instructions are clear although the wordiness makes you want to skip them. Don't do it. Read the recipe through from beginning to end at least once before you start. I've only been at this for three weeks, but I'm well on my way to becoming the bread baker I want to be.
November 4, 2014
Found my favorite bread recipe here, the olive challah bread one. I regularly prepare it at my Zomick's bakery and all customer absolutely love it. If you are baker or even if you just like to bake bread, make sure you take a look at this one. It offers more than 300 different recipes you can experiment with at your bake shop or family kitchen
April 13, 2018
Usually I make a few recipes from a book before posting my notes. For reasons I'll get into below, I didn't to that this time.
Let's revisit my criteria for cookbooks:
1. Is the book formatted for practical use?
2. Is it accurate. By that, I mean information accurate as well as free of errata and typos.
3. Will I ever cook from it?
I have other criteria. I like to be inspired by the recipe selection, learn something new, be able to find the ingredients without taking out a second mortgage or resorting to overnight delivery. I prefer an author tone that is personable without sounding like they need a therapist or are the only person with the recipe for ice. Those three points listed above, however, are critical. If it doesn't meet those basic three, there's little chance of me giving it more three stars.
Since I read the e-book version of The Bread Bible, I can't speak to the formatting of the print book. Usually RLB's cookbooks use a clear, larger font and eye-friendly contrast choices. The e-book version, however, is an utter navigation s--- sandwich. The index is literally just a list without the first hyperlink back to the content. (Nor are there page numbers, although those are useless in e-books anyway.) There is no recipe index, nor are the recipes listed under the chapters or at the beginning of chapters. In other words, good luck locating anything in this book a second time. You could try using the Kindle (or other reader) search box, but only if you remember the exact name of the recipe and still want to spend a lot of time tapping through pages. Given there are plenty of links within recipes that lead back to illustrations or sub-recipes, not including a fully navigable recipe index is just plain unforgivable. It's sloppy, it's lazy, and whoever proofed the galleys and didn't insist on a functional index should be busted back to junior intern. It is the equivalent of not putting page numbers in a print book.
The book includes some good photos, but the are inexplicably relegated to the back of the e-book. Why wouldn't they be with their respective recipes? At the very least, put them near the front of the book where they could generate interest in the recipe.
RLB's recipes tend to go on for pages because of her exhaustive attention to every detail and inclusion of multiple methods within each recipe (hand, machine, etc). The ingredients lists are organized on a table grid that includes both weight and volume. Yes, it's cluttered, but it's also baking gold. Baking by weight is the professional way to bake, but including volume measurements acknowledges that many home cooks prefer to stick with volume measurements. Putting so much text in a grid forces the e-reader app to keep column alignment even if it breaks the table horizontally. The tables are probably the best way to handle that much content. I did spot a couple of typos and minor formatting errors, but nothing major caught my eye.
So, on to the big one: will I eve cook from it? Probably not. Something about the tone in this book irked me in a way that RLB' previous books didn't. Yes, she name-drops continually. Yes, she aggressively practices product placement. (She probably makes more from product placement from makers of Silpat, La Cloche, and Silpat than from book royalties.) Yes, she self-congratulates a lot. Having read three of her other books, I'm used to that and can usually ignore it. Those three other books might just be my problem with this one: the "bible" approach, that of there being one highly regimented and micro-managed way of cooking, has worn thin. I've been accused of being the most process-driven person ever by several people; these "bible" type cookbooks make me look like a kitchen anarchist. The main reason i didn't cook anything from this book was because I got bored with all the preaching. Rather than feeling intrigued and inspired to go cook, I found myself resenting the idea that this level of obsessiveness is required to get good bread. There was also the contributing factor that I forgot to bookmark the two recipes I did think about trying, and after ten minutes of tapping to try to find them again, I said, "F*** it. I'm done with this."
While it's true that baking requires more precision and attention to detail than most other forms of cooking, I think we can all agree that people have been making breads successfully for a hell of a long time without freaking out if a ration was off by .1%. and without Silpats or Cuisinart anything. If I'm baking professionally and turning out dozens of loaves, yeah, I'll obsess over that .01% and fret over the protein content of flours. For one or two loaves, forget it. I enjoy baking, and I intend to keep enjoying it. This kind of obsessive approach could suck the joy out of Christmas.
This is not to say I didn't learn anything from reading the book. I did pick up some pointers on shaping and resting dough. The simple line illustrations are excellent, some of the best I've seen. The photos of dough in various stages of fermentation or rising are better than pages of text...if only the damn things weren't buried in the back of the book. There are some lovely sounding recipes in the book, the names of which I can't remember right now and am unwilling to tap through hundreds of pages to find.
The book is worth reading, but I just don't see myself ever cooking from it. And I can't rate it any higher here because the functionality is so lacking and because I simply no longer enjoy or admire such a rigorously specific approach to cooking. Baking well in a home kitchen simply does not demand that level of rigor nor an arsenal of equipment.
A cookbook can have the best of information, but if it is not navigable and doesn't inspire one to get into the kitchen, it will not be used.
Let's revisit my criteria for cookbooks:
1. Is the book formatted for practical use?
2. Is it accurate. By that, I mean information accurate as well as free of errata and typos.
3. Will I ever cook from it?
I have other criteria. I like to be inspired by the recipe selection, learn something new, be able to find the ingredients without taking out a second mortgage or resorting to overnight delivery. I prefer an author tone that is personable without sounding like they need a therapist or are the only person with the recipe for ice. Those three points listed above, however, are critical. If it doesn't meet those basic three, there's little chance of me giving it more three stars.
Since I read the e-book version of The Bread Bible, I can't speak to the formatting of the print book. Usually RLB's cookbooks use a clear, larger font and eye-friendly contrast choices. The e-book version, however, is an utter navigation s--- sandwich. The index is literally just a list without the first hyperlink back to the content. (Nor are there page numbers, although those are useless in e-books anyway.) There is no recipe index, nor are the recipes listed under the chapters or at the beginning of chapters. In other words, good luck locating anything in this book a second time. You could try using the Kindle (or other reader) search box, but only if you remember the exact name of the recipe and still want to spend a lot of time tapping through pages. Given there are plenty of links within recipes that lead back to illustrations or sub-recipes, not including a fully navigable recipe index is just plain unforgivable. It's sloppy, it's lazy, and whoever proofed the galleys and didn't insist on a functional index should be busted back to junior intern. It is the equivalent of not putting page numbers in a print book.
The book includes some good photos, but the are inexplicably relegated to the back of the e-book. Why wouldn't they be with their respective recipes? At the very least, put them near the front of the book where they could generate interest in the recipe.
RLB's recipes tend to go on for pages because of her exhaustive attention to every detail and inclusion of multiple methods within each recipe (hand, machine, etc). The ingredients lists are organized on a table grid that includes both weight and volume. Yes, it's cluttered, but it's also baking gold. Baking by weight is the professional way to bake, but including volume measurements acknowledges that many home cooks prefer to stick with volume measurements. Putting so much text in a grid forces the e-reader app to keep column alignment even if it breaks the table horizontally. The tables are probably the best way to handle that much content. I did spot a couple of typos and minor formatting errors, but nothing major caught my eye.
So, on to the big one: will I eve cook from it? Probably not. Something about the tone in this book irked me in a way that RLB' previous books didn't. Yes, she name-drops continually. Yes, she aggressively practices product placement. (She probably makes more from product placement from makers of Silpat, La Cloche, and Silpat than from book royalties.) Yes, she self-congratulates a lot. Having read three of her other books, I'm used to that and can usually ignore it. Those three other books might just be my problem with this one: the "bible" approach, that of there being one highly regimented and micro-managed way of cooking, has worn thin. I've been accused of being the most process-driven person ever by several people; these "bible" type cookbooks make me look like a kitchen anarchist. The main reason i didn't cook anything from this book was because I got bored with all the preaching. Rather than feeling intrigued and inspired to go cook, I found myself resenting the idea that this level of obsessiveness is required to get good bread. There was also the contributing factor that I forgot to bookmark the two recipes I did think about trying, and after ten minutes of tapping to try to find them again, I said, "F*** it. I'm done with this."
While it's true that baking requires more precision and attention to detail than most other forms of cooking, I think we can all agree that people have been making breads successfully for a hell of a long time without freaking out if a ration was off by .1%. and without Silpats or Cuisinart anything. If I'm baking professionally and turning out dozens of loaves, yeah, I'll obsess over that .01% and fret over the protein content of flours. For one or two loaves, forget it. I enjoy baking, and I intend to keep enjoying it. This kind of obsessive approach could suck the joy out of Christmas.
This is not to say I didn't learn anything from reading the book. I did pick up some pointers on shaping and resting dough. The simple line illustrations are excellent, some of the best I've seen. The photos of dough in various stages of fermentation or rising are better than pages of text...if only the damn things weren't buried in the back of the book. There are some lovely sounding recipes in the book, the names of which I can't remember right now and am unwilling to tap through hundreds of pages to find.
The book is worth reading, but I just don't see myself ever cooking from it. And I can't rate it any higher here because the functionality is so lacking and because I simply no longer enjoy or admire such a rigorously specific approach to cooking. Baking well in a home kitchen simply does not demand that level of rigor nor an arsenal of equipment.
A cookbook can have the best of information, but if it is not navigable and doesn't inspire one to get into the kitchen, it will not be used.
July 22, 2025
bread :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
August 1, 2024Great for learning technique, actual recipes a lil hit or miss
January 4, 2021
Skimmed. Will revisit. Lots of solid techniques to try!
March 8, 2024
While I learned a lot of interesting things, was disappointed that most bread recipes had very little to none whole grains. Even for the whole wheat bread she suggests to sift out the bran! Isn't the bran the reason why you should eat whole grains?
January 9, 2014
This is a superlative book for bread-making. No two ways about it. She gives clear detailed instructions with measurements in English volume and weight and metric weight. Most recipes have prep instructions for hand kneading, bread-hook kneading and bread-machine kneading.
B*U*T two caveats:
1) This book is extremely poorly proof-read and there are errors galore. Some are irrelevant, some will spoil the product, and some will just confuse the reader (such as telling you to add an ingredient not in the mats list). I found such errors in the first two recipes I tried: Jewish rye and pumpernickel. So definitely, before beginning a recipe go to the author's web site and check out the errata list.
2) These are pretty much all artisan recipes and will probably require things like overnight fermentation and up to three risings, and baking in enclosed containers. So if you're compulsive (like me) jump right in and take your time to make great bread.
But if you're just getting started or don't have the time for an overnight prep, go to the King Arthur Flour website and check out the recipes section. Search on easy bread or quick bread or no-kneading bread. (Their No-knead Harvest Bread is fantastic. I make it several times a month.) I made KA's rye and bagels several times before graduating to Bread Bible's version.
By the way, whatever recipe you use, you'll get best results by weighing the flour rather than measuring it in a cup. And use fresh yeast. Even if not expired, toss anything over a few months old unless you refrigerated it.
B*U*T two caveats:
1) This book is extremely poorly proof-read and there are errors galore. Some are irrelevant, some will spoil the product, and some will just confuse the reader (such as telling you to add an ingredient not in the mats list). I found such errors in the first two recipes I tried: Jewish rye and pumpernickel. So definitely, before beginning a recipe go to the author's web site and check out the errata list.
2) These are pretty much all artisan recipes and will probably require things like overnight fermentation and up to three risings, and baking in enclosed containers. So if you're compulsive (like me) jump right in and take your time to make great bread.
But if you're just getting started or don't have the time for an overnight prep, go to the King Arthur Flour website and check out the recipes section. Search on easy bread or quick bread or no-kneading bread. (Their No-knead Harvest Bread is fantastic. I make it several times a month.) I made KA's rye and bagels several times before graduating to Bread Bible's version.
By the way, whatever recipe you use, you'll get best results by weighing the flour rather than measuring it in a cup. And use fresh yeast. Even if not expired, toss anything over a few months old unless you refrigerated it.
February 2, 2025
While I really appreciate the very thorough instructions, there are several very annoying things about this book. There is no “total time” on any recipe. She lists “total rise time”, but if you actually read through the steps the recipe could take two or three times the amount of time listed. There are also not photos with each recipe - this is a glaring miss for me. Who doesn’t offer a photo of every recipe in a book? There are also very complex steps with no illustrations, and if they can be found elsewhere in the book they are not notated in the recipe - for example “business letter” folding - the reference page should be noted within the recipe that uses it. Not everyone remembers every single thing they learned at the beginning of a 500+ page book and I find myself very often searching the glossary to find what I need. Overall I’ve been impressed with every recipe, but I only wish that her thorough approach to instructions included basic things like HOW MUCH TIME I SHOULD EXPECT TO SPEND ON A RECIPE. More than once I’ve found myself finishing a recipe late at night due to confusing instructions on time. Plan to read each recipe thoroughly from start to finish, writing down the timing for EVERY SINGLE STEP so you can add it up and plan accordingly.
October 14, 2023
I tried several recipes from this book and just can’t understand the rave reviews.
Each recipe has an equipment list, ingredient list, and instructions. In one recipe the equipment list didn’t list all the required equipment. In another, the ingredient list and instructions didn’t match. In a third, there was no indication that some of the flour was to be held in reserve until 2/3 of the way through the instructions. None of the recipes I tried came out despite following the instructions to the letter (as much as possible). So frustrating to end up with inedible bread after hours of work.
And a last nit, while the ingredient ratio at the end of the recipes doesn’t impact the ability to make the bread, one said 100% flour despite listing four additional ingredients.
I’m going to try a different bread cookbook. This one is bad.
Each recipe has an equipment list, ingredient list, and instructions. In one recipe the equipment list didn’t list all the required equipment. In another, the ingredient list and instructions didn’t match. In a third, there was no indication that some of the flour was to be held in reserve until 2/3 of the way through the instructions. None of the recipes I tried came out despite following the instructions to the letter (as much as possible). So frustrating to end up with inedible bread after hours of work.
And a last nit, while the ingredient ratio at the end of the recipes doesn’t impact the ability to make the bread, one said 100% flour despite listing four additional ingredients.
I’m going to try a different bread cookbook. This one is bad.
May 20, 2019
Fantastic bread-baking bible, but as per her usual, RLB is insanely nitpicky on some things that probably don't need to be so nitpicky. On the other hand, sometimes if you go off-piste with this book, you end up with a cracker :D Not for the faint of heart or the early-days bread baker, it can be daunting and frustrating to deal with a recipe with three proofings (proves? proofs?) after making a sponge/biga. Some of the results are absolutely spectacular, but there are times when you just don't have the energy to spend your ENTIRE DAY coming up with one pretty-unspectacular appearing loaf (one of my favorites recipes herein is just that, looks completely blah, but the taste is just incredible).
October 17, 2020
Confusing and needs major editing! How is it possible to write for pages and pages about soft starter, ending with a bit about stiff starter, and then only provide recipes using stiff starter? Why would the author say, “business letter turn” without an explanation of what that means? I had to find out from the internet that it doesn’t mean a turn at all, but a kind of fold. Now there may be some of you out there that want to defend this author, and tell me where I should have found that definition in the book. But please, it should have been apparent from where I was reading the phrase. One shouldn’t have to read all the preceding 400+ pages to figure this out. I’m returning this book. It is for the birds, and I don’t mean manna from heaven.
June 8, 2020
I bought this book in the hopes that it would allow me to finally crack the secret of bread making. Alas, like bread itself, it requires that the baker learn and get a sense of working with this author’s particular methodology. When you are able to do that, I’ve had reasonable success with breads like brioche and ciabatta, but it is by no means surefire. What I’ve found I need to do to hone my lousy bread making instincts is to simply make the same recipe over and over. I’m more than a decade into trying to figure out how to make decent bread at home, and I still have a long way to go. In short, this book is solid, but no holy grail of bread making like the name implies.
October 28, 2017
As I began to pursue more knowledge behind the "science" of making artisan breads I came across this book at the library.
I kept out as long as I could and then had to buy a copy. Excellent, informative, featuring lots of concise information about the "whys and how tos" of baking all manner bread.
This book is one of several that I pull out when I want information or a new bread, cracker, artisan or roll recipe.
This book is a winner!
I kept out as long as I could and then had to buy a copy. Excellent, informative, featuring lots of concise information about the "whys and how tos" of baking all manner bread.
This book is one of several that I pull out when I want information or a new bread, cracker, artisan or roll recipe.
This book is a winner!
March 17, 2020
I love baking bread, and have been looking for a book that really explains the science of bread-making. This book comes the closest in that is explains not only the techniques but also why certain methods are necessary to improve flavor and/or texture. Obviously I have not read the whole book or tested out many of the recipes yet, but it has been fun to read all the non-recipe parts of the book!
December 2, 2017
Great reference for your baking journey, it has everything from A-Z: recipes, ingredients ratios ,baking tools and more basics.
Also it has beautiful pictures of some recipes, but i wish it had illustrated pictures of folding/shaping techniques , Although there are some photos of some tools that can be used while baking.
Totally worth it and never regret buying it 👌🏼
Also it has beautiful pictures of some recipes, but i wish it had illustrated pictures of folding/shaping techniques , Although there are some photos of some tools that can be used while baking.
Totally worth it and never regret buying it 👌🏼
May 29, 2018
This book is mostly about commercial yeast breads, so I was a little disappointed that it seems to push the dried yeast usage. BUT I enjoyed and found value in reading her lengthy discussion of sourdough in the book. Worth a quick perusal or reference but I probably will never look at this book again. It just isn't what I was hoping it would be.
September 5, 2019
Fun interesting read about the science behind bread making/baking etc. with different types of bread. It’s a lot like a Cooks Illustrated book. It’s a cookbook, not a novel but I’ve enjoyed it and learned different techniques and tips as I’ve read. I’m excited to try many of the recipes she has in here.
November 21, 2019
I feel like this book has helped me ascend to a new level of existence. I never used to think of bread making in this way, and it has helped me find my connections to the god of bread. Thank you rose Levy Beranbaum for your astonishing discoveries in bread making, and for sharing them with us in the form of the Bible of bread.
I love this book, and you should too.
- Gavin Yeager 11/21/2019
I love this book, and you should too.
- Gavin Yeager 11/21/2019
February 13, 2018
I little above my skill level at the moment but I appreciated her steps of baking that she details in the front of the book and skimming through the recipes, they are meticulous. Definitely one I'll need to pick up as I become more familiar with the process of bread making.
August 5, 2017
Love the fact these recipes are for one loaf at a time. Read my blog entry for other comments: http://wp.me/s8bYCR-words
June 16, 2018
This book is NOT for beginners. That said, it has some wonderful recipes in it, and the ones that I've tried have worked well.
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