Bread Baking: An Artisan's Perspective

by Daniel T. DiMuzio

A guide to making artisan breads practically and profitably, Bread An Artisan's Perspective includes step-by-step instructions on mixing, fermentation, shaping, proofing and retarding, and baking. Written for both experienced and novice bakers, Bread Baking contains more than 150 helpful photos and drawings that illustrate techniques and showcase beautiful artisan bread products. Covering the business of bread-making, this book features practical advice from successful artisan bakers as well as forty plus tested artisan bread formulas, including ciabatta, pain au levain, bagels, honey whole wheat, croissants, and many more. Artisan bread baker and teacher Dan DiMuzio provides invaluable information on troubleshooting, ingredients, laminated dough, and creating dough formulas. Professional bakers and baking and pastry students will benefit from this practical resource to artisan breads.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 4, 2009

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most important aspect of making high-quality bread isn't the embrace of old-fashioned techniques but rather the identification of what's essential among those techniques and the acceptance of the need to use those procedures, whatever the inconvenience or cost [Preface p.ix]

Much of the intro is somewhat reminiscent of a text book. And no wonder. Judging by the "Learning Outcomes" at the beginning of each chapter, and the "Questions for Review", "Questions for Discussion", and/or Lab Experiment(s) that appear at the end of each chapter, it clearly could be a required text book for some courses in the food sciences. Sadly, however, this is not a bread baking book for anyone wanting to really examine sourdough bread baking or bread baking from all over the world.

The preface is largely an outline of the book (feels like a draft of someone's paper for science class) At times, the brief history of bread making sometimes feels a little too brief - not always giving quite enough information to make the reader want to delve further. Indeed, in the history section, DiMuzio appears to skirt around Persia, India and the Middle East entirely.

Still, this book seems like a valuable resource for those wanting to really examine thoroughly the several techniques required to make really good bread, from choosing ingredients, to mixing, proofing, pre-shaping, shaping, scoring, baking (as well as descriptions of steaming techniques and ovens), cooling, and creating their own recipes.

"Chapter 2 Ingredients and Their Effects" is particularly interesting with its detailed explanations of how salt, sugar, fat, yeast (living and dead) affect the final product. There is also a very handy table (no.2.1) of Wheat Classification on page 17, displaying protein content and typical uses for various kinds of wheat from red (soft and hard) to white (soft and hard) to spring/winter to Durum. Unfortunately, there is no break-down of how much glutenin and gliadin is contained in the various kinds of wheat. The only mentions of this relationship are on page 174 (in one of the Advanced Topics after "Chapter 10 Creating Dough Formulas") and at the end of the book in the glossary:

Insoluble proteins account for the remaining 80% of the proteins in the endosperm. They do not dissolve in water. The two insoluble proteins present in wheat are glutein and gliadin. Glutenin forms long, strong chains that seem to give wheat dough its strength, while gliadin strands bond to glutenin strands [...] (the nature of bonding between glutenin and gliadin is not completely understood), In order to bond, the two proteins must be in the presence of water. As they bond, they form a more complex protein called gluten. [Advanced Topic #1 Flour Composition and Milling Technology, p.174]
~ ~ ~ ~
gluten A complex protein formed by the union of two simpler proteins, glutenin and gliadin, in the presence of water. It has properties of both elasticity and extensibility, and its unique web-forming characteristics enable it to hold gases produced during fermentation. It is present in small quantities in a number of grains, but only wheat contains enough gluten-forming proteins to make it the preferred grain for making bread flour. [Glossary, p. 240,241]

Along with the 10 chapters defining and explaining the various processes that go into bread making in great detail - with photos, there is an appendix of recipes (or "formulas", as DiMuzio labels them) for standard European-style breads: bagels, baguettes (direct, liquid levain, old dough, and poolish), bleu cheese bread with toasted walnuts - surprisingly, there is no recommendation for exactly what kind of "bleu" cheese to use, brioche (with liquid levain), challah (normal and sweet), Christmas Stollen, Ciabatta with Biga, Croissants (with liquid levain), Danish Dough (with liquid levain), dark active dough (decorative), Deli-style Rye Bread, Double Raisin Bread with Toasted Walnuts, Focaccia with Biga, Hearty Sourdough Rye, etc., etc. But note that there are zero recipes for any Balkan, African, Middle Eastern, Persian, or Indian breads.

Another black mark is that the recipes for so-called Sourdough Rye, Pain au Levain, Pain de Campagne, San Francisco-style Sourdough each call for the addition of commercial instant yeast.

+ + + +
If half stars were allowed, the rating would be 3.5. If the sourdough (aka wild yeast) section (only 4 pages at the end of Chapter 5 Fermentation) and recipes for sourdough omitted calling for commercial yeast entirely, the rating would go up to 4.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great bread baking book! Even had some info I hadn't read other places yet (and I read a lot of bread books). Especially liked the info on creating your own formulas. Also really liked how the formulas in this book were written with option to make the bread as a strait dough or with a preferment. The lab exercises were great too. The only thing I wish this book would have had was way more formulas. Highly recommended for a serious bread baker's library.

[Ryan Jankowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful for theory and technique. It is a lot to take in and will be worth re-reading again soon.

[Karmologyclinic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, everything you need to know about bread baking is here. Read this and you'll know everything about the chemistry and the mechanics of baking a loaf of bread.

It's supposed to be a textbook for pros, so you'll find advice that does not apply to the home baker, but it doesn't hurt to know either. The formulas are priceless and the info on pre-ferments thorough.

[Phil James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Various sizes shown for recipes. Looks comprehensive/authoritarian.