Artisan Breads Every Day - Fast and Easy Recipes for World-Class Breads

Artisan Breads Every Day - Fast and Easy Recipes for World-Class Breads
by Peter Reinhart

Peter Reinhart is a rising star in the world of American bread baking, having written several books, including one that concentrates solely on pizza making. His book The Bread Baker's Apprentice - Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread helped demystify bread baking for the serious home cook. Artisan Breads Every Day is no less interesting, but it's a little more basic, targeted, it seems, at those who are not quite as interested in bread theory or in spending too much time in the kitchen.

That's not to say it's Reinhart-lite; you can still make good bread with this book, there's just not quite as much detail. Reinhart, a baking instructor at Johnson & Wales University, in North Carolina, uses techniques such as retarding the rise - slowing the fermentation, which helps to develop flavour - and a 'stretch and fold' technique that makes it easier to work with high-hydration doughs. In each recipe, he breaks down steps into those you can 'do ahead' and what needs to be done 'on baking day'.

Reinhart demonstrates how to shape bread and writes about traditional leavenings such as sourdough and wild yeast fermentation. The recipes include classic French bread, San Francisco sourdough bread, 100 per cent whole grain rustic bread, challah, soft sandwich bread, crusty cheese bread, crispy rye and seed crackers, as well as cinnamon buns and chocolate cinnamon babka.