Spattered & Broken

First of all the images from this post are long gone. A Google tripwire. Ho hum.

There must be thousands of books on bread; a quick search on Amazon UK shows 7300 so how to choose one? On-line reviews are interesting but don't tell you what it is like to bake from the book. 
Time to unveil my completely unbiased and independent "spatter and broken spine evaluation! 

Using this rating my copy of The Tassajara Bread Book wins hands down followed closely by  

The River Cottage Bread book, Bread Matters and The Hand Made Loaf. Margin notations are another good sign. So there you have it, next time you visit a friend who bakes bread, head for the shelves and pick out the broken-spined bread baking book and look for the spattered recipes.

The books below are my favourites, chiefly because the recipes appeal, are easy to follow, and most importantly, they work. The wish list has some great sounding books from the recent RealBreadCampaign eForum "best bread baking books". 

The Tassajara Bread Book : Ed Brown : My copy is from 1972 but there is a 1996 reprint  on Amazon. This is the tattiest book I have, not just because it is old but because it has been so heavily used. This book taught me to bake wholemeal bread.

The Handmade loaf : Dan Lepard : Mitchell Beazley 2004 

A beautifully produced book with the authors own photographs. A splendid selection of recipes from around the world all very succinctly explained, interleaved with stories of the bakers Dan Lepard met on his travels. This book gets used again and again, really stimulating ideas.

Bread Matters – The State of Modern Bread : Andrew Whitley : Forth Estate 2006

There is a scary diatribe at the start of this book on the evils of modern industrial bread baking which is quite motivating – if that is what is going on then yes, I will bake my own bread. If you want to understand the bread making processes, and the properties of all the ingredients, then this book is for you. There is so much useful information to help you to make your own breads by adapting recipes from any other book.

Scottish Cookery : Catherine Brown1985

This book isn’t specifically on bread, but it does have 25 pages on oat, barley recipes for farls, bannocks etc, and 40 pages on cakes and baking all from a Scottish perspective. There is stacks of background information and the methods in the recipes are clear with alternative ingredients given. It’s a nice warm book to read, but the recipes work too.

Dough - Simple Contemporary Bread : Richard Bertinet : Kyle Cathie 2005

Absolutely stunning layout and photographs combined with crystal clear instructions. The sections of the book lead on from white dough, through olive dough and brown dough to sweet doughs but not much on why we do things but the recipes just work. 

Bread - River Cottage Handbook: Daniel  Stevens 2009

Very good on sourdoughs, good descriptions of basics and lots of recipes. Logical, clear, no flannel.

How Baking Works : Paula Figoni 2004

Hard going, you wouldn’t want to read it from cover to cover, but if there is some mystery about baking you want to clear up, it is a good place to go.

Knead to Know from the Real Bread Campaign. 

If you are thinking of setting up a community bakery this is the book for you - lots of good information even if you aren’t.

Wish list:

Bourke Street Bakery: Brilliant pictures and beautifully produced. Good explanations.

Local Bread : Daniel Leader. Lots of enthusiastic comments on this book from real bread enthusiasts especially on pain au levain and sourdoughs 

English Bread and Yeast cookery: Elizabeth David This is a mine of information and a good read. (Read it maybe 30 years ago)