****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This is an excellent value for the price and I can't recommend it highly enough. With around 300 recipes for bread ranging from white to wheat, sourdough to rye, egg to dessert breads, and with recipes from all over Europe, the United States, and different periods of history (the Indian Graham Bread is a treat, even for those who aren't Colonial America lovers) you get a lot of recipes with very little space wasted by unnecessary color photos. Many of her breads can be made entirely in the breadmaker and consist of only two steps (put ingredients in and turn on machine, and then take out when done). For those who want more of a challenge, there are also a number of recipes that require being shaped and finished in the oven. In short the recipes range from very easy to those with more steps after making the dough in the breadmaker (baking in oven, making a biga ahead of time, shaping dough, etc). I have found that many of her recipes work very well without any adjustments, but keep in mind that all machines are different and you will probably need to experiment a little.I will admit that I had some trouble at first with the recipes here. And there are some like the sourdough recipes that I just can't get to work. Don't be discouraged. You should realize three things. First, all bread machines are different and the author right from the beginning tells you that you may need to adjust certain amounts of liquid or flour depending on your machine's manufacturer. Second, and related to that, you need to carefully measure out your ingredients, especially the water and flour. I am pretty impatient with recipes and not a careful measurer. Slow down and make sure you carefully measure out your ingredients and, as she tells you at the beginnig, adjust flour or water as necessary during the kneading cycles. And this leads to my third point, you should read the beginning of the book, or at least glance at it. The author provides tips about individual machines that will save you much heartache, and, should something go wrong like your loaf collapsing she gives you a detailed analysis of what probably went wrong and how to fix it. She then goes into seven different types of bread that you will cook throughout the book in a very detailed way that will help you later with her other recipes, many of which have many fewer steps.Additionally, don't be alarmed if you see some of her recipes require many steps, "esoteric" flours or ingredients you've never used before (barley or semolina flour), or require you to finish baking in the oven. Never fear! Most of her recipes require only the most basic ingredients that you'll already have if you bake often already (well besides bread flour and bread machine yeast perhaps). I have slowly acquired such things as wheat germ, gluten, barley flour, rye flour, semolina flour, etc. as I have worked my way through the book. Don't get stuck on just the white breads (which are great), but keep going into the wheats, ryes, and multi-grains. You won't regret it.I use a Sunbeam (entry level) machine and I've discovered a few things about it:(1) Always check the dough during knead cycles to see if it needs more moisture (recipes with fatty milks often seem to need a bit more). The author recommends that some machines regularly need a tablespoon more of water (or less of flour) and my machine seems to need more water about 1/3 of the time I use it.(2) Carefully measure ingredients.(3) The "dark crust" cycle is jut way too hot and should never be used.(4) The 1 1/2 lb recipes work well, but the 2 lb recipes would overflow the machine.As you can see, none of the errors that resulted from these problems were the author's fault, it was either me or the machine. I attribute my inability to make some of her recipes, such as the sourdoughs to Central Virginia apparently not being a great place to buy sourdough starter yeast (the homemade ones just don't work for me) and my inexperience with making sourdough starters. As mentioned above, my machine runs rather hot so making some of the smaller 1 lb breads or trying to use the dark cycle called for in her recipes is difficult because the machine overbakes them. My major criticism is that, while pictures are unnecessary for the most part, I would like to have them for the breads that need to be folded/rolled into shapes because I have a hard time visualizing what she wants me to do.I have bought many quality cookbooks from Amazon, from a variety of publishers including America's Test Kitchen and Williams-Sonoma. In terms of the most recipes for your money, you really can't beat this book. The directions are very clear and she provides helpful hints about cooking bread, different kinds of flours/ingredients, and how to store left over bread throughout. You'll learn something new and useful every few pages as you work your way through the book.
