The Tassajara Bread Book | Edward Espe Brown | Don't be afraid of the bread

The Tassajara Bread Book | Edward Espe Brown | Just what I kneaded!

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The Tassajara Brea...

	The Tassajara Bread Book Edward Espe Brown Shambhala, 1995 - 176 pages average customer review:based on 49 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good bread needs more than just flower and water, milk, or eggs. It requires nurturing and care. In this twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the international best-seller that started a generation of Americans baking, Ed Brown shows how to make?and enjoy?breads, pastries, muffins, and desserts for today's sophisticated palates. And in a new afterword, he reflects on the widespread influence of the book and offers five new recipes.

Don't be afraid of the bread

For years I have been intimidated by bread - previous attempts have been disasterous: I have baked loaves so dense they have their own gravitational field, or a bread-like substance somewhat akin to crackers lies in the bread pan. I had almost given up on it, until a friend handed me this book and said, "Don't be afraid of the bread - try this."

The recipies are simple, and the instructions are idiot-proof with diagrams on how to mix, knead and shape the dough. My first tenative attempts were not bad - certainly I have much more to learn and to tinker with, but Brown's clear instructions make the process remarkably easy. In addition to the "idiot-proofing" of bread making, the book has a wide variety of recipes for all kinds of bread: pastries, muffins, rolls, even dessert breads. It is not too much of a stretch to claim that for most of us, there is no need for any other books about making bread if you own _The Tassajara Bread Book_. If I can be successful using it, anybody can - therefore I strongly recommend it to anyone struggling with breadmaking.

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Just what I kneaded!

This book was an amazing find for me. I have always been of the mind that bread baking is too much trouble and too much time for the results. But I wanted to try and fortunately happened upon this book. Not only can I now bake wonderful bread, but I also am gaining a deeper understanding of myself through the process of baking bread as I am guided by this book.

I know this may sound like a bunch of new-agey gobbledygook, but if you really want to feel like you're accomplishing something when you bake bread (especially if you are a beginning bread baker), this would be a good book for you. One of the things I like best about it is that it provides step-by-step instructions on how to bake bread in general, and then gives you the recipes to fit into the process. The book also tells you what kind of (basic) equipment works best. But it's also very open in saying that all of its instructions are merely guidelines, and the person reading it is left feeling free to deviate out of desire and/or necessity.

The Tassajara Bread Book is also an enjoyable read, and has some fantastic recipes in it (I use the egg bagel recipe to make Challah that is even better than the Challah from Trader Joe's!).

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why didn't someone tell me about this book sooner

good god, i have tried to make bread periodically over the years only to end up with a heavy dense product that was never any good. if i had found this book back when i first tried making bread i would have been much better off. this book is excellent, i picked it up after watching the author's dvd how to cook your life and he explained things so well that i had to get it, and i was not disappointed. the book is incrediblely easy to follow though i recommend photo copying the instruction pages so you don't get the book goey like i did. but the bread turned out light and fluffy on the very first attempt and the flavor was great. i can't wait to bake my way through this book. and if you are like i was wanting to bake bread but intimidated by it. this is the book for you.

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Excellent for most

This is an excellent book for those who wish to learn the ART of baking. For many, including myself, baking is a labor of love, and an expression of spirit.
Those who like clear-cut recipes may not be comfortable with this book as the recipes are interspersed with notes, drawings, etc, and the recipes require a bit of learning by doing.
I like that every step is paired with an explanation of why/what it does.
I received this book as a wedding gift, and I will definitely be passing this one along to others.

Disappointing

After reading all the positive reviews of this book I had high hopes. I've made a number of the recipes from this book and they have all produced mediocre results or been failures. This seems to be the fault of the recipes as I usually have great success with baking. I would recommend Beatrice Ojakangas's baking books as much better alternatives to this one.

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