Bread Baking for Beginners: The Essential Guide to Baking Kneaded Breads, No-Knead Breads, and Enriched Breads
The guidance you need to go from absolute beginner to artisanal bread baker
Discover how anyone can combine flour, yeast, water, and salt to create hot and delicious bread in the comfort of your own kitchen. Filled with straightforward guidance, Bread Baking for Beginners is the ideal bread cookbook for new bakers.
Complete with step-by-step photographs and instructions, this beautiful bread baking guide offers a tasty collection of recipes for kneaded, no-knead, and enriched breads. In addition to important info on everything from prep and proof times to key terminology and kitchen essentials, you’ll also get must-have tips for troubleshooting bread baking issues.
From total scratch to your very first batch, this bread cookbook includes:
- Knead to know―Discover the science behind the bread baking process, popular techniques, and the tools needed to bake fluffy, flavorful loaves.
- Stepping scones―Level up your bread baking skills with recipes that progress from a beginner’s, easy-to-master recipe into dozens of intermediate and advanced sweet and savory breads.
- From ‘d’oh!’ to dough―Troubleshoot bread baking issues with FAQs that address everything from burnt brioche to deflated baguettes.
This bread cookbook will help you master the craft of bread making so you can share homemade loaves with the people you love.
Reviews (187)
For “I’M NOT A BAKER” type Bakers!
This book is gently dusted in whatever flour I used last for my latest rustic loaf. I do not bake. Ever. I hate baking cookies, cakes, pastries. I loathe it. I say this because when I chose this book I really had to brace myself for professional baker lingo. The precision, the failure rate. I truly figured this is what I’d just committed myself to. Then...there wasn’t any of that in this book! Bonnie has a way of inviting you into her 1920s bungalow with her warm hearted introduction and makes your feel like you’re in the right spot to learn something new; something good and worthwhile. In her writing she feels like an old friend who stands in your kitchen and walks you thru each little intricate step to making these crowd pleasing loaves while sipping that tea in between rising and proofing! I baked my first loaf about a week before Christmas. It was yummy but I worked on my technique and tried again. I had people ask me non-stop HOW to make this and comment on how good it was. And it was easy. And it was repeatable. And I loved it! No crazy ingredients to buy. Simple steps with lots of tasty yield. Whether it’s rustic artisan loaves or brioche cinnamon rolls this is your book. I cannot wait to try my sourdough starter this next week. So glad I got this on a whim, learned something new and found a new peaceful persuit and hobby!
Title Misleading
I have been baking and teaching bread for 5 years now ... no expert for sure but at home with ingredients and proofing and kneading etc. Although this book MAY have lots of great information what is the value if it can't be put to use. Herein lies the GRAM problem. Grams are not for BEGINNERS. For example, 205 grams of egg. Seriously. Try googling that. In the end, the book title is misleading and the recipes impossible to follow. I wish I could send this back to Amazon.
Great Book for those aspiring to make bread in their home!
I highly recommend this book to all bread baking beginners! An important element to me is the fact that the author is self-taught and not some privileged individual who attained their credentials at some highly esteemed baking school. That route of learning is simply not a realistic option for many of us, striving to make bread in our homes. While those books can be inspiring, they can also leave us feeling deflated and intimidated by the process. This book speaks to the heart of your every day person aspiring to make bread in their home. Not only is this book beautifully written and poetic, it is also well organized and easy to follow. I appreciate how the book starts out with a basic overview of how bread is formed, key terminology, and the basic process. Before you ever get to the recipes you have a clear map of what it is you’re trying to achieve and the basic, bare-bone process. What I found especially helpful was the “Common Questions and FAQ’s” sections in the book. One of the most frustrating things about baking is when you follow the recipe to the tee and still you come out with an imperfect loaf. This is the sort of experience that makes me not want to use the recipe again. I love how the author helps you troubleshoot those imperfect loaves right there in the book. Identifying the problem straight away, gives you the courage to try again! I highly recommend this book to anyone beginning their bread baking journey!
If you want to learn how to bake bread, buy this book
I bought this book after I became enthralled with watching Jenna Fischer bake bread on Instagram. Baking bread is one of those skills that always seemed really intimidating to learn, but it looked like fun, and with everyone around me going low or no-carb in January, bread deserved some love!! While waiting for the book to arrive, I baked two loaves of bread using random “no knead bread” recipes from the internet. They were fun to make, and I thought they turned out okay.....until the book came, I used THESE directions and the recommended equipment (a kitchen scale and thermometer, who knew?!?), and saw THIS bread. I can’t wait to have buttery, homemade bread in the morning! :)
Not great for beginners due to the writer being a beginner at writing directions
So this book is a good first try for this bread Baker as far as writing and directing people on a "how to". Some of the recipes such as the pizza with tomato and mozzarella are confusing to follow, she talks about baking the pizza in the pre heat area and then goes on to shaping the dough, had I followed and did line for line what she was saying, I'd have had it in the oven before step 3 which is completely wrong. As a beginner this book was not good for me. Dont believe all the hype just because someone famous happened to be bored and grabbed this book just because it said beginner on it. It seems the author is as much a beginner at writing as I am at baking. Watching her show a how to on her instagram was much better than having this book.
Great start to a bread-baking career!
Bread Baking for Beginners is a great book. The introduction pulls the reader in and makes them a member of Bonnie Ohara's baking community. Not only does she give the low-down on how she got started, but she does it in such a warm and easy-going way that you know the information and recipes to come are going to be easy to follow and manageable to make. Ohara does not disappoint. As a long-time bread-baker myself, I know I can pull together some pretty tasty loaves, but Bonnie's opening sections and recipes go above and beyond in their explanations. I learned a ton about useful tools, terms, and ideas that were new to me. My loaves are better because I now think about the temperature of my ingredients and the area in which they proof. I have made several of the recipes in the book (no knead bread, ficelles, and fougasse) and I can't wait to make the cinnamon rolls and the chocolate babka. Ohara's attention to detail has made her recipes shine. I own a lot of bread books, but this is one I know I'll return to again and again, and because it is so beautifully done -- those photos are gorgeous -- I'll also be giving this as gifts to many this holiday season. I wish tomorrow weren't a work day -- I want to bake right now!
Should be titled " Learn the Metric System by Baking Bread"
I thought the book was great for the first couple minutes until I read the part where the author says that professionals use the metric system to weigh their ingredients, thus the rest of us should. She proceed to says we should buy a kitchen scale instead of using measuring cups. I am not a professional baker, I'm just an old school average Joe that wants to bake for a loaf of bread or two after work. Sorry, I'm not going to throw away my measuring cups and spoons. I'm returning this book and buying one that's made for the people of America, not Europe.
BEST bread book I've ever used
Bread Baking for Beginners is a fabulous addition to my cookbook collection. I have baked our own bread for years, but there is just something MAGICAL about this book. Weighing out the ingredients is new for me. I like that is makes the measuring perfect and precise every time. I was a little intimidated by using the weighing method, but once I got started there is no turning back. The pictures in the book are lovely to look at and helpful to ensure my creations are right on track. The gentle tone in the book is a reflection of the author. I can't wait to dive in and bake every recipe in this gem of a cookbook. It is the perfect book for beginner and experienced bakers alike.
Bake on!!! Great family book and great recipes for family traditions
It’s a must have baking companion in your collection! It’s such a world of difference to not have processed/preservative bread from the store shelf; you can make it! Many of these recipes are now a family weekly request and new holiday traditions as well (brioche cinnamon rolls). There recipes are in grams, so you will need a scale. it’s a great book to start your British baking show practice for those TV baking fanatics. Love this book and the images help you along the way.
Hate it!
It is difficult to fully and adequately describe just how much of a disappointment this book is. Bread for beginners??? I think that is either delusional or a lie..It's all very well to decide that for accuracy you are going to put everything in weight only, but how is the beginner supposed to know how to get 204 grams of whole eggs??? And is this explained? nope. This comes across as an ego trip to me. We wanted a simple, step by step, illustrated baking book to start making our own bread in this time of shut in. This doesn't even come close to helping. It is going in the recycle bin!
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