Artisan Baking by Maggie Glezer Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Artisan Baking
Book Review: A very important book on bread baking. Buy it NOW!
Summary: 5 Stars
`Artisan Baking' by Maggie Glezer truly deserves the New York Times blurb on the cover, in a 32 point font declaring this to be `A Landmark Book'. The impressive medallion to the left of this pronouncement declares that the book is a James Beard Foundation cookbook award winner. The fact that the award is for best book on baking should in no way diminish the importance of this award.
I will get in my one tiny complaint on the book at the outset, and it is only about the title, which the author explains is to avoid the seemingly more difficult `Artisinal' adjective, which she claims no one can pronounce. Aside from this seemingly ungrammatical title, I think this book easily joins my all time top ten best cookbooks, taking its place as the representative from the bread-baking world.
There are other excellent books that cover artisinal baking or some aspect of it. The best of these would be Peter Reinhart's `The Bread Baker's Apprentice', Nancy Silverton's `Breads From the La Brea Bakery', Joe Ortiz' `The Village Baker', and Rose Levy Beranbaum's `The Bread Bible'. All these books are written with an uncommon love of and devotion to their subject. Madame Glezer's book is just a bit better than these others in that she is more successful in communicating that love and devotion, as well as effectively communicating the techniques of artisinal bread baking. Rest assured that Ms. Glezer does not make these other books redundant, as they all contain important recipes Mme. Glezer does not cover and (especially with Mme. Beranbaum) explanations of the why of bread baking.
And, there is probably no more important province of cooking than in bread baking where understanding the reasons for things is so important to obtaining good results. Making a flaky piecrust requires a fair amount of practice and skill, but if you make a mistake, you can start over and have a second try in the works within an hour our so. Not so with many artisinal breads. The natural yeast levains (sourdough, for example) require almost two weeks to start up before you can even start making bread. Many recipes often require an overnight rise to get good results. This is one area where the traditional European requirement for an apprenticeship of many years starts to make a lot of sense. You need both `book' knowledge and a practical experience with the dough that is only acquired over time.
Ms. Glezer interprets `artisan baking' as that type where some essential steps are done by hand. I am inclined to add that all `artisan (bread) baking' also involves yeast, either brewers yeast, dried yeast, or natural yeasts for leavening, and it involves no `artificial' ingredients such as preservatives, but there are even some chemically leavened recipes here, the most familiar being one for the New England Jonnycake. Almost all artisinal baking is done by professional bakers. If you want to do artisinal baking at home, you are undertaking a really serious commitment of time and space, comparable to taking on a hobby such as pottery or woodworking.
The fact that artisinal baking is primarily a professional undertaking is underlined by the organization of the book. Almost all chapters are structured around visits to an important and distinguished artisinal bakery (boulangerie) in either America or Europe. The highlight of each chapter then is a recipe or recipes from that bakery. A quick look at the Table of Contents is just a bit misleading, as it appears that only pages 87 to 178, less than half the book, are really dedicated to recipes. In fact, there are many recipes scattered throughout the book, even in the first section dedicated to the story of how flour is produced and the last section dedicated to `The Baking Life'.
The author accommodates this organization by providing a supplementary table of contents giving `Breads by Category', which starts out with `Breads for Beginners' and `Breads Completed in One Day'. It is symptomatic that 4/5 of the recipes require more than one day.
One of the consequences of this book's being about handmade breads is that several common types of breads, such as brioche and `Pullman' loaves are not in this book. On the other hand, the rich diversity of breads which are covered are enough to make your head swim. This is not a book like some I've seen where all the breads are made with a small number of basic doughs, and souped up with sweet or savory ingredients. No indeed! What we have here, Madames and Messieurs, is a great presentation of the rich diversity in bread baking techniques as developed over the centuries, especially in France and Italy. In fact, you may be surprised to discover that `sourdough' was not a California invention. The sourdough / levain natural yeast technique was probably a 1000 years old before the California prospectors stumbled over the natural yeast native to California which flourished in natural starters created on the west coast.
This book transcends the ordinary, like many great cookbooks, by simply being a pleasure to read. That means that even if you have absolutely no interest in committing to days of flour-drenched labor to bake some bread, this is a great read. This is the kind of stuff you simply don't get on the `Food Network', at least not anymore.
Lest I discourage you from bread baking at all, let me assure you that one can make really superb breads with relatively simple recipes such as those you will find in `Baking with Julia', written by Dorrie Greenspan. But, if you have heard the siren song of crusty baguettes and batards hot from the oven, this is the book for you. My only caveat to the newbie is that as engaging as the `color' writing is, the recipes are seriously professional stuff, which are best done by measuring entirely by weight.
So, for either reading or launching a new hobby, this book is the best.
Book Review: An outstanding book on baking bread
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been baking bread for about 7 years now and have managed to get by using recipes for quick rising bread that could be completed in one day. I managed to make bread that tasted good and looked fine, but somehow the crisp brown crust and the big air pockets that are the hallmark of artisinal bread eluded me.
I picked Maggie Glezer's book because of the reviews and I can confirm that this is an exceptional book for baking bread. I have used 10 of the recipes in her book and each time the loaves have turned out beautifully. There are many things I like about the book -- first, the measurements are exceptionally accurate -- even if the dough looks too soft or too firm or too liquid, the resulting loaf is perfect! It was a personal battle for me to not adjust the consistency to what I thought would be a more manageable dough, but I am glad I resisted, because the results were as shown in the book. A second useful piece of information in the book is how to convert an existing liquid starter into a firm starter that can be used for many of the recipes in the book. I have a few other books on baking where the authors insist on having separate starters for rye, whole grains, firm and liquid sourdough, etc., Ms. Glezer seems to understand that in some instances this may not be practical and I am much happier using my existing sourdough starter to bake the exceptional recipes in her book. (As an aside, I am cultivating the sourdough starter described in her book and the process is exactly as she describes.) Last but not least, the book offers recipes that can be completed in a day as well as a few that take almost 2 whole days, so you can pick what suits your schedule and your particular baking zeal on a given day.
Thanks to this book, I have managed to bake exceptional ciabatte that came out of the oven looking like loaves from a professional bakery -- truly crusty, truly holey, with a deep brown, crisp, flour striated crust, and delicious! This book is one of my most cherished baking resources and I cannot recommend it highly enough!
Book Review: Artisan Baking by Maggie Glezer
Summary: 5 Stars
Buy this book, at $15 and change, the pictures and dialogue are worth it if you enjoy cook books, and bread in particular. Instructions and formulas are detailed. My feeling is that the so-called Artisan craze is just Sourdough gone nuts, but the creation of a zesty sponge or biga can be SO rewarding. Also it is worth while to note that sourdough based breads have a longer life in the freezer. The intro on techniques and utensils is by itself priceless. Instructions for making a bread include by: Hand, Stand Mixer, Food Processor. As opposed to some books that present Bakers percentages, and involve a bunch of daunting moves to JUST make a loaf of bread!! This book is a vast improvment on the 15 year old Bernard Clayton on bread, in that it makes clearer some of the procedures that Clayton described in a confusing format. BUT: don't toss out your Clayton, he has a good , probably classic, essentially "THE BIBLE ON BREAD" in His original book.Book Review: Artisan baking by Maggie Glezer
Summary: 5 Stars
A text book really for the artisanal baker, brilliant attention to detail, with info for competitive baking and snapshots on american institutions for the loaf. Recipes for pandoro, Bialys, taralli, and all sorts of sourdough.
If youre trouble shooting im sure you will return to this book again and again....
Book Review: Best Bread Book
Summary: 5 Stars
I have baked my way throught the book and everything turned out nicely. I was suprised at how easily, with a home kitchen and little experience one can bake breads better than from any bakery in this country. My husband always tells me that my breads are the best he ever ate, outside of Paris.
I highly recommend this bookt to serious bread lovers. Most recipes take time, but it is worth it. Bread is about flavor, not about baking it in record time. This book is about enjoying the process and the the results of baking bread.
I also liked Julia's bread recipes
Baking with Julia Savor the Joys of Baking with America's Best Bakers