I have the book in my library, and use some of the recipes and
techniques (the rice flour dusting one among them). But I always
double the recipes, as it's a lot of effort for just one loaf. Also,
as Ms. Berenbaum herself implies in the headnotes to several recipes,
she seems to have a closer natural affinity to sweet tastes than to
things such as rye. Nothing wrong with that - I think that her rye
bread recipe is a real achievement, and all the more so because she
says it is far from her favorite taste.
My favorite bread books are Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread: A Baker's Book
of Techniques and Recipes, The Italian Baker by Carol Field, and
Maggie Gletzer's Blessing of Bread, Martha Rose Schulman's Great
Breads, and George Greenstein's The Jewish Baker. It may not be a
coincidence that most of them predate the artisanal bread craze
though the recipes are every bit as good and the techniques in the
ones that focus on technique every bit as well worked out and viable.
There's a lot of gold in some of those older books. Bernard
Clayton's big bread book is also fabulous and comprehensive, and has
lots of full-flavored and rewarding straight dough recipes. Some
days I don't want to mess around with a preferment. I just want good bread.
- Jessica
P.S. My nominee for Most Unjustly Overlooked Bread Book is Beatrice
Ojakangas' Whole Grain Bread by Machine or Hand. There are a few
typos, which she says were introduced in the publication process, but
the recipes work and some are a bit unusual without being strange or pointless.