The owner and chef of L.A.'s famous and successful La Brea Bakery reveals her magical recipes, adapted for home bakers. Before the baking even begins, Silverton takes the reader through the wonder of bread alchemy, then introduces readers to a wide range of recipes which range from the whimsical to the sublime. 25 photos.
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
From Amazon
Silverton, who hails from the renowned Los Angeles bakery for which this book is named, goes back to square one in Breads for the La Brea Bakery: the yeast. While commercial yeast may work, using it doesn't really get to the essence of good bread or good bread making. Her book describes the two-week process required to create a starter the old-fashioned way. Once that is done, there are breads, pretzels, bagels, and a host of other good things to bake.
From Publishers Weekly
Bread is beautiful when it is made with time, care and honest ingredients; the same is true of cookbooks, and this is a beautiful cookbook. Silverton, a world-class pastry chef and owner of L.A.'s Campanile restaurant and La Brea Bakery, offers breadmaking instructions so meticulous that one gets the feeling she's divulging valuable trade secrets. Her breads are sourdough breads that depend on sourdough starter, a simple combination of flour and water left out where it can catch wild yeasts. Silverton explains the 14-day, once-in-a-lifetime process of creating the starter and the ongoing process of maintaining it. She then describes the starter and its variations and shows how they can be incorporated into a variety breads. Specialties include Walnut Bread, Rustic Olive-herb Bread, Chocolate Sour Cherry Bread and Red Pepper Scallion Bread. Lists of equipment and sources of supplies are included. Her beautifully designed book will appeal to dedicated cooks and perfectionists who are patient and brave enough to make mistakes along the way to breads, rolls, focaccia, pretzels, bagels, waffles and even-woof-dog biscuits.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By E. Lowther
Format:Hardcover
La Brea Bakery produces an amazing product that I hoped to duplicate (or at least make an attempt) at home. Although I feel very comfortable in the kitchen, I was very intimiated by her lengthy home made starter instructions and thus her book has sat on my shelf unused. Unless you are willing to make the costly and time consuming starter, this book is of no value.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
This book is for accomplished home bread makers that want to make professional quality bread, and there is only one way to do that: sourdough.
I have made 15 different breads from this book, including pure sourdoughs, mixed starter breads, levains, and ryes. And every single recipe works!
There are lots of books out there that will satisfy most people's desire for breadmaking skills. Nancy's book is one of the few for the true "breadies."
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By K. Wallace
Format:Hardcover
Before reading this book my only bread-making experience was throwing ingredients into a bread machine and never being thrilled with the results. Making the breads in this book take some practice to get right, but the results are well worth the effort. The fig anise bread is outstanding. My neighbors are now asking if they can buy my bread from me.
One exception: I'm sure her starter is fantastic, but there's no way I can feed a starter 3 times a day and go through 7 cups of flour every day. Instead, I talked a local artisan bakery into giving me a couple of cups of their starter, which I feed once a day. I also made my own starter from the "Crust and Crumb" recipe, which worked perfectly. These once a day starters still make fantastic bread, and are a sane alternative.
So far every recipe I've tried has delivered great bread.
Want to see more reviews on this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 79 reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Nice to Read, Not So Nice to Bake From...
I have to agree with many of the reviewers here who have mentioned that, although the recipes all sound interesting and Silverton's discussion of wild yeast starters is useful for... Read more
Published on Feb 27 2005 by eeeeeej
2.0 out of 5 stars
Nancy Silverton's Breads from La Brea Bakery
This is a book for retired professional bakers who get up at 6 AM and retire at 12 midnight. How does the author expect any real person who is not Exphedra or other stimulants to... Read more
Published on Mar 9 2004 by "misinformation222"
5.0 out of 5 stars
Making Real Sourdough
If you want real sourdough -- and you are serious about wanting to eat good bread that you can make yourself -- then this is the book.
Published on Nov 12 2003 by Christopher Peters
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Most Wasteful Sourdough Ever!
I tried this book in my search for info on baking "artisan" breads. Her process for making a sourdough "levain" is ridiculous. Read more
Published on Sep 10 2003 by Ruthanne
5.0 out of 5 stars
You don't have to be in the trade!
The homebaker can shop for the same flours which are available to the trade, in order to bake artesian breads, and get them in small amounts, altho' it seems to have been a well... Read more
Published on July 25 2002
3.0 out of 5 stars
Time-intensive but a good read
This book was very interesting to read - particularly about why wild yeast, resting the dough, and other bread-making processes are so important. Read more
Published on Jun 24 2002
2.0 out of 5 stars
All roads lead to sourdough
There's as many different ways to make sourdough bread as there are bakers in this world. I have read *lots* of books on baking, and while I believe while her intentions are good... Read more
Published on May 28 2002
1.0 out of 5 stars
The best pastry chef and baker?
I want be available to tell you, this book is so boring
Hardly any pictures none in colour I don't no how the product suppose to look like lengthy explanation who do not make... Read more
Hardly any pictures none in colour I don't no how the product suppose to look like lengthy explanation who do not make... Read more
Published on Feb 15 2002 by SIGNORET JEAN PAUL
5.0 out of 5 stars
From the cradle to the breadbox
One thing I can say about this book is that it is compelling. It's not for the faint of heart either! Read more
Published on Nov 21 2001
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Science of Breadmaking
My wife introduced me to La Brea breads here in the LA area and
I have been trying, for some time, to reproduce those breads at
home... Read more
I have been trying, for some time, to reproduce those breads at
home... Read more
Published on Oct 31 2001
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
