- Paperback: 250 pages
- Publisher: Chelsea Green Books (April 1 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1890132055
- ISBN-13: 978-1890132057
- Product Dimensions: 25.4 x 20.4 x 1.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 680 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#64,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #70 in Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Baking > Bread
- #91 in Books > Home & Garden > How-to & Home Improvements > Do-It-Yourself
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In recent years, a revived and burgeoning interest in wholesome, locally baked bread has swept the country, with bakeries springing up in small towns and major urban areas alike, producing an astounding variety of interesting, crusty, tasty, handmade breads. The Bread Builders explains the grains and flours, leavens and doughs, the chemistry of bread, and the physics of baking in a big book filled with helpful drawings, photographs, recipes, and tips. In a unique angle for a book on baking bread, it also includes detailed diagrams and instructions for building your own masonry bread oven from scratch.
As Laurel Robertson, author of The New Laurel's Kitchen says, "This book is ice cream for a baker! We visit legendary bakeries, meet wonderful people, learn all sorts of fascinating scientific information with practical usefulness in bowl and oven, and best of all, get the skinny on masonry ovens, the cherished fantasy of us all." The enthusiasm of the authors in their search for the perfect loaf of bread permeates this detailed but lively and accessible book, and will offer much of use to both amateur and professional bread makers. --Mark A. Hetts
Review
Review from Ecology Action Newsletter"The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens," by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott, is a serious book, written for people who take their bread baking seriously. It is not a cookbook but one whose object is to help the baker understand all parts of the process that go into creating an excellent loaf. As such, it is a technical journal that thoroughly details natural fermentation, bread grains and flours, leavens and dough, and dough development. The second part is about masonry ovens and their construction, since both authors agree that such an oven is a necessary part of creating the excellent loaf. Each chapter of the book includes a visit to a commercial or private venture which is using some or all of the processes being described. The book is not a light read but should prove inspiring to those wanting more information about the baking process, how to construct a masonry oven or anyone who is glad to see that these traditional methods are bein
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't hesitate, just build it ...,
By Murray (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens (Paperback)
If you want to know how to make sourdough bread, this is THE book to get. It not only tells you how, but equally importantly (at least for me) why. My sourdough bread has turned from a heavy, unappetising brick, to a loaf that my friends and family are actually enjoying. Even better than the bread, if you want to know how to build a wood-fired oven, then look no further - this book has nearly everything you need. With discussions on fundamental design guidelines, required tools, materials and one set of plans in the book, anyone with a little "handyman" experience should be able to build a robust and reliable oven. But don't expect everything to be laid out in the form of fool-proof instructions - YOU will have to do a bit of work in figuring out what size you want the oven, (dome height, door width, floor height), exactly how things will fit together and how many bricks, how much cement, aggregate, etc. you will need. But for me, doing this was part of the challenge, even if I did spend 6 months reworking my plan a dozen times or so. The only thing I'd change in this book is to add just one example of how you could do a chimney - this caused me considerable torment, although what I've done seems to work just fine. So if you want a wood-fired oven, and are thinking of building one - don't hesitate, just build it ...
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-own book for any serious baker,
By Plasbo (Lopez Island, WA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens (Paperback)
This book is not a bread recipe (or formula) book, it is not a learn-to-bake book and it is not a baking reference book. It is a treatise on hearth bread and it is not one you want before you have already become very serious about bread baking and have become a full and fanatical convert to baking with natural leaven ("sourdough"). If you are not already there, then I recommend Peter Reinhart's "Crust and Crumb" and Paul Bertolli's "Chez Panisse Cooking" (it has a single great chapter about baking naturally leavened bread). Once you have arrived at good, satisfying, naturally leavened bread and bake it as a matter of routine, "The Bread Builders" will give you a very good understanding of what is really going on or what should be going on and what you can do to make sure it is. Even though I currently bake in a bottom-of-the-line, electric Jenn-Air oven, the book gave me enough knowledge, science, technique, hints, tricks and understanding that I could take my bread one or two steps further towards perfection, and for that it was worth buying. You also get to understand that the ultimate step towards perfection is baking in a brick oven. When I get around to taking that step and building my oven, this is the book that will guide me.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful book, wonderful resource,
By kdenzer (France) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens (Paperback)
Dan Wing and Alan Scott have answered all the questions I have ever asked about bread and ovens, and then some. After baking regular yeasted bread for years, I learned to make small, wood-fired ovens out of mud, and started making naturally leavened breads. In the process, I stumbled onto some of the "secrets" of good bread, for which I was very happy. For people who don't want to spend years stumbling, however, The Bread Builders is a thorough, authoritative, and inspiring door into the hows and whys of really good bread. For people who already know the "secrets," it's an absolutely brilliant explanation and exploration of what makes good bread (part of which is, of course, the oven). If you want to understand the principles of what you're doing, this is it. And if you want to build a commercial quality oven for baking your own bread, here are plans and detailed instructions. I have had the pleasure of meeting, and learning a little about ovens from Alan Scott. I am very happy that now, in addition to having a master baker on my bookshelf, I also have a master oven builder as well. Thank you both very much.
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