Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads 30th Anniversary Edition

Rating:
Summary: The "bread bible" in my kitchen, but not my favorite
Review: I should have a kind of loyalty to Bernard Clayton, Jr.'s bread book. It's big, it's complete and it has just about any bread including crackers. (Like author Clayton, I love crackers.) But recent bread books,especially those artisan books, surpass The "New Complete Book of Breads" for getting that European effect, especially for free-form wheat breads like ciabatta and Tuscan bread.

However, this book shines for the American kitchen, in which you might not be using all the latest gadgets or have re-created a stone hearth. The recipes work well with the flours available in the grocery store and health food store, whereas you might need to mail order high-ash French-style flours from catalogs if you are working towards artisan breads.

The section on holiday breads like Panettone, Pandoro, challah and stollen are especially good. There is a Finnish bread that I especially admire.

So I find I still pull this book off the shelf when I want to make good bread, but don't want to agonize over getting crackly crusts, gel-like crumb or other artisan features of specialty breads. Easy, reliable and plenty of variety here.

Rating:
Summary: My copy is covered with floury fingerprints-still!
Review: Of all the bread baking books I have (and I have a lot) this is the one I actually *use* the most. I have made more than 30 of the recipes, and they consistently come out very well. The book covers a huge variety of breads, from the so-called quickbreads that can be assembled in a matter of minutes to complicated ones that may take a week or more from preparation to final result. There are classic French breads, wholemeal breads, small breads-chances are, if you want to make it, it's in here.The instructions are very clear, even if there are no illustrations or photographs. After many failed attempts, I was able to make perfect croissants for the first time from this book! Finally, the book if presented with a great sense of humor-you'll love reading the recipe for dog biscuits, even if you don't have a dog.

.........

I wrote the above review in 1997 - it's now 2003, and this book is still the break baking book I use the most. I've now moved to a country (Switzerland) where it's possible to buy great bread from any bakery, even from the supermarket. Yet I still turn to this book at least once a week for old favorites. Some that I have made more times than I can remember include scones (from mixing to eating in 30 minutes!), Old Milwaukee Rye Bread, Basic White Bread, Rosemary-Garlic Bread..the list goes on. Some I've yet to master after numerous tries - like the salt-raising breads. And I still haven't tried the dog biscuits. :)

Rating:
Summary: Lots of Easy Bread Recipes for the Rest of Us.
Review: The subject of bread baking seems to attract large, authoritative titled books, as this is the third 400 or more page book on bread which claims to be either complete or a bible. As the other two books (both entitled 'The Bread Bible' by Beth Hensperger and Rose Levy Beranbaum) were published in the last five years and Mr. Clayton's first edition of his book was published thirty years ago, Bernard Clayton has a distinct claim to have commanded this cookbook niche for the longest time, thereby having ample opportunity to correct, improve, and augment. From the author's new introduction, I see he has been doing that faithfully for the last thirty years.

In a sense, Mr. Clayton is very old school, as he was in a position to consult not only with Julia Child, but also with Craig Claiborne and James Beard, both of which have left us for tables on high. The augmentation of thirty years' effort gives us a volume which weighs in at 685 pages at an exceedingly reasonable $35. Kudos to Simon and Shuster for giving the volume the price of most cookbooks which rarely exceed 300 pages.

While Mr. Clayton arose from an 'old school' background, the general technique behind his bread recipes is very modern and will be very welcome to the inexperienced home baker. The heart of his technique for yeast breads is to use the newest incarnation of commercial yeast, typically called 'Rapid Rise'. I believe this yeast was specifically developed to work with bread machines. The fact that 'Rapid Rise' yeast can be added to dry ingredients without being proofed in warm water and sugar or flour is what distinguishes it from the older 'Active Dry' yeast from producers like Red Star and Fleishmans. Virtually every yeast based recipe in the book mixes the yeast with dry ingredients and starts with water at 120 degrees Fahrenheit rather than blooming the yeast in water at about 105 degrees Fahrenheit.

The very best thing about Mr. Clayton's book in comparison to it's closest competitor, 'The Bread Bible' by Rose Levy Beranbaum is the fact that Mr. Clayton makes a point of showing you how bread baking can not only be easy, but it can be relatively easy with an incredibly wide range of historically and ethnically interesting breads made with manual kneading, bread machine, stand mixer, and food processor. After reading books by such hyper fussy bakers such as Beranbaum, Silverton, and Reinhart, this is a real revelation. The second best thing about this book is revealed in the title. This is a complete book of BREADS. Note the plural. The most important aspect of the book is that it presents, in depth, recipes for twenty-four different types of breads, including many ethnic favorites. I found, for example, a recipe for the Russian Easter bread, Kulich, a close cousin to the local Lehigh Valley favorite, Paska from the Ukraine. None of the other encyclopedic approaches to bread included this recipe. However, I did recently find it and the true Ukrainian recipe in the new book 'Celebration Breads' by Betsy Oppenneer.

The great thing about this variety is that it gives pretty complete coverage to all special needs, such as those who need a gluten-free bread, those who need a yeast-free bread (and are tired of Irish Soda Bread), and those who want healthy, whole grain bread recipes. It even covers recipes for crackers and batter breads and baking for dogs, if you can believe that.

The most amazing thing about the subject of bread baking is that in spite of the great size of this book, it simply does not cover everything, and, what it does cover is done from what is not the only or even the best point of view. While this book does touch on breads made from starters, the book does not deal with this subject in any detail. The book does not even include the words sponge, poolish, or biga in the index. It is on this subject where Ms. Beranbaum really shines. Unlike Mr. Clayton who gives a relatively cursory introduction to the techniques of yeast bread baking, Ms. Beranbaum gives about 90 very detailed pages to the intricacies of artisinal baking with both natural and commercial yeasts. I have already noted Mr. Clayton's focus on 'Rapid Rise' yeast and it's techniques. Other writers prefer either 'Active Dry' or even moist, 'live' yeast that must be refrigerated. Other baking experts such as Peter Reinhart also make compelling arguments for very long rise times, which, in the interest of appealing to the amateur, Clayton does not discuss in depth.

If you want an exceedingly rich source of baking recipes for a very reasonable price with a very friendly voice which will make you confident that you will do well when you bake bread, this is the book for you! If you have no interest in a deep understanding of bread baking or in natural yeast techniques, you will need no other book. If your interest in baking is more professional or more in need of deeper understanding, check out Beranbaum or Reinhart's books.

Highly recommended. Makes bread baking inviting.