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The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book : A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking

The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book : A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking

List Price: $19.95
Your Price: $13.57
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Changed My Life
Review: I absolutely love this book. Learning how to bake bread was one of the most satisfying things I have ever done and this book taught me everything I know. My favorite recipes so far are Buttermilk Bread and Pocket Bread. Whatever you do, give this book a try and be persistent. It is definitely worth it and once you learn the starter recipe the rest of the recipes will have a similar pattern and will come much easier. Finally, whole grain bread really is great for your health. After giving up refined flour and refined sugar foods for the most part and doing some walking, I have lost 25 pounds. And whole grain bread is really my foundation. I couldn't do it without it. And don't forget to eat your fresh baked bread with a little bit of real butter. There's nothing else quite like it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My breadmaking bible
Review: I bought a used copy of the first edition of this book last year and have had nothing but success with it. It is brilliant. My first loaf for learning rose as high as any white bread I've ever baked, and was far more delicious. I refer to the loaf for learning chapter even when I am making wholegrain bread using recipes from other cookbooks.

I cannot understand the review by the person who gave it one star. He/she must not have followed the loaf for learning; the instructions are so clear and precise, I cannot imagine how anyone could fail unless their yeast or flour was bad.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My breadmaking bible
Review: I bought a used copy of the first edition of this book last year and have had nothing but success with it. It is brilliant. My first loaf for learning rose as high as any white bread I've ever baked, and was far more delicious. I refer to the loaf for learning chapter even when I am making wholegrain bread using recipes from other cookbooks.

I cannot understand the review by the person who gave it one star. He/she must not have followed the loaf for learning; the instructions are so clear and precise, I cannot imagine how anyone could fail unless their yeast or flour was bad.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If you want 100 percent whl.-grn.bread, this is the book !
Review: I got my copy of this book a few days ago, and have already made three loaves of bread. My first (the basic get-started recipe) was okay (didn't rise quite as much as I had wanted), but then I figured out how to exactly duplicate Laurel's conditions and have had a GREAT success with the second try. I have also tried one rye recipe and am quite satisfied with those results (I will try again with the rye and am quite confident that by the second loaf, I will have even better success).

Other bread books almost always include white flour in their recipes. This one DOES NOT. The bread is not cottony like white bread; it is far more substantial. If that is what you are looking for, BUY THIS BOOK and FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS as closely as humanly possible. If you do that, you will get GREAT results.

I am on SUGAR BUSTERS which advises against consuming any white flour products at all. I used to make bread many years ago, and decided to try again to get really 100 percent whole-grain bread. This was the ONLY book I could locate that would tell me how to do that.

The directions are detailed and long, but they tell you EXACTLY what to do, and they also tell you why. Read through the directions before you start. Whole wheat requires different techniques than white flour, and whole rye has its own special requirements, as well. This book tells you exactly how to work with each different kind of whole-grain flour to make really good breads. The research behind the book is obvious and impressive.

I probably will not use very many of the special recipes in the book such as French bread, rolls, muffins, etc; I really only wanted a way to make reliably good whole-wheat and whole-rye bread for everyday consumption. I am TOTALLY SATISFIED with what I got. In three tries, I have made three satisfactory (and two of them were really good) loaves of bread after not baking bread for many years.

One caveat: this bread book was written before the advent of bread machines, and the recipes will NOT work in a bread machine. The machines require recipes which contain quite a lot of white flour. This is a book for those who want to make GREAT whole-grain bread BY HAND. By the way, kneading bread is good upper-body exercise.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best whole-grain baking resource there is
Review: I had had some success baking white-flour yeast breads, but in the mid-80s I was starting to explore whole grains, and I couldn't understand why substituting whole wheat flour for white in my favorite recipes just wasn't working. I bought this book soon after it was released, and not only did it teach me how to bake whole-grain breads, it taught me a wealth of information about bread baking in general. I've been relying on it for 15 years.

There is a fashionable interest in whole foods and "artisenal" breads these days, and I know there are lots of books out there by expert whole grain bakers. But this book, as stated in the introduction, is less a cookbook and more an apprenticeship. If you really want to master the necessary techniques, this book, first published in 1984, can't be beat.

I just mixed up the simple one-loaf recipe in "A Loaf for Learning" and can't wait until that wonderful yeasty smell fills my house.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic!!!!
Review: I have been baking bread from this book for at least 10 years. EVERY recipe I've tried has produced light, tasty and totally delicious bread. This book taught me to bake with whole grains and I recommend it with unreserved enthusiasm.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Frustrated...
Review: I have to bake bread from this book many times over the years, and I am sorry to say that it is always dissapointing. The loaves were edible but always way too dense and uninteresting. At first I didn't know any better, then I thought I was a terrible baker, and almost gave up.

Then I tried the recipes in The Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown and made many wonderful loaves. They always work. I even went back and tried a recipe from Laurel's book, thinking that maybe I had learned something. But no, it was the same. I have made bread from other books as well, usually with great success.

I don't know what the problem is, but the breads never rise in the oven. It is as if they are so tired out and weak that they just sit there. I have seen bread jump in the oven to make a light and wonderful crust, even with 100% whole wheat, but this never happens with Laurel's recipes. In the end I am so frustrated that I have come to hate Laurel's Bread Book. I love her focus on whole grains, but the recipes never work for me.

On a technical level, her recipes are simply too vague on key points. Her descriptions of temperature are usually "cool", "warm", "very warm" rather than 60-65 degrees of something more precise. She uses a mixture of weights and volume measurements that can be confusing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wholegrain 101, and more.
Review: I originally passed up this book because of the simple black & white drawings, wanting something with huge color photo's. What a mistake. What this book excels in is teaching you the a to z's of all grain breadmaking, (not that other types aren't discussed also). So many books are just recipe's, (and this one has plenty ),and very little details on learning, but this one has allot of very detailed information on all the stages of wholegrain breadmaking. But even all white bread makers will learn valuable tips from it.
David

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Wasn't the best book for me to start with....
Review: I wanted to bake whole-grain bread, and bought this book first, as it came highly recommended. There was a lot of good information, but when I tried one of the recipes, I got a brick. This failure discouraged me from making bread for quite a while. Then I got a copy of "Breadtime" by Susan Cheney (which is entirely whole-grain breads). My first loaf turned out beautifully. The instructions and recipes from that book are what turned me from non-baker into a real breadmaker.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Frustrating!
Review: I've had this book for many years, and generally only have about a 20 to 30% success rate with these recipes. I do appreciate that this is one of the rare bread cookbooks in which the recipes are truly whole-grain, but... unfortunately, the techniques just don't cut it with me. For some recipes they work, and many others they don't. I have been baking bread for 20 years, and this is the least successful book I have found. That said, I keep trying just in case one of these days, the techniques (especially the wet knead) work. Most of what I've made is edible, just only 2 inches tall. So, buy this book if you are serious about wanting to make whole-grain-only bread. The authors are caring, the book is well-written (I have the original edition) and explains much about home-milling as well as the bread-baking process; just be aware that the techniques here are a bit different.


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