Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, Revised and Expanded by Bernard Clayton

  • The first loaf

    from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, Revised and Expanded Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, Revised and Expanded by Bernard Clayton

    • Categories: Bread & rolls, savory
    • Ingredients: bread flour; active dry yeast; dried milk; vegetable shortening
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Notes about this book

  • chawkins on June 13, 2013

    Notable recipes per 101 Classic Cookbooks: challah, dilly casserole bread, honey-lemon whole wheat, old Milwaukee rye bread, pane italiano, panettone, pepper cheese loaf, sprouted wheat bread, white breads, white bread with chocolate. Notabal recipes not in my new revised and expanded version: Dresden christmas fruit bread, grandma's oatmeal bread.

Notes about Recipes in this book

  • Buttermilk bread

    • hmckimmey on January 16, 2026

      Quick and easy, not to mention tasty!

  • Home Roman Meal bread

    • mjes on May 20, 2018

      The Roman Meal cereal is no longer available. One recipe to recreate it that I have found contains rolled rye flakes, regular rolled oats, rolled barley and oat bran in a 3:3:3:1 ratio. It works quite well but the original was wheat, rye, bran, and flaxseed, if my research is correct. Given that I've not had Roman Meal cereal in nearly 60 years, my memory of its flavor is faint, of its texture is a bit better. This recipe provided an enjoyable loaf with the rye-oats-barley mixture with a bit of flaxseed added ... but the gluten level needs to be raised a bit. I'll update this if I get closer to the original intent.

  • Honey-lemon whole-wheat bread

    • Joyceeong on July 12, 2017

      One of the loveliest whole wheat bread I've made. Soft and light with fabulous crumbs. Recipe calls for the dough to be refrigerated for at least two hours or overnight, but I have let the dough rise at room temperature and bake as usual. Also I have replaced the shortening with butter. I will definitely be baking this bread again.

  • Molasses wheat bread

    • radishseed on October 27, 2012

      This is a nice, soft-textured bread with a good wheaty flavor and a hint of molasses. I used butter instead of the shortening the recipe calls for. Twisting the dough before the second rise is an interesting technique, but it gives the final loaf an odd, lumpish shape.

  • Multi-grain bread

    • Fricky1 on October 24, 2024

      Page 197

  • Honfleur country bread (Pain de campagne Honfleur)

    • jenburkholder on June 06, 2024

      Exactly as promised - a simple but tasty wheat bread. Made good sandwiches and French toast.

  • Honey starter

    • hirsheys on May 23, 2020

      This starter worked great - it bubbled up gorgeously and even overflowed the container I put it in! After feeding it for a while, I finally got to use it in bread the other day, and it tasted great, too! An excellent starter. (3.26.20)

  • Sourdough oatmeal bread

    • termite on June 21, 2015

      My go-to sourdough recipe. Makes excellent sandwich loaf, toast, freezes well.

  • Cheddar cheese bread

    • loehmichen on December 31, 2019

      Delicious! Added 1/2 cup small diced onions sautéed in butter to the milk mixture as it was cooling. Used half all purpose flour and half bread flour.

  • Dilly casserole bread

    • Suzannefrc on April 26, 2026

      This bread was ridiculously delicious and so easy to make. I can’t wait to make it again. So good!

  • Butter-beer batter bread

    • Shelmar on September 05, 2019

      Pretty good.

  • Hana-banana-nut loaf

    • radishseed on August 22, 2013

      This recipe came out on the dry side when I baked it up as muffins. I may have overbaked them, or maybe it has something to do with all the coconut. Next time I would make the loaf as written, or err on the side of underbaking it as muffins.

  • Fresh strawberry bread

    • Frogcake on September 13, 2016

      This is an absolutely delicious moist bread. You could substitute raspberries for the strawberries.

    • twoyolks on June 04, 2020

      This barely had any strawberry flavor. Really just a hint. Otherwise it's unremarkable.

  • Lenora's yeast rolls

    • vickster on December 02, 2019

      I made these for Thanksgiving dinner and they are everything a roll should be - the perfect dinner rolls!

  • Almond-bran muffins

    • Suzannefrc on April 30, 2026

      Flavor is very nice, but texture is not quite right. Need to play around with the recipe

  • Lavash (Soft)

    • TaffyDeb on August 27, 2019

      Goes together quickly and makes a wonderful bread to go with any dinner, but most especially it goes well with Iskender Döner!

    • twoyolks on September 19, 2020

      This is quite quick and pretty easy to make. The technique with the wok is odd but it works. The problem is that the lavash itself is pretty bland because of the very quick rise.

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  • ISBN 10 0671602225
  • ISBN 13 9780671602222
  • Linked ISBNs
  • Published Nov 15 1987
  • Format Hardcover
  • Page Count 752
  • Language English
  • Countries United States
  • Publisher Fireside

Publishers Text

Bernard Clayton, Jr.'s, The Complete Book of Breads was published in 1973 and immediately became a modern American classic. With it, Clayton established himself as an expert and has maintained his position as an authority whom other food professionals turn to. Under his guidance, a generation of home bakers produced their first loaves and have since gone back time and again to old favorites. For fourteen years The Complete Book of Breads has stayed in print. During that time, Clayton discovered that France alone offered a book's worth of material and so produced The Breads of France. With The Complete Book of Pastry, he again offered the reader definitive instruction along with splendid recipes.

In the years since the publication of The Complete Book of Breads new equipment and products have revolutionized the American kitchen. With a heavy-duty mixer equipped with a dough hook, or even a food processor, a home-baked loaf can be produced in a fraction of the time previously required, and with little effort as well. The availability of fast-acting yeasts, bread flour, and other specialty products once found only in health and gourmet food stores has also broadened the possibilities. These changes were part of the inspiration for the much needed New Complete Book of Breads: 200 of the recipes from the original book appear here, all revised with the modern cook, modern equipment, and marvelous products in mind. For each recipe, Clayton gives instructions for using either the mixer or the food processor and also takes into account the shorter time needed for fast-acting yeasts.

Beyond the updated recipes, he also includes 100 new recipes, which are the result of ongoing research, further travels, and the generosity of fans and friends. In the author's own words: "All of the recipes reflect what has happened in the kitchen in the past two decades. New flours, equipment, yeasts, and techniques have been introduced to make home bread-making easier and faster -- with no loss of quality."

The New Complete Book of Breads offers an incredible range of variety, nearly enough to supply a different kind Of bread for a year of baking days. Here are wheat breads -- Honey-Lemon, Walnut, Buttermilk; a variety of sourdough breads; all manner of corn breads; breads flavored with herbs and spices or enriched with cheeses, and all the favorite "little breads" -- Kaiser Rolls, Mother's Biscuits, English Muffins, and Popovers. For the baker who observes the seasons and the holidays with a fresh loaf, there are Challah, Barm Brack, and Panettone; there are also delectable breads rich with nuts and fruits, such as Cherry-Pecan, Italian Olive, and Honey-Pineapple.

For fourteen years the original Complete Book of Breads has been thought of as the comprehensive and definitive work by readers and food writers alike; for professional bakers, it has been an important reference. But for its author, it may have been just the beginning of something else, for the New Complete Book of Breads has truly been in progress since then. Bread, the staff of life, is indeed a lively subject, and Bernard Clayton, Jr., has proved to be its most accomplished author.

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