• goodfruit on September 08, 2019

  The starter, made with Pineapple Juice is easy to get going and the recipes are great! Not overly complicated like his seminal Crust and Crumb. This bread book is much more approachable.

• Lindsay on August 20, 2010

  Brilliant bread book, not one recipe has failed.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Classic French bread

  • Cheri on March 29, 2020

    This recipe works well, great flavor. Watch carefully, baking time a bit too long in my over, using a baking stone

  • JuneHawk on February 28, 2021

    Regardless of whether you are kneading by hand or machine, 2 minutes is absolutely not enough.

• Neo-Neopolitan pizza dough

  • RC.Gourmet on April 12, 2023

    I made the dough exactly, by weight. It remained sticky, impossible to form into balls

  • RC.Gourmet on April 14, 2023

    The next day I made pizza. 1) Use flour and not oil when kneading and dividing. 2) The recipe only made four medium sized pizzas, and that was with me increasing the recipe ingredients by 20% (I had just a bit of flour left in the bag so thought I'd use it up and as I measure by weight, it was easy to calculate). 3) The family said it was a great crust on the pizza. Heated my oven to its max - 300° C - with pizza stones and a tray on the bottom for water. I have some very thin aluminium sheets with one lip on only one side, i do have a peel, but decided to put these directly on the stones so I could get them out quick and a second batch in quickly. A good dough recipe!

• Sourdough pizza dough

  • Ordinaryblogger on February 19, 2023

    Great dough! Fridge overnight - made one white pizza with crème freche, dandelion greens, mushrooms and pesto. To other was a traditional pizza margarita

• 50% whole grain rustic bread and pizza dough

  • KissTheCook on February 15, 2017

    Sweet and soft as sandwich bread with his recommended sugar and oil.

• 100% whole wheat sourdough hearth bread

  • KissTheCook on May 17, 2017

    I used 260 grams of my own sourdough starter (I keep ongoing supply in frig), no veg oil, 5 g yeast and increased salt to 16 g. Mixed 10 min. with paddle after 5 min. hydration rest. Did not refrigerate, but shaped loaves after 3 30-min. turns (Bouchon does 1 hr turns, Peterson 10 min; split the difference) for same day bake. Best whole wheat bread I've ever made. (Bread baker off and on since early 80's.)

  • twoyolks on February 03, 2014

    The strength of the sourdough contrasted weirdly with the whole wheat for me (which would be dependent on the sourdough starter used).

  • Skamper on October 18, 2020

    Great flavor. I was worried because the dough was very soft and sticky, but I was reluctant to add more flour since he stresses high hydration. The 4 folds helped alot. I made the version without yeast, and it rose well overnight in the refrigerator. I didn't get much oven spring, and the two loaves were quite petite. Next time I'd add the yeast for better rise.

  • deboChicago on April 12, 2020

    We are pretty new to regular bread baking (the past few months); in terms of texture and flavor this is the best all whole wheat bread recipe we’ve found. So happy with it.

• Hoagie and cheesesteak rolls

  • OneAnd2 on December 05, 2021

    First time making these: for four 12” rolls, scaled recipe by 80%. Had 100 g of sourdough starter discard handy, so subbed in for 50 g ea. of flour and water. Rolls ended up with proportions closer to baguettes than hoagie rolls.

• Soft sandwich bread and rolls

  • twoyolks on December 03, 2013

    The bread had a lot of "bread flavor" but was a bit denser than I'd like for a sandwich loaf.

• Soft cheese bread

  • Trackypup on April 22, 2012

    So good and sooo easy. Made the spiral rolls - turned out so well.

  • twoyolks on September 28, 2013

    I made a sandwich loaf. The cheese caused the layers to fully separate. It also seemed as if there was too much cheese in too small of an area. The bread almost seemed like a grilled cheese.

• Crispy rye and seed crackers

  • gastronom on February 04, 2013

    Excellent and simple rye crackers without saturated fat. Dough seemed to need more salt, so I sprinkled the topping with a little kosher/coarse salt. Great with cheese.

  • zorra on January 15, 2014

    These crackers delighted many people over the holidays. Increased kosher salt in the dough to 1 teaspoon, they needed more & I found it difficult to control the salt when just sprinkling on surface. Topping with chopped rather than whole pumpkin &/or sunflower seeds (as in linked NPR photo) is a great idea, they adhere much better this way (used egg wash).

• Cinnamon buns

  • aliradloff on January 03, 2011

    Although there are a lot of steps for this recipe, it's very easy and relatively quick. Dangerously delicious!

• Chocolate cinnamon babka

  • twoyolks on February 22, 2021

    I found this to be a little dry and a little dense. The chocolate flavor was nice but the bread itself was a bit bland. I didn't really detect any cinnamon flavor.

  • chawkins on November 07, 2012

    Very good with an intense chocolate filling, cannot detect the cinnamon at all. Not as decadent as some other recipe such as Martha Stewart's.

• The best biscuits ever

  • krusso119 on October 19, 2010

    This really is the best biscuit recipe ever. The dough is easy to work with, and the ingredients combined with the techniques produce the lightest, fluffiest, flaky,tender and flavorful biscuits I have ever had, never mind made.

• Food52

  Sourdough doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does take time. Here, Reinhart explains how to build your starter, starting with the “seed culture.”

  Full review

• Fine Cooking

  ...proves that you don’t need to be a pro to make delicious artisan breads at home. ...you’ll learn everything you need to know, from the basics to innovative new methods and timesaving techniques.

  Full review