Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day: Fast and Easy Recipes for World-Class Breads

by Peter Reinhart
Ten Speed Press, 224 pp., $30

There’s something so elemental about home­made bread. But bread baking requires patience and attention, two traits that are in short supply among many home cooks these days. In Art­isan Breads Every Day, renowned baker Peter Rein­hart has set out to make home­made bread more accessible for everyone.

The subtitle is a bit misleading, because let’s face it, there are few kitchen tasks that necessitate more advance preparation than bread baking. But Reinhart manages to break down the steps so that with a little planning, making artisanal breads at home need not monopolize an entire weekend. He contends that baking bread is easy – “primarily a balancing act between time, temperature and ingredients.”

Reinhart’s sensible, building-block approach demystifies the alchemy behind turning yeast, flour, and water into something that is more than the sum of its parts. Using a few basic recipes and techniques, which Reinhart outlines in the first chapters of the book, home bakers learn first the methods for successful baguettes, ciabattas, and sourdough loaves and then how to apply these methods to bagels, pretzels, and even babkas.

Reinhart supplies instructive photo-illustrated tips to go along with many of the recipes, such as the one for making what he contends are the world’s best, flakiest biscuits. The secrets: freeze the butter, fold the dough, but otherwise handle it as minimally as possible. The result: I had to admit these were mighty tasty biscuits. Likewise, the book offers illustrated tips for kneading bread, carefully explains the difference between sticky dough and tacky dough, breaks down the steps for making a natural dough starter, and demonstrates how to braid challah. For the novice, Reinhart’s book is an excellent introduction to the world of baking, but even experienced bakers will find it handy and informative.

This article appears in December 4 • 2009.

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Rachel Feit is an archaeologist by trade who worked her way through college in kitchens in Chicago and Austin before discovering that dishing up words was more satisfying that dishing up meals. She has been writing about food and restaurants for The Austin Chronicle for more than a decade, but still loves to cook.