Bread Illustrated

In stock
SKU
CL06
IACP Cookbook Awards Winner
Special Price $19.99 Regular Price $29.95
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America’s Test Kitchen wants to put bread back in everyone’s oven

by demystifying the art and science of bread baking, showing bakers of all skill levels how to make crisp-crusted, chewy-crumbed loaves, rolls, sweet breads, and more.

Bread Illustrated—our first cookbook devoted solely to bread baking—is a fully illustrated handbook with more than 100 meticulously tested recipes that will enable you to bake artisan bakery–quality bread at home. Each recipe is a hands-on tutorial with a timeline and photos that break down the recipe step by step, because seeing the process from start to finish helps make any recipe more approachable.

Along the way, you'll discover a world of breads, each of which teaches valuable skills. Learn how to divide dough and form the knotted, rosette-shaped Kaiser Rolls. Incorporate butter and eggs into enriched breads like the towering holiday Panettone. For added assurance, troubleshooting sidebars accompany many of the breads, so you'll know how to avoid common pitfalls.

Here are just a few of our favorites, along with the innovative techniques that guarantee your success:


Several Butter Fan Rolls on a cooling rackSeveral Butter Fan Rolls on a cooling rack
Butter Fan Rolls

Fancy enough for dinner parties, these rolls are also great pulled apart and slathered with sweet jam for breakfast. Their success lies in their layers. We kept the construction process easy with a roll, cut, butter, and stack technique. Once we’d built the stacks, we placed them cut side up in a muffin tin. Voilà—your new anytime, go-to rolls.

Two loaves of No-Knead BriocheTwo loaves of No-Knead Brioche
No-Knead Brioche

Achieving a tender crumb and a buttery flavor that’s richer than that of any other sandwich bread can cause a butter-induced headache, what with the multiple additions of butter interspersed with laborious kneading. We simply melted the butter, combined all the ingredients, and let the dough rest in the fridge—and the loaf stitched itself together in 16 hands-off hours.

An overhead shot of a loaf of sourdoughAn overhead shot of a loaf of sourdough
Sourdough Bread

Our sourdough culture is dead simple to make, and we ensure a prolonged steamy oven environment that encourages crisp, charred crusts on this and other rustic breads in the book by pouring boiling water over disposable pans full of preheated lava rocks (yes, the ones used for gas grills), which absorb and retain heat.

A loaf of Panettone with a slice cut out to show the middleA loaf of Panettone with a slice cut out to show the middle
Panettone

Our remarkably light, fluffy version sticks with traditional flavorings (golden raisins, candied orange peel, and vanilla and almond extracts) and relies on long fermentation and proofing times to maximize the gas development from the yeast in the dough.

Editorial Reviews


With 1,000 photos and the expertise of the America’s Test Kitchen editors, this title might be the definitive book on bread baking. 
- Publishers Weekly


"I want to start at the beginning and make each and every recipe in the book." 
- International Falls Journal

Details

Recipes: 100+
Format: Softcover
Pages: 432
Item Weight: 3.2 pounds
Item Number: CL06


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