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shelleyrae's review
3.0
There is nothing I love more than freshly baked bread. My one weekly indulgence is buying bread from my local bakery instead of plastic wrapped loaves from the supermarket. Occasionally I will also make my own dough to bake but since I don't have, and can't afford, a decent stand mixer it is a laborious process, made more difficult by the time it requires to serve up fresh baked goods exactly when you want them.
Make Ahead Bread by Donna Currie aims to make baking easier by dividing the process into two parts, allowing you to prepare the dough and then refrigerate it until a day or two later when you can bake it. This is a much more convenient method for busy people who don't have an entire day to devote to baking.
Currie begins with some useful advice about ingredients, equipment and methods to get the best from her 100+ recipes. The first chapter of the book starts with her recipes for loaf breads using wheat, sourdough or rye, both sweet and savoury flavoured such as Fresh Corn and Cheddar Loaf and Peanut Butter Spread with Raspberry Swirl. The next chapter explores Buns, Rolls & Breadsticks, then Flatbreads like focaccia. Her recipes for Pastries include Lemon Danish and Cinnamon Croissants. The final sections offers recipes to use with leftover bread like a Cherry and Goat Cheese Strata and recipes for flavoured spread combinations like Orange and Ginger, Cinnamon Honey and Wine Jam. NB: You can see a complete recipe listing HERE
The recipes are well laid out (even in my digital version) with clear instructions and ingredients lists. Not every recipe is accompanied by a photograph of the result, which is a bit of a shame I thought.
I've bookmarked quite a few recipes I plan to try like the Strawberry Jam Swirl Loaf, Pre baked Herb and Cheese Buns and Pineapple Sweet Cheese Danish. I will actually be making the Maple, Bacon and Onion Loaf later on during the week to contribute to a friend's BBQ - I'll have to retro post pictures.
There are only a couple of gluten free recipes so this cook book is not suitable for those with gluten intolerance. Some recipes seem quite simple, others fairly complex so I think it would suit a range of people from the first timer to the regular home baker interested in Currie's make ahead method.
paperbackstash's review
5.0
Another great bread book that makes me want to bake more bread, eat more bread, and then fear the waistline effects. I never would have thought of a combination like Maple, Onion, and Bacon loaf...but now that they said something....and I definitely like the first recipe for Bacon, Tomatoe, and Cheddar loaf. Yum.
I made a cinnamon bread that I love, but this book puts in an optional option of putting some crumbled graham crackers in the filling for texture. That's something I'll have to add and try. (note to self: 2 crushed crackers)
They have monkey bread, which we all know from home-ec, but then a second: sweet potato monkey bread. Hm. The book offers non-traditional among the traditional. Strawberry rolls with walnut swirl? Why not?
Besides the staple loaves, rolls, and such, they have a wide variety of flat breads, which a lot of books lack, and they throw in pastries, turnovers, and bread recipes for leftover breads. Finally, yummy butters and spreads.
This is probably the best bread book I've read - there are beautiful full sized pictures, more recipes than you could try in a lifetime, unique breads that will have guests wondering what your secret is, and detailed instructions. Definitely a winner.
Received this from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
ctorretta's review
5.0
I love the smell of baking bread! Baking anything really but bread just smells amazing! The ability to actually make bread has always seemed like something way beyond my abilities but I still wanted to see exactly what Donna Currie had to offer!
Just the first chapter of the book is chock full of information!
She starts out by explaining ingredients and equipment like the Danish Dough Whisk. Who knew such a cute thing was even out there? Apparently these are used instead of mixing the dough with a wooden spoon! Only page two and this already looks like fun! There's also certain terms to understand as well like kneading, mixing, and shaping. Which she explains thoroughly.THEN we get to the recipes!!! The first recipe is a Rustic Sourdough Bread! One of my favorite things, as the title suggests, is that she shows how to make the bread but then to get everything prepared so you can have your bread resting a day ahead of time. The hard thing for me is that this means three days of work for some of these breads and I'm not overly patient! Some though didn't seem like so much work and could be refrigerated for up to 24 hours prior to baking (much more my style).
What I enjoy most other than the accessibility to the thought that I can now bake bread are the differing recipes. There are a ton of recipes! Most sound delicious save for maybe Sauerkraut Rye. Just the thought of sauerkraut gives me hives. I hate that stuff! But the other types of breads are amazing, and this even includes recipes that are gluten free. Blueberry and Cream Cheese Buns with Lemon Zest, Cinnamon Swirl Bread, White-Whole Wheat Honey Vanilla Buns, and Hamburger and Hot Dog Buns!! That's just a few that I plan to try! Mouth watering yet?
In short: There are many, many recipes that I can see myself trying. I can see this book being coveted for ages.
This review was originally posted on Creating Serenity
missjenniferlowe's review
4.0
Make Ahead Bread, by Donna Currie, breaks down the art AND science of baking bread. Before the recipes, there is a nice section on ingredients, methods, and equipment that is useful for any baking endeavor. The recipes, which represent a nice spectrum of utilitarian to fancy and savory to sweet, are easy to follow. I especially like that she's organized each recipe into tasks for "prep day" and tasks for "baking day". This is a solid addition to any baking library.
spookyjane's review
4.0
I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for a review.
A very informative book! It includes so many tips and tricks from a long-time bread baker. As a beginner, all of the information about each component in the recipes was so helpful in understanding the anatomy of bread, as well as the technique and art that is bread making.
I really appreciated the make ahead aspect of this book, as so few of us have a full day to devote to baking a loaf of bread. Splitting the process into two [or more] steps that can be done on different days really opens up the potential audience of the book, as well as gives access to persons who otherwise wouldn’t consider making their own bread due to time/skill constraints.
The recipes are very clear and concise – easy to understand and follow. There are many flavors and styles of bread included, from sweet loaves and rolls to savory flatbreads, as well as pastries. I am very anxious to begin making my own bread regularly [instead of purchasing it from the store], so I will definitely be trying many of them to figure out which ones will be my go-to recipes.
The book also includes a number of recipes for spread making, such as nut butters and jams of a wide variety: sweet, savory, spicy, etc.; in order to complement the wide selection of bread recipes . This is a really great addition, and a very smart move in my opinion!
I especially love a good index with this type of book, as well as conversion charts! I would suggest when the book is printed, making the conversion charts detachable, so that they can be more easily accessed in conjunction with the recipes. Perhaps the book can be done in a 3-ring binder style to aid in this.
I highly recommend and will probably be purchasing a copy for my kitchen.
A very informative book! It includes so many tips and tricks from a long-time bread baker. As a beginner, all of the information about each component in the recipes was so helpful in understanding the anatomy of bread, as well as the technique and art that is bread making.
I really appreciated the make ahead aspect of this book, as so few of us have a full day to devote to baking a loaf of bread. Splitting the process into two [or more] steps that can be done on different days really opens up the potential audience of the book, as well as gives access to persons who otherwise wouldn’t consider making their own bread due to time/skill constraints.
The recipes are very clear and concise – easy to understand and follow. There are many flavors and styles of bread included, from sweet loaves and rolls to savory flatbreads, as well as pastries. I am very anxious to begin making my own bread regularly [instead of purchasing it from the store], so I will definitely be trying many of them to figure out which ones will be my go-to recipes.
The book also includes a number of recipes for spread making, such as nut butters and jams of a wide variety: sweet, savory, spicy, etc.; in order to complement the wide selection of bread recipes . This is a really great addition, and a very smart move in my opinion!
I especially love a good index with this type of book, as well as conversion charts! I would suggest when the book is printed, making the conversion charts detachable, so that they can be more easily accessed in conjunction with the recipes. Perhaps the book can be done in a 3-ring binder style to aid in this.
I highly recommend and will probably be purchasing a copy for my kitchen.
belinda's review
3.0
2014 has been a year of reading books on baking for me. There was Peter Reinhart's excellent but aspirational Bread Revolution (oh, to have access to the flours he discusses in that book!) and Jane Eastoe's also excellent, practical and very useful Bread Making: A Practical Guide to All Aspects of Bread Making. This book is situated somewhere between the the two.
The central idea behind make-ahead bread is that the second rise is done in the fridge over a day or two-day period, meaning most of the bread can be made ahead and just taken out of the fridge and brought to room temperature while the oven is heating up. There are also a few parbaked recipes, where the bread is cooked most of the way, then frozen and reheated when desired. This is very useful, especially for people like me who work from home some of the time and have odd moments in the day where they can do part of the process of making bread at random moments of the day. The recipes themselves are really fun and include Blueberry and Cream Cheese Buns with Lemon Zest (yum!) and Sweet Potato Monkey Bread. My test recipe was the Cinnamon Swirl Bread and it was really good (http://instagram.com/p/vhcL-tBmem/?modal=true). It was really yummy; however, I found the recipe a bit ambiguous - it ended with "cook till brown and the internal temperature reads 190 degrees F, making sure you test in the tough and not in the filling." Without a basic time guide or any direction as to how to ensure I wasn't touch the filling, the cooking process was quite a bit fraught.
This book is really aimed at those who know how to bake bread but not who are seriously into it - the weekend baker who wants to make cool fun stuff. Beginner bakers are much better served by Jane Eastoe's book while serious bread bakers would do better with one of the Peter Reinhart books. That said, I will be making the Cinnamon Swirl Bread again and have a whole bunch of recipes bookmarked. I'm not sure what monkey bread is but I am very much looking forward to trying it out!
The central idea behind make-ahead bread is that the second rise is done in the fridge over a day or two-day period, meaning most of the bread can be made ahead and just taken out of the fridge and brought to room temperature while the oven is heating up. There are also a few parbaked recipes, where the bread is cooked most of the way, then frozen and reheated when desired. This is very useful, especially for people like me who work from home some of the time and have odd moments in the day where they can do part of the process of making bread at random moments of the day. The recipes themselves are really fun and include Blueberry and Cream Cheese Buns with Lemon Zest (yum!) and Sweet Potato Monkey Bread. My test recipe was the Cinnamon Swirl Bread and it was really good (http://instagram.com/p/vhcL-tBmem/?modal=true). It was really yummy; however, I found the recipe a bit ambiguous - it ended with "cook till brown and the internal temperature reads 190 degrees F, making sure you test in the tough and not in the filling." Without a basic time guide or any direction as to how to ensure I wasn't touch the filling, the cooking process was quite a bit fraught.
This book is really aimed at those who know how to bake bread but not who are seriously into it - the weekend baker who wants to make cool fun stuff. Beginner bakers are much better served by Jane Eastoe's book while serious bread bakers would do better with one of the Peter Reinhart books. That said, I will be making the Cinnamon Swirl Bread again and have a whole bunch of recipes bookmarked. I'm not sure what monkey bread is but I am very much looking forward to trying it out!
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