Best Book on Italian Bread Baking?
Finocchio568
with three and I'm wondering if they're any good.
- The Italian Baker by Carol Field
- Il Fornaio by Franco Galli
- No Need to Knead by Suzanne Dunaway
Thanks
Debbie Deutsch
<20010717125752...@ng-mh1.aol.com>:
The Italian Baker is wonderful. If I had only one book about Italian bread
baking, it would definitely be this one. It is comprehensive (traditional
breads, new-fangled breads, recipes to use up bread, cakes, cookies...) and
true to its subject (no shortcuts or unnoted substitutions). Everything I
have ever made from it has come out well. The semolina bread from Altamura
is wonderful. Then there is the rosemary bread. And the foccacia recipes.
My first taste of ciabatta was a result of this book, and its patient
warning and assistance apropos the very wet dough.
I have Il Fornaio, and find I hardly ever refer to it. It is much shorter
and just doesn't spark my interest the way that Carol Field's book does.
YMMV.
Debbie
M. Smith
"Finocchio568" <finocc...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20010717125752...@ng-mh1.aol.com...
I have the Italian Baker by Field and it is excellent. I have not read the
Il Fornaio book so cannot comment.
Finally, any book whose title is "No Need to Knead" is either dishonest or
ignorant of the fundementals of gluten formation from hydrated glutelin
proteins in flour. Sure, you can get a loaf of bread with minimal kneading,
but then the question becomes why? One of the main points of homemade bread
is to get the flavor, texture and quality that are absent in far too many
commercial breads. That requires kneading.
From a bit of research, her "secret" is the use of very wet doughs. Well,
SURPRISE!, wet (slack) doughs have long been the not-so-secret secret of
good European style breads for ages.
Her deception is pretending that "folding" a wet dough is not the same as
"kneading" a dryer dough. That's bullshit. Both have the identical same
action - linking hydrated glutelin proteins together to form a gluetn net to
trap the CO2 created by the yeast.
The wet dough simply does the gluten formation faster than a dry dough.
However, wet doughs are harder to form and handle, especially for an
amateur. So, you have a trade off.
She has re-stated the obvious (long well known by serious bakers,)
pretending she invented something new, and gets away with it since most
people never bother to study the underlying science of bread baking.
That said, she does have a fawning press promoting her, none of whom even
begin to understand the fundementals of bread baking. It is easy to look
good when your critics don't understand the underlying basics of what they
are reviewing!
Robert Cutone
Wonderful attention to detail and history. The recipes are tested and GOOD!
Finocchio568 <finocc...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20010717125752...@ng-mh1.aol.com...
Combat Lit
baking. >>
If you are just starting out, try Jerry DeAngelis' Bread page on his Artisan
site (<A HREF="http://www.theartisan.net/">The Artisan - Ver 6.0</A>) as a
resource. His site is better than a cookbook - If you try one of his recipes
and have problems, you can e-mail him and ask for help.
Robert, El Sobrante, CA