Williams-Sonoma Collection: Bread (Williams Sonoma Collection Series) by Williams-Sonoma, Beth Hensperger, Chuck Williams (Editor), Noel Barnhurst (Photographer)

Product Details

Synopsis

A warm slice of bread, fresh from the oven and spread with butter, is one of life's simple pleasures. Whether it's a traditional whole-wheat loaf, a crusty baguette, or tender blueberry muffins, the delicious taste and aroma of home-baked bread appeals to all of our senses. Best of all, delectable baked goods will delight friends and family alike.

Williams-Sonoma Collection Bread offers more than 40 delicious recipes, from traditional yeast breads to convenient quick breads, including breakfast treats such as muffins and scones. Whether you are in search of a savory sourdough loaf to serve with soup, simple dinner rolls to enhance the holiday table, or classic banana bread for an afternoon snack, this book includes recipes for every occasion. In addition, a final chapter on international breads, such as Italian focaccia or French brioche, rounds out this essential collection for the home baker.

Enticing photographs of each recipe make it easy to choose which bread to bake, and photographic side notes give insight into each recipe. Including all the techniques essential to mastering the art of making bread — from mixing and kneading to rising and baking — here is everything you need to bake the perfect loaf.

Publishers Weekly

Even accomplished cooks sometimes shy away from baking their own breads, since the task leaves such considerable room for error. How long to knead? How long to mix? How to add fruit or nuts without turning a loaf to lead? This attractive and informative volume, part of Williams-Sonoma's series of slim cookbooks, answers questions even the most nervous baker might have, providing step-by-step instructions for classics like Popovers and Corn Bread, as well as for more complicated yeast breads such as Swedish Rye and Oatmeal-Molasses Bread. Like all Williams-Sonoma guides, this book emphasizes the practical, providing a section in the end called "Bread Basics," which clarifies the difference between quick breads and yeast breads and explains the way breads should rise. The recipes themselves, accompanied by mouth-watering photographs, offer a comprehensive tour through the wide world of bread, with stops in Wales (for a fruity Welsh Bara Brith), Italy (for a deliciously salty Onion Foccacia and a sweet Christmas Panettone), and the Middle East (for firm and chewy Pita Bread). (Nov.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Biography

Beth Hensperger is a widely acclaimed expert on the subject of bread and has written many books on baking, including Bread for Breakfast, Bread for All Seasons, The Best Quick Breads, and The Bread Bible, for which she won a James Beard Award. Her articles have also appeared in such publications as Bon Appétit and Cooking Light. Ms. Hensperger lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.