Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Branches of Baker and Spice are places of pilgrimage for bread lovers. They are the favoured supplier to top restaurants such as the River Cafe, Le Gavroche and Zafferano with everything handmade on the premises using traditional techniques and the finest ingredients. "Exceptional Breads" passes on the secrets of their fabulous breads with recipes for full-flavoured rustic breads from wild yeast starters, classic baguettes, ryes, French fougasse and Italian foccacia. Although the results are always impressive and the techniques are innovative, the recipes are beautifully straightforward. All have been tested in a domestic kitchen and in addition to the clear step-by-step techniques, there are beautiful photographs of the finished breads to whet the appetite and inspire the would-be baker.
About the Author
Dan Lepard has baked at some of London's hottest restaurants including Locanda Locatelli, Alastair Little, Zafferano, The Sugar Club and Mezzo, where he opened the bakery. Richard Whittington's previous books include the award-winning Keep it Simple with Alatair Little, Cutting Edge: a Cook's Californian Inspiration, Food of the Sun also with Alastair Little and Quaglino's: The Cookbook. He has written The Cookery Doctor column in the Daily Mail Weekend magazine for the past five years, and has a regular 5-page spot in Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
54 of 55 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I snapped this book up as soon as I saw it, as I think that Dan Lepard's recipes are wonderful. I do though feel a bit cheated as it is basically the bread section (same photos even) from Baking With Passion. I have not gone through it one by one but can only see a very few new recipes.
If you don't have 'Baking with Passion' already and have no interest in the cakes/pattiserie recipes then this is a good book (hence 3 stars rather than a cheated and annoyed 1).
Dan Lepards recipes (and photos) are fantastic, and I recommend him to anyone, but I only need one copy of each recipe thanks.
If you don't have 'Baking with Passion' already and have no interest in the cakes/pattiserie recipes then this is a good book (hence 3 stars rather than a cheated and annoyed 1).
Dan Lepards recipes (and photos) are fantastic, and I recommend him to anyone, but I only need one copy of each recipe thanks.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An excellent little book with lots of tips and assistance for the novice and semi-skilled baker. If you want to master genuine, hand-made bread at home i.e. not bread maker or quick proving loaves. Topics include; wild yeasts, making your own levain, kneading & shaping dough etc. This is an exceptional place to brush up on your knowledge & skills. Beautiful imagery (if you're into pictures of bread!) A great practical gift helping you perfect at least 20 styles of bread, not a 'look how clever I am' coffee table book.
Superb at the price.
Superb at the price.
38 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read some positive reviews about this book but was extremely disappointed when it arrived. I already own Peter Reinhart's Crust and Crumb and Daniel Leader's Local Breads, both of which are fantastic guides to baking traditional artisan bread with a wealth of recipes in each one; I was expecting Dan Lepard to do the same in Exceptional Breads, but sadly I have had the book for over a year and have not used it once. The thing that puts me off most are the complicated and expensive ingredients required for the sourdough formulas (and if you do not have one of the sourdoughs prepared you cannot use 60% of the recipes in this book). And secondly, there are very few recipes in this book - the recipe section only begins on page 64, leaving you with very few actual recipes.
I have created successful sourdough cultures using just flour and water (there's a wonderful formula in Local Breads). For his sourdough culture Dan Lepard uses not just these 2 basic ingredients, but apple juice, orange juice, grapes and raisin, yoghurt, freshly squuezed orange juice - and plenty of it too. For example one of his sourdoughs requires 300g strong white flour, 300g plain yoghurt, 200 ml apple juice, 100g raisins. Most sourdough cultures in other books work perfectly well when refreshed once a week - Dan Leppard, however, requires that you refresh your culture EVERY DAY!! So every day he expects you discard 600g of your mixture and to add a new mixture of yoghurt, milk , flour. It is going to be quite an expensive bread if you have to use so many ingredients and have to refresh your culture every day. I have made a successful rye sourdough as well as a levain using Dan Leader's Local Breads, which require only water and flour and a refreshment once a week and they work perfectly, so to have to refresh every day seems very extravagant. If you use 300g flour everyday for a month you'll be using 9 kilograms of flour in a month just for the starter!
Dan Leppard provides 4 different starters or sourdoughs, and then moves on to the recipes. Unfortunately I found this section very disappointing too. After having cultivated your sourdough and all those expensive daily refreshments, the only recipes which the book includes for breads with sourdough are the following five: San Francisco Sourdough, Pain au levain, Bramley Apple sourdough, potato and rosemary bread , granary and sunflower bread. The next section is baking with commercial yeast and contains: wholemeal bread, baguettes, french wheaten rye, semolina bread, gralic bread. The next section is Flat Breads and includes 5 recipes for focaccias, pretzels , fougasse, etc, followed by Sweet Breads, again with a handful of recipes.
All this seems very time-consuming and expensive and hardly worth the effort; the recipe section is meagre and offers the basic breads that every other bread book contains so you won't get anything very original if you buy Exceptional Breads. In fact, the only thing this book has done is put me off making sourdough for ever (it very nearly did, but luckily Peter Reinhart and Dan Leader came along!)
I have created successful sourdough cultures using just flour and water (there's a wonderful formula in Local Breads). For his sourdough culture Dan Lepard uses not just these 2 basic ingredients, but apple juice, orange juice, grapes and raisin, yoghurt, freshly squuezed orange juice - and plenty of it too. For example one of his sourdoughs requires 300g strong white flour, 300g plain yoghurt, 200 ml apple juice, 100g raisins. Most sourdough cultures in other books work perfectly well when refreshed once a week - Dan Leppard, however, requires that you refresh your culture EVERY DAY!! So every day he expects you discard 600g of your mixture and to add a new mixture of yoghurt, milk , flour. It is going to be quite an expensive bread if you have to use so many ingredients and have to refresh your culture every day. I have made a successful rye sourdough as well as a levain using Dan Leader's Local Breads, which require only water and flour and a refreshment once a week and they work perfectly, so to have to refresh every day seems very extravagant. If you use 300g flour everyday for a month you'll be using 9 kilograms of flour in a month just for the starter!
Dan Leppard provides 4 different starters or sourdoughs, and then moves on to the recipes. Unfortunately I found this section very disappointing too. After having cultivated your sourdough and all those expensive daily refreshments, the only recipes which the book includes for breads with sourdough are the following five: San Francisco Sourdough, Pain au levain, Bramley Apple sourdough, potato and rosemary bread , granary and sunflower bread. The next section is baking with commercial yeast and contains: wholemeal bread, baguettes, french wheaten rye, semolina bread, gralic bread. The next section is Flat Breads and includes 5 recipes for focaccias, pretzels , fougasse, etc, followed by Sweet Breads, again with a handful of recipes.
All this seems very time-consuming and expensive and hardly worth the effort; the recipe section is meagre and offers the basic breads that every other bread book contains so you won't get anything very original if you buy Exceptional Breads. In fact, the only thing this book has done is put me off making sourdough for ever (it very nearly did, but luckily Peter Reinhart and Dan Leader came along!)
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not a lot of bread for sound advice
I am surprised that this book is at such an accesible price. It is not a large book, but it is so well written, by an obvious enthusiast, with a desire to share his considerable... Read more
Published 1 month ago by DoughBoy
Exceptional Breads
A well laid out baking book which is easy to read and understand
Good photographs of a variety of breads
Good photographs of a variety of breads
Published 6 months ago by Stephenjw 24
Same Book as Baking with Passion but without Cake
Don't waste your money if you have Baking with Passion, its the same book but without the cakes. I should have read the reviews for I see I was not the only one to fall for this... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Meghan A. Hermann
AMAZING TUTORIALS FOR BREAD BAKING!
Do yo know Dan Lepard? Don't you? With this book you'll be hang of his baking work...
Easily you'll bake the traditional flavours and taste of real bread. Read more
Easily you'll bake the traditional flavours and taste of real bread. Read more
Published 18 months ago by CYMODOCEA NODOSA
brilliant
At last a bread recipe book that does exactly what it says on the cover. well laid out. easy to follow.Step by step photos a great help. Daughter "borrowed" first copy. Read more
Published 19 months ago by peann
An excellent little manual
I'm still working my way through this book, but if you don't use any other recipe, try the crumpets!
Published on 2 Feb 2009 by P. J. A. Jennings
too high brow
This is not an expensive book, which is it's good point so I don't feel hard done by , but I know I'm never going to use it. Read more
Published on 12 Aug 2008 by Brian Dick
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Food & Drink > Baking > Cakes
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
