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"The Handmade Loaf" contains more than 80 contemporary European bread recipes that will teach you the techniques used to turn grain into beautiful bread, using your hands as the perfect kitchen tools to combine and shape dough with.
The Handmade Loaf
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Review
"One of the world's best bakers" -- Observer Food Monthly, November
Make sure Father Christmas tucks this one in your tucker bag". -- Time Out, 17th October 2004
This book is as fresh and as mouth watering as a loaf straight from the oven." -- The Independent, 8th Novermber 2004
Make sure Father Christmas tucks this one in your tucker bag". -- Time Out, 17th October 2004
This book is as fresh and as mouth watering as a loaf straight from the oven." -- The Independent, 8th Novermber 2004
From the Author
"I wanted an honest breadmaking book," says Dan, "and that meant baking from the recipes printed, in my own kitchen and in other peoples' ovens, and then photograph those result. They're not plastic perfect loaves, but achievable breads from detailed recipes. A natural leaven is made from scratch and photographed each day so the reader can see the changes that are visible,and not imagine things that aren't there. I wanted to keep it real."
"I've tried to keep the recipe photography brutally clear and sharp, to explain rather than hide with each picture. There's so much that can be learned looking at the crumb structure and the crust, and the reader loses that detail when we hide it in soft focus. The pictures are rough and hard edged, taken as soon as the bread can be sliced which captures the vibrancy just-baked crust colour, and the moistness in the crumb."
"I didn't want to write a book that the home baker got quickly bored with," says Dan, "that just rehashed bad science on highly decorated but tasteless breads. There are many home bakers who have already made their first loaf,or people who are good with their bread machine and want to bake more, or just bright passionate cooks who love books and learning. This book is for them. These are the recipes I use at home, that I find quick, that give me the best results in my domestic oven."
"Though the countries have been an inspiration, and their bakers have advised and guided me," says Dan, "I wanted to avoid writing recipes that suggested, say, that you can make a perfect baguette using generic supermarket flour and a sachet of easy-blend yeast. This just isn't true. But how about teaching how to bake a beautiful, good flavoured loaf with the flour that you have, with the grain that grows in the region around you. By moving the focus from the bread name to the grain, then making the best use of local ingredients becomes the goal."
"Let's encourage people to be thoughtful, intelligent bakers too. The word 'Organic' is not a brand, but a responsibility towards the environment we all must share. There are farmers, millers and bakers who care about the soil that grows the grain we use, and I'm adamant we will support them. These stories and recipes encourage readers to do just that."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
74 of 74 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is really one for serious amateur bakers (in the literal sense of one who loves baking). The essence of the book is sourdough baking - making bread with a wild yeast leaven instead of commercial yeast. Baking this way takes time and a little dedication (though not nearly so difficult as some food-writers would have you believe), but it repays the effort.
As well as the recipes, the book contains accounts of bakers and baking traditions across Europe, as well as photos of actual bread (it looks like it was made by a human being)and real bakers instead of the usual cosmetically perfect food photography. For Dan Lepard making and eating bread is evidently a very personal and human thing. What I'm trying to say is the book has personality.
Above all, the recipes and procedures work, and Dan Lepard makes it simple, like all the best teachers. It transformed my baking.
As well as the recipes, the book contains accounts of bakers and baking traditions across Europe, as well as photos of actual bread (it looks like it was made by a human being)and real bakers instead of the usual cosmetically perfect food photography. For Dan Lepard making and eating bread is evidently a very personal and human thing. What I'm trying to say is the book has personality.
Above all, the recipes and procedures work, and Dan Lepard makes it simple, like all the best teachers. It transformed my baking.
63 of 64 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'd only baked bread a few times, and nothing really tasted that good. A poster on a website said to get The Handmade Loaf and now I can say, after working my way through some challenging recipes, that my bread is really very good. I work, have two small boys, and time isn't something I have much of at all, but now I've got the baking slotted in I just leave the dough in the refrigerator and bake when I get home. I make bread just using my jar of leaven, it rises slowly and ends up with a crisp thick crust and a gentle sourness to the crumb. The book has transformed my baking but it's not quick and easy. It's only about baking really good bread, and that's all I do now, every time I bake. An extraordinary book, beautiful and thoughtful.
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By Carl Shavitz
Format:Hardcover
Put all our other bread books aside. If you want to make and eat fantastic bread The Handmade Loaf from Dan Lepard is an eye opener. Sanity, at last, in the bakery. Almost immediately Lepard asks you to abandon all other and stick to metric weights and measures. No cups, no ounces, no nonsense. Lepard has really thought about the bread making process and it works. He takes you through each recipe step by step. And, if that's not enough, there are brilliant photographs from the baker himself to show you how the dough and finished product should look. All you need is time and the desire to make what most of us have rarely eaten at home, really delicious bread.
If you've got an aspiring breadmaker on your gift list, buy this book, an inexpensive set of digital scales and a few bags of flour and sit back and await the results.
Don't believe me, find out for yourselves.
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice bread recipes
This is an informative book and has some nice looking bread recipes. I enjoyed reading about breadmaking traditions in other countries. Read more
Published 28 days ago by L. Mills
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bread recipe ook
I've only used the first sourdough bread recipe in the book and many times - it works a treat every time - tip, try different flours and you get different results, I fine the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Wire Man
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dan Lepard is a genius
I originally bought this book in 2008, hated it, and gave it to Oxfam. The recipes were too complicated - who wants to spend all day baking a loaf. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ms. L. B. Boothman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Handmade and easy made!
Excellent book, bought for my husband as he is the breadmaker and it has great easy to follow recipes, many tips and hints and shortcuts. Would recommend it for your book shelf.
Published 4 months ago by Obimon
5.0 out of 5 stars
really interesting book
Great book for sour dough bread, interesting background, well explained recipes from all over Europe. I've yet to have a failure with a Dan Lepard recipe.
Published 5 months ago by C. Combes
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dan Lepard is a Genius
Superb book. Very clear instructions and excellent photos. He knows what he is talking about and makes it interesting. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Caro
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely book
Just an all round lovely book. Love the narrative. Some off key recipes but that's why I love it! Good work Dan!
Published 5 months ago by Alex
3.0 out of 5 stars
Got to bake plenty
I bake bread regularly and wanted to improve what I have, having read the book I was a little disappointed with the amount of info available on the techniques being employed and... Read more
Published 6 months ago by AlaMo
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great in parts, vague in others ...
There's some fascinating material in this book and some unusual recipes. On the downside the focus is very much towards the unusual (just a few more basic bread recipes would be... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Theodor Adorno
5.0 out of 5 stars
My personal bread bible....
This book changed the way I bake. It was recommended to me by a professional baker and it helped be bake and enjoy sourdough bread. Read more
Published 13 months ago by P. Brennan
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