The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread

His explanation of the science of how bread is mixed, baked and even tasted is definitive and clearly written. The section on shaping dough is aptly photographed and understandable. It is, by far, the clearest description of shaping dough found in the current crop of baking books.

The bulk of the book consists of recipes, more accurately, formulas, for baking various kinds of bread. I've tried only two of them so far and both came out excellent. And one of the things that makes this book so helpful is that if your bread doesn't come out excellent you'll learn why it didn't and what to do about it.

This book amplifies Reinhart's previous book, Crust and Crumb, and like that book the formulas will help you bake the best bread you've ever made. And the theory will help you to create your own signature variations.

This is a priceless book and it is also a definite classic. If you don't bake, buy it for someone who does.


Overrated egotrip that puts 'European' bread to shame.   July 26, 2006
Nopasho (GENT Belgium)
224 out of 274 found this review helpful

As a `European' baker, I take baking and the books about it extremely seriously. That's why I write this review. I am really flabbergasted by the torrents of totally hollow ecstatic reviews. It's all `Waw!', `Wow!', `Throw all the other bread books out!', `This is the One to make all other books redundant'... They all sound like breathless ads for Wonder Bread. And -more importantly- they are not very useful for potential bakers. Because with this book, you won't go far in baking `European' bread.

Plain and simple, this is an expensive coffee table book, with very little up to date, usable and straightforward info about `European' bread but with a lot of ego stroking by Reinhart. The bare truth is: far better Bread books are out there on Amazon. Jeff Hamelmans 'Bread' or Rose Beranbaums 'The Bread Bible' for instance. I own Reinhart's and the other books. I care about the quality of `European bread' and baking bread especially. Therefore, as a European and an artisanal baker, I say: Reinhart doesn't even come close to achieving baking `superior' bread. His bread might be better than Wonder bread but real fougasse, a baguette or chiabatta, it ain't.

My biggest problems with this overhyped book written by an inflated ego.

1. Hygiene in food is the most important. There is an international guideline for basic food hygiene called 'Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points'(HACCP). Reinhart sins against the HACCP for baking with mistakes that should get a real Baker's Apprentice fired on the spot. The first thing a real baker's apprentice learns is to remove all the rings on his fingers, bracelets... before even touching the baking ingredients. The surface under the ring is an ideal gathering place of filth. The warmth of the skin on the finger makes this the place between ring and warm skin an ideal breeding place where bacteria feast and filth gathers. You don't even have to be a food professional to know that. Yet, we see Mr. Reinhart oafishly grinning and kneading dough with bare hands and his wedding band on: p.72, 73, 76, 82, 83 etc... Keeping rings, bracelets... on can also transfer microscopic metal particles from the rings in the dough. Heavy metal bread anyone? Another cardinal rule for a baker is to ALWAYS wear a hat/hairnet to avoid that hairs, dead skin particles, dandruff, sweat, mucus, sweat from the top of the head... drips into ingredients and dough. OK, Mr. Reinhart is balding, but still has hair on his head. And sweat runs down more easily from a bald head than from a hairy head. Yet we see balding Reinhart bare headed kneading dough: on the back flap of this book and on p.37, 138 etc. This guy would never make it in a professional bakery. `Artisan' doesn't equal `unhygienic' in my book.

2. Mr. Reinhart uses shortening instead of butter or olive oil in what he calls 'bread of very high standards'. Shortening costs less than butter, but it also gives a rancid/metallic taste and a rancid mouth feel. And it is usually less healthy with all the trans fats in cheap shortening. Check Harvard Professor Walter Willets book 'Eat, drink and be Healthy' (Free Press 2001) p. 71. Also, I honestly thought that Mr. Reinhart was joking (although he doesn't look like the joking type) when he uses shortening in 'authentic Italian bread'. Instead of olive oil. But he is dead serious! Crisco in Italian Bread? No problem for Reinhart. Come on! This isn't funny any more. I showed Reinharts formula for 'Italian Bread' to some real Italian baker friends of mine. As craftsmen and as Italians, they were insulted.

3. There is not much bread info in the book if you count the pages and measure the white and printed surfaces. There is not much info at all! For 35-40 $ you get 304 pages of sparsely printed high quality shining white paper and 47 `formula's'. Jeff Hamelmans 'Bread' gives you almost 500 densely printed pages with a lot of useful drawings and bread info plus 118 formula's. Rose Beranbaum gives you 600 plus thickly printed pages and way more than a mere 47 formula's.

4. The Ego Factor. Inflated super-ego's with little substance galore in the food industry. Sadly Reinhart seem to be also one of them. In `The Baker's Apprentice' Mr. Reinhart inflates his own considerable ego from p. 1 to p. 25 (almost 10% of the book!) by basically telling the paying readers how great he is. Before that, he has already filled 3 pages to thank everybody who helped him with the book. And their mothers too! From p. 26 to p. 101 we get general basic info about bread. Only Reinhart cleverly calls it 'Deconstruction of Bread' and '12 Stages of Bread', which are only fancy names for 'Basic Info about Baking Bread'. All this info is found more clearly written and explained, and in more compact form in both Hamelmans and Beranbaums book.

5. Mr. Reinhart advocates instant yeast and prefers it to fresh yeast. For artisan breads! For his sourdoughs he takes days to develop natural bacterial yeasts. OK. But for `not-sourdough breads', it's instant yeast because you can mix it right in the dough and you don't have to wait to proof the fresh yeast. `Fast baking' as in `fast food'. Yet every baker knows that 'time + good ingredients = good bread'. It is important to use fresh yeast and give that fresh living yeast the time to develop taste, texture, volume. Not to speak about the nutritional advantages of slow rising and fermenting with fresh yeast. This fresh yeast gives better taste, volume, texture because it is a living breathing organism and giving it time to rise developes taste. Instant yeast is chemically processed and dried. It is comatose, packaged and on the shelf for God knows how long. To quote the undisputed master of food knowledge Harold McGee in 'On Food and Cooking' Scribner 2004, p. 532: 'It's (fresh yeast) cells are alive, and produce more leavening gas than the other forms'. Yet Reinhart, the self appointed Uber Quality Baker, not only sticks with shortening but also with instant yeast.

6. Reinhart first wanted to name his book `The Bread Revolution' and aims his book at the whole world out there. Meaning that if the world would use his methods, buy and read his book, then bread all over the world would be better and thus the whole world would be a better place. How big can an ego get? The problem is that in his book he only uses the less precise volume measuring cups and ounces, while the worldwide accepted standard of measurement in baking is the very precise metric weight system. And for baking precise measuring is a must. Hamelman and Beranbaum both give you metric and volume measurements.

But to end on a positive note: there's a Beautiful Girl on the cover! On the cover of a bread book? Well, yes! Remember advertising rule nr 1: what to put on a book cover to sell, be it cosmetics, cars, clothes, tires or bread? A baby, a dog or a Beautiful Girl. So beautiful model/'apprentice' Fumie -Reinhart has other apprentices that are perhaps better bakers but don't look so hot- can be on the cover as `The Baker's Apprentice'. Donald Trump would be proud! But in a bread book, shouldn't content and info be more important than packaging? You decide.



Now, this is the only bread baking book you ever need!   November 13, 2002
Plasbo (Lopez Island, WA USA)
183 out of 191 found this review helpful

When Peter Reinhart's previous book (Crust and Crumb) was published, I stated in my review that this was the only book any serious baker would need. You can still get by with that one, but Reinhart has outcompeted himself with The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Until he pulls another stunt like this, Baker's Apprentice is now the only book any serious bread baker would ever need, or anyone less serious for that sake. Like the last book, Baker's Apprentice is overflowing with information, experience and wisdom, but this one is also tightly organized and well laid out. It is at the same time a baking tutorial, a recipe collection, a reference work, and for baking freaks like me, bedtime reading. Maybe it is a missionary tract too. The various bread types cover a repertoire worthy of any professional baker, yet one that can be accomplished by us amateurs. The photos are pretty but also inspirational and instructional, showing shaping options and procedures. Reinhart's last book got me away from yeasted white bread and onto the path of rustic, naturally leavened bread (although he by no means forces the reader to follow that path). His chapter in this book about the Poilane-style Miche (the loaf shown on the cover) got me off the path and onto the road.


Work hard and reap the benefits   October 23, 2002
Matthew K. Morgan (Ruther Glen, VA USA)
103 out of 105 found this review helpful

I bought this book after carefully researching it, trying to decide if it would be a book I would use or a book that would sit on my shelf and collect dust. The recipes in this book look more time-consuming than those found in my other bread books, and I finally decided that, based on other reviews of this book, it was worth a shot.

Almost all of the recipes in this book require more than one day to make; the author bases a great many of his recipes on some form of starter, whether it's a stiff dough or a liquid sourdough starter. He asserts that this style of baking brings out the most flavor in the flour. He's right. The recipes I have tried [so far] in this book do indeed have a better and stronger flavor, in spite if the fact that the base ingredients are the same as that of other recipes in other books.

The author does more than provide a bunch of good recipes (he refers to them as "formulas"). He describes the chemistry behind the ingredients and how they react to one another when mixed. He also shows, with photographs, many different shaping methods and intermediate steps that are required in making bread dough.

The author writes the techniques and recipes in this book like a man who has a deep interest in the subject, not just a desire to crank out another cookbook. He demonstrates, through his discussion in the book, his deep understanding of the art of breadmaking. For this man, bread making is a joy and a pleasure, not just a profession. When reading this book, the reader gets pulled along into the excitement the author has for his topic, which makes the process of breadmaking even more pleasurable.

This book is not for the lazy baker. If you want to make breads that are fast and easy, look for other titles. But if you want outstanding breads, and you're willing to work for it and be patient, then this book is a superb choice.


just too long to make. . .   February 13, 2004
M. Turloiu (Westland, Michigan United States)
83 out of 91 found this review helpful

I want to state my point asap: these breads take to long to make, up to 2 days, and some even longer. My grandmother could have made a dozen breads in that amount of time.
I understand perfectly well that these recepies are proffesional baker's "formulas", but it's not meant for the ordinary home baker (unless you're rich with a very big and proffesional kitchen). I was tricked into buying this book because i trust the reviews from other people to tell me what's inside a book and common complaints, yet no one mentioned these things. My oven is tiny, i have limited counter space , and i'll die of hunger before i get one lousy crumb.
I've had this book for a year now and frankly i've run out of "waiting" patience, not to mention the fear that runs down my spine every time i use the 'hearth baking' technique. Also if you don't have a 'special' place in your kitchen to place the book you just might have to do what i did in order to keep it nice and clean. Either memorize the formulas or scan, print, and pin them to the fridge with a magnet.
Now, about the good things about this book.
YES. The recepies are clear and easy to understand. (Warning: the pictures can make you drool.)
YES. The breads do come out tasty.
YES. You can learn many things about ingredients, tools, techniques. I wouldn't be surprised if this book is being used in schools and if not should be.
But once again i do not believe this book to be for home bakers (not the average ones at least).
If you decide to get this book consider these things first:
Do you have: Counter space? A wide, trusty (gas) oven? And patience? Free weekends? Or at the very least an interest in the science of bread.
Now that you know the positive AND the negative of this book. . .Unlike some reviews, all of you people before me \_/

I have one last request i whish all people would take in consideration. Please state the positive and the negative of a book in your review. There are people like me who trust you and believe what you say. Thank you.