Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes (ISBN 0471168572)

The best bread book:
I'm Polish and I'm used to great European breads, especially sourdough breads. My grand grandma and grandma had been baking them and I remember the taste of a real sourdough loaf. I have been baking for 4 years and have about 20 bread books. This one is the best - I've tried out 80% of the recipes from "Bread" and all were fabulous. Hamelman understands the soul of the European bread and every recipe he gives you is explained in details. It doesn't have many pictures and I didn't like it at the beginning, but this book is worth to buy. It's fantastic. If you want to buy only one bread book, buy this one. You won't regret.

Best Bread Book Ever!!!:
I totally love this book. There is so much info in it, it should be used as a text book for Baking courses (I wish I had it when I was in culinary school!). This may be a little difficult for a novice baker, but anyone in the field will have no problem. The recipes are listed in four ways pounds, kilograms, bakers' percentage (all for professional use), and then one for the home baker, which I think is way cool. I have tried a few recipes so far and they all were great! I can't wait to try out more!

Best of many bread books:
Jeff Hamelman is clear and articulate in this book. While I don't think this should be your first "how to" bread book, everything you need to become a good artisan baker can be found in these pages. The recipes (formulas) work and are easily scalable to suit your needs. Many delicious breads and techniques for the home and artisan baker. Excellent!

Very good and comprehensive book:
This book is very comprehensive yet clear and interesting for bread enthusiasts around the globe. David J. Kraus Food Engineer

My favorite bread book:
I have many cookbooks dedicated to bread, including the Bread Bible, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, and Crust and Crumb, but if I could only have one, it would be this one by Jeffery Hamelman. I love the detailed explanations of the steps of bread baking. I wanted a book that explained what makes good bread good and the effect that various ingredients and techniques have on the finished product - that is exactly what I got with this book. The recipes are great (love the focaccia) and although I like the full color photographs in some of the other books, the line drawing type illustrations "fit" the book. Wonderful for learning about bread and bread baking as well as providing excellent recipes.