The Only 3 Bread Books You Ever Need

Sorry for the rather click baity headline, but its true you only need three books. Of course I don’t have three books, I have loads of bread books, they are all good in certain ways, but lets be honest they cover a lot of the same ground. So I decided to write this about the three books you really need, with these three you’ve got a lot of the bases covered that will help you develop your understanding and skill as a bread baker. These three books will get you baking the best bread you can. 

1.  The professional view point, Bread by Jeffrey Hamelman. Unlike most books this is written by a professional baker from a professional baking point of view. Technical explanations of mixers, ovens, doughs and techniques you’ll find in bakeries. If you want to move on from being the person who knocks out a half decent loaf every now and then to someone with a deeper understanding this is the book for you. It also has a great range of formulas for all sorts of breads.

2.  The Love of bread view point, The Handmade Loaf, by Dan Lepard. Dan writes as someone who loves what he does, a rich technical understanding is imparted along side a deep sense of a desire to learn and discover more. This book covers breads from all over Europe, with many variations and depth of knowledge. It must have taken Dan years to research all these loaves, and he generously lays it all for you right here.

3.  The modern sourdough view point, Tartine Bread, by Chad Robertson. I’m not sure how many annoying bearded hipsters who bang on about their 87 year old starter Chad inspired, its a lot. However, he’s also responsible for so many bakeries, people like me who thumbed through his book and thought I wasn't to make bread like that.  He didn’t invent this type of bread, he evolved it from countless other bakers bread, but he did popularise it, he did make it main stream. I wonder how many bakeries opened because of this book? 

I’d like to give an honourable mention to Modernist Bread, its great and a fascinating and valuable project, but at around £400 I can’t really put it on the list. It’s for those people who take the whole bread thing too far and end up running their own bakeries. 

There you have it, the three books you really need. They cover most of the bases to get you baking great bread. All you need after that is practice, lots and lots of practice. Happy Baking.