Crumb: Bake Brilliant Bread Hardcover – Illustrated, March 5, 2019

First off this book is great, the recipes are fantastic, if you’re looking to get into bread, start here. We’ve loved this book and made several, but not all of the recipes herein.The mega-downside is not limited to this book, but to everything currently available about how to start a sourdough starter. This book indicates it takes about a week, maybe 2 on the outside to develop a starter. It easily took me a month. What I mean by that is the first loaf that had good consistent crumb, proper rising through bulk fermentation and the rising period, and tasted properly of sourdough took the starter 30 days to achieve. I was meticulous about feeding it 2x per day, using the proscribed method in this book, following the instructions. Perhaps my kitchen is less bacteriologically active than the authors’. Regardless, it’s very disappointing to be constantly expecting it to work and think I’m doing something wrong because it hasn’t within the instructed timeframe, only to realize that I was doing all the right things, the author just didn’t take into account how long this really does take. Would I have done it if I’d known it’d take a long time? Absolutely. It’s worth it. It’s just challenging emotionally to take so much care in something and feel like I’m failing when I’m not. The expectation was set poorly.Now - bread.Our stand mixer (5qt tilt head kitchen aid) can really only do a 1/2 portion of the bread recipe, and get all the ingredients fully integrated.We have also found that overdoing it on the starter yields much better (to us) taste.IIRC, the recipe calls for 400g of starter. Doing a half preparation, that would logically go down to 200g. I would recommend 230-250g of starter instead for the half recipe. Perhaps our starter isn’t as strong, etc, but we really like the flavor profile at that qty of starter.We have used the regular bread recipe for pizzas as well, and when they’re not super thin, they’re sublime. Super thin is still really good, just less “pop” and less delight in having gone to the extra effort to do sourdough.We have done a number of the other recipes, but I bought the book for the starter instructions, and for sourdough bread, so I’ll leave my review with those as my primary points, given those were my expectations from this book.

I've read and own: Chad Robertson's book; Good, but he leaves so much out.Professor Calvel's master work "The Taste of Bread" Which is the foundation for all books written since.Michael Suas' Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A definite must read.and this book by Bertinet "Crumb" Bertinet set me free~!!!!! Robertson's method had me a slave to the kitchen, returning to the dough every half hour for hours. I have too busy a lifestyle for that sort of thing.Bertinet has two slam dunk perfect methods that let you develop your gluten fully,and I mean FULLY, and that's it. one is by hand and the other uses a machine; both work perfectly. After that, you are free to use your day for other things while your dough bulks.This book is a MUST READ for any one who loves great bread, wants open crumb, and also wants their day back.

Richard Bertinet's bread-baking books are the best, and I have them all! Not just his. I have been baking bread for 50 years and I am still learning something new every day. Ignore the stupidly aggressive subtitle, "Show the bread who's boss," open the book, and just start baking bread. (The original subtitle, "Bake Brilliant Bread," was much more apt.) The breads in "Crumb," as in all his books, are varied, interesting, and for all skill levels. If you are a real beginner, start with Bertinet's Dough. He is a great bread-baker, but he is also down-to-earth, practical, and patient. Nothing preachy or recherché about him or his techniques. Just a really nice guy who can teach you how to bake great bread. But one thing: there are errors, so be sure to get the errata sheet on his website.

Great condition

I just received my Richard Bertinet Crumb book today. I already purchased his Dough and Crust books and also went to his Bertinet Cooking School in Bath, England, a few years ago. If you can go....do! He is a wonderful teacher and it was a fun class. If you can't, at least purchase his new book, which is my favorite of all of his bread books. The photography and step by step instruction is great. He also teaches his method of slapping the dough, which is a skill learned over time, but results in beautiful breads.

BREAD MAKER RICHARD HAS OUTDONE HIMSELF YET AGAIN! I HAVE HIS ENTIRE COLLECTION AND LOVE EACH ONE, THE WAY HE DESCRIBES THE USE OF HIS TECHNIQUES IS SO EASY TO UNDERSTAND. YOU WON’T REGRET PURCHASING THIS BOOK ITS GREAT. MY HOPE IS TO TAKE A COURSE FROM RICHARD SOON.

I do like bread books and this one, while different from my others, I learned several things and different ways to do things. Good pastry recipes too.

I have a couple more books by Richard Bertinet, and I tried a lot of recipes from them. The new one - not so good. So far I've tried a couple of sourdough recipes. I must say the 100% sourdough rye was a complete failure. There must be something wrong with Richard Bertinet's sourdough recipe itself. It just did not rise. Was flat, dense and plain not appetizing even to look at. The taste was on a par with the appearance. I went back and re-read the recipe for rye sourdough starter. The strange thing is that he starts it with a rather liquid sourdough sponge (more than 100% hydration). But then when he talks about refreshing after a week long rest in the fridge, he uses 1:1:1 ratio which essentially makes it a 100% hydration starter. Maybe that was a problem. Don't know. But I am discouraged now after I spent a lot of time trying to produce sourdough breads from his books. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book, at least not for the sourdough breads.

Muito bom

Great info and recipes. Looking forward to making more and more of these over the coming year. Go on treat yourself

Ogni mese trovano tra le offerte kindle dei volumi in lingua inglese diversi titoli del genere. Grandi volumi, riccamente illustrati, che invece di costarvi decine di euro (specie con il cambio librario auspicato dai nostri geni governativi) potete acquistare per meno del prezzo di un caffè. Alla fine, anche se della materia specificamente trattata vi importa poco e probabilmente non li leggerete mai del tutto, a un prezzo del genere è un delitto non acquistarli anche solo per sfogliarli e guardare le figure .

I'm basically in love with this book. It goes in my top 10 bread books for sure. Very worth picking up if you enjoy the "science" behind what you eat. Excellent recipes, very nice photography. Overall I am very impressed with this book.

gutes Produkt, schnelle Lieferung. Ich bin sehr zufrieden. Danke!