Artisan Bread from Your Bread Machine: Quick, easy and excellent bread at home, including sourdough

A bread machine will make only the bread you enable it to make; sub-standard ingredients and quick, over-yeasted fermentation can only ever produce a less than exceptional loaf. 

But if you use your bread machine differently, respecting the basic principles of artisan baking -- understanding fermentation; the need to knead; the importance of proving; shaping; and how to get the best bake for a perfect loaf – then your bread machine will deliver fantastic results. 

Let professional baker Manuel Monade show you how to use your bread machine to produce awesome breads you can be proud of. Recipes include a basic pain de mie for a sandwich loaf; granary; ciabatta; blue-cheese-and-hazelnut bread; sourdough; pumpernickel; and spelt.

• ISBN13: 9781786751386
• Publish Date: 2 November 2023
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Palazzo Editions Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 192
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Artisan Bread from Your Bread Machine is a technique and tutorial guide with recipes by Manuel Monade for using the bread machine to make high quality loaves at home. Released 19th March 2024, it's 192 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. 

The breads included here along with the techniques produce lovely crusty breads. It's not entirely clear how much time saving is possible, the prep and processing times aren't revolutionarily shorter than normal, but much of the process can utilise convenience shortcuts and automisation so that it's less work intensive. 

The first quarter of the book introduces the concepts, tools, ingredients, and supplies. The author goes into detail on different types of flour, four types of yeast (and which to choose for which purpose), tools, and troubleshooting. Mini tutorials are included set apart by highlighted text boxes throughout: why use a thermometer, measuring ingredients, leftover bread uses, choosing gluten-free flours, making a sourdough starter, etc. There's a chapter on different types of bread machines, their cycles, and how to use them with the included recipes.

The recipes are written simply and understandably and are grouped in thematic chapters: traditional loaves, crusty loaves, sourdough, sweet breads, flatbreads rolls & bagels, seed nut & fruit breads, and herb and cheese breads. 

Recipes include a short description/introduction, ingredients in a bullet list, and prep/cookiing instructions. Recipe ingredients are listed with imperial (American) units, followed by metric in parentheses (yay!). Yields, proofing and processing times are included and easy to understand. Roughly 25% of the recipes are accompanied by one or more photos. Photography is clear and in color throughout. 

The author/publisher have included a cross referenced index which includes ingredients for ease of lookup. Ingredients will mostly be accessible at any moderately well stocked grocer; some of the specialty flours might need to be sourced from bakery suppliers. 

Four stars. Really lovely recipes and simple instructions, well written.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.