From a Baker's Kitchen: Techniques and Recipes for Professional Quality Baking in the Home Kitchen

by Gail Sher

Book Overview

Twenty years since its first publication, From a Baker's Kitchen remains the very best single introduction to foolproof professional-quality home baking. Gail Sher--the first head baker of the celebrated Tassajara Bread Bakery in San Francisco--created more than 100 clear, foolproof, and wonderfully varied recipes, divided into two basic categories: yeasted breads, ranging from white breads to whole-wheat, rye and specialty-flour breads (including...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1569243867
• ISBN13: 9781569243862
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.1" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

THE Best Book on Baking EVER!

I bought a copy of this book used many years ago and it took me from being a good baker to a great one. I grew up in a family that was always baking and cooking, so I was no stranger to the kitchen. But Sher is such a clear writer and teacher that she could teach a complete beginner, too. I learned how to use the sponge method (an extra step to let bread rise) to make my dense, whole wheat breads lighter. I learned the best muffin and tea bread recipes - the kind people go out of their way to ask for over and over again. She teaches the science, technique, and art of baking with such intelligence. I cannot say enough about this book. I logged on to buy several copies to give as gifts. I chose the book originally because after just one glance, I could understand her chapters, liked the recipes, and couldn't wait to get home to try them. My original copy is badly stained... always a sign of a much-loved cookbook!

Well worth reading

This is my first, but not to be last, serious bread cook book.It introduced me to the use of a sponge in preparing to bake bread, something that had escaped me before. The explanations of the ingredients used for yeast and quick breads are valuable to my understanding of procedures and the end product. Even though the original edition was published more than twenty years ago, the knowledge she passes on remains useful. I find that most of the recipes are for more loaves than my wife and I can eat in a week so I'll have to find room for the fermented dough or finished loaves in the freezer. Some of the ingredients that Ms. Sher uses aren't going to be found in a lot of supermarkets but that doesn't dampen my enthusiasm for trying out what I've learned from her book.

Good for beginners or moderately advanced

I found this a readable, useful guide as I begin to re-enter the world of baking (after 20+ years away). Interesting recipes - some challenging, others not, but all delicious, It stays on our counter, as we're baking every weekend now.

A classic essential "how to" reference and recipe collection

Now in a special twentieth anniversary edition, Gail Sher's From A Baker's Kitchen is a classic essential "how to" reference and recipe collection for home bakers interested in learning to make professional-quality bread. Individual chapters address all of the basic methods and principles involved in bread making (including molding, slitting, glazing, baking, and storage), steps for the Sponge Method, recipes for breads of various grains, "quick breads" such as corn breads, biscuits, gingerbreads, and muffins, and more. Careful attention to instructional detail distinguishes this time-tested, "must-have" instructional cookbook for breadmakers of all skill and experience levels.

Great Introduction to Home Bread Baking. Buy It!

`From a Baker's Kitchen' by poet, teacher, and writer Gail Sher is easily one of the very best books on bread baking I have seen, out of the dozen or so I have reviewed in the last year. This is not to say that the many volumes by Peter Reinhart, Joe Ortiz, Nancy Silverton, Bernard Clayton, and Rose Levy Beranbaum are not some of the very best cookery books I have seen overall. It is just that in this classic tutorial on breadbaking, Ms. Sher has presented this material in a way which is more accessible to more home bakers than the more technical works of Reinhart and company. One of the most liberating statements early in this book is Ms. Sher's claim that the home bread baker is actually in a better position to bake quality bread than the commercial baker, who is constantly encumbered by pressures to produce a correct number to match sales, use materials and labor economically, and make a backbreaking schedule while maintaining a reasonable quality in their product. Within reason, the home baker should not have any time pressure and the cost of a small quantity of good ingredients should be of no concern. The home cook does need to be aware of things that are no problem for the professional. These typically are using fresh ingredients and sensing baking endpoints simply by sight. The professional baker gets fresh ingredients in daily or weekly and does the same thing daily, so these come naturally. One of the first things, which convinced me that this is a really great introduction to baking, is when the author gives an overview of all leavening methods, giving each one equal attention. When I started baking, I was fully aware of the importance of yeast and only aware of chemical leaveners in passing. It was almost two years of baking and reading before I realized the importance of aerating leaveners, epitomized by foams of egg whites in, for example, angel food cake, but also accomplished with other ingredients such as butter layers in puff pastry. The first section of the book deals with `bread ingredients'. While Ms. Sher does not go into as much detail on the chemistry of gluten formation and the biology of the wheat berry as, for example, Rose Beranbaum, this book covers the whole range of flours, including such odd bodkins as triticale, potato flour, and millet. The triticale flour has a combination of properties of wheat and rye, with a light sweetness from the contribution of rye genes. The second section deals with the `methods and principles of bread baking'. The motto for this book is the first paragraph in the chapter on dough where it says: `The Point cannot be stressed enough that bread baking is an art replete with choices. You can slow it down or hurry it up, overbake for a crunchy crust or overrise for a chewy loaf with big holes. The correct thing is what you want. You are in control and, if you understand what bread is about, you can tailor any dough to suit your exact specifications.' What a liberating notion. This wh