Bernard Claytons New Complete Book of Breads by Bernard Clayton Jr.

Bernard Claytons New Complete Book of Breads Reviews

• 
  Leona

  My "go-to" bread book. It's quite outstanding. It's filled with great recipes, and great tips about baking bread. It doesn't get overly mechanical or technical, like other bread books do. Easy to understand with step by step instructions by hand, stand mixers, and food processors. With minimal effort, you're off to making great bread.
  
  I believe this is out of print. But if you can find it secondhand, I would highly recommend.
• 
  Beth Cato

  This 700-page tome on the wonders of bread has sat in my to-read pile for years now--what better time to take a look than during quarantine? I skimmed through and jotted down pages and recipes of interest. This book has an incredible variety of bread on offer, from sandwich loaves to rustic boules to rolls to quick breads of all kinds to vegetable-stuffed to how to build your own backyard bread oven.
  
  One of the great surprises was that most of the recipes include three versions: by hand, by Kitchen-Aid mixer, or by food processor. And hey, here I have a new big food processor... and lo and behold, I currently have a batch of brioche dough rising in my fridge. That will be the first of many recipes I try from this book.
• 
  GoldGato

  A decent cookbook should get you excited enough to cook whatever it is you wanted to cook. A superior cookbook will hypnotize you enough to make you believe you can actually create the same masterpieces described within the pages. This is a superior cookbook.
  
  I read this as I would read a book on history. Clayton provides a background for each bread, describing the first appearance of each loaf and the city/country/human behind the story. For those who have never baked a loaf of bread, have no fear. The beginning of the book focuses on The First Loaf, with the idea that once you get hooked, you'll just want more and more.
  
  STARFALL: I take one star away due to the lack of photos or even illustrations. Given the descriptions, one would like to see the end result of what one is supposed to be creating.
  
  Book Season = Year Round (pass the butter)
• 
  Suible

  I make a lot of bread. I had been planning on buying a bread book for a while and finally got around to actually looking for one. I was looking for yeast bread recipes, and maybe a few for quick breads. I was not at all interested in other kinds of baking - no cakes, cookies, etc., etc. Oh, and I like unusual breads - especially whole-grain, but not ones that use odd ingredients. (I define odd as any ingredient I don't already own or can't easily substitute or buy - fairly cheaply. Not that I'm picky.)
  
  So far I've only actually made one recipe - Wheat and Oat Bread. It turned out well. I've got my eye on several others.
  
  This book has a plethora of directions - by hand, by processor, by mixer, by foot, etc., etc. (Okay, not really by foot.) The directions seem rather over-done to me, but I've made lots of bread and I already pretty much know what I'm doing and my breads are all made completely by hand. Still, probably useful for newbies. Also, good tips and troubleshooting for newbies.
  
  My biggest complaint is the index is not as thorough as I would like.
  
  I've been using
  King Arthur Flour for years - and will probably buy one of their books next, but I'm really enjoying using this one.
  
  
• 
  V

  I very much like the breadth of recipes collected and offered by the author. It's clear that he is enthusiastic about the topic, and his writing has a friendly and approachable tone.
  
  The things keeping me from really liking the book are twofold:
  
  1. First, all of the recipe ingredients are volumetric, and not by weight or baker's ratio. This is for accessibility to the average home baker that makes up the book's intended audience, so it's not a bad thing. That said, there is a lot of variability in weight between one cup of flour and another, and baking is more dependent on accurate measurements of ingredients than other types of cooking, so for consistency's sake I prefer recording recipes by weight as well as by volume. With enough experience, though, you get a feel for the appropriate texture of the dough, so this is not a dealbreaker.
  
  2. The book not only provides instructions in the preface for kneading by hand, in a mixer, and in a food processor, but also repeats these instructions with slight modifications for each recipe. This is good for when you want to flip to a recipe and have all of the instructions in one neat package, but also makes it more difficult to quickly understand at a glance what part of the procedure is common to all recipes vs what is specific to this particular recipe. Again, this is something that enough experience will help you figure out on your own.
  
  Over all, this book is still a good introduction to a wide variety of bread-based projects, so have a look at it and get your bake on!
• 
  Lia

  A great bread baking primer, with an impressive list of recipes (no photos, though) that includes instructions for those using mixers or bread machines, as well.
• 
  Jessica

  
  www.2thepointbooks.blogspot.com
  
  Love this cook book! It is chock full of recipes that I actually want to bake! Everything from basic loaf bread to sopapillas, crackers, and ethnic breads. It doesn't go much into method, but I wasn't looking for that. Very easy to read, I like the writing style. It's very down to earth and friendly. I also like how the author approves of substitutions. Some authors won't even entertain the notion. I've made one recipe so far (a fabulous dinner roll), that my kids (even my picky eater) ate. I'm talking my mom into getting for me for my birthday. Can't wait to get it and start experimenting.
• 
  VillaPark Public Library

  This is a working cookbook with the goal of encouraging anyone to bake a loaf of bread, and have fun doing it. Bread has fallen somewhat into disrepute as people have gone carb-conscious, but homemade bread is experiencing something of a renaissance now. Clayton makes sure to share the essential equipment, ingredients, and techniques before setting the reader loose on The First Loaf, a basic white bread. One of the best things about this book is that the author gives instructions in each recipe for making bread by hand (my preferred method) or with the help of mixers, food processors, or even bread machines. Throughout, Clayton’s tone is encouraging and inspires confidence.
  
  This classic baking book is a personal favorite of mine. This is the book I started using when I first started baking bread seriously, and I even created my own recipe by accidentally combining two of Clayton’s!
  
  
  Find this book in the SWAN catalog
• 
  John

  This is a working cookbook with the goal of encouraging anyone to bake a loaf of bread, and have fun doing it. Bread has fallen somewhat into disrepute as people have gone carb-conscious, but homemade bread is experiencing something of a renaissance now. Clayton makes sure to share the essential equipment, ingredients, and techniques before setting the reader loose on The First Loaf, a basic white bread. One of the best things about this book is that the author gives instructions in each recipe for making bread by hand (my preferred method) or with the help of mixers, food processors, or even bread machines. Throughout, Clayton’s tone is encouraging and inspires confidence.
  
  This classic baking book is a personal favorite of mine. This is the book I started using when I first started baking bread seriously, and I even created my own recipe by accidentally combining two of Clayton’s!
• 
  Melissa Mitchell

  I considered myself a pretty good bread baker, until I purchased this book a few years ago. This book brought my homemade bread baking to a whole new level. Baking in a dutch oven? Rye bread? Baguettes comparable to a traditional bakery? All that and much more. A must have for the home cook
• 
  Katelyn Jenkins

  A book to keep on the shelf until the end of time.
• 
  Sir

  I'm not certain I like this book for it's plethora of recipes or the enthusiasm of the author for bread. I would not recommend this to a beginning baker of bread simply because they might become frustrated with the amount of prep work that goes into preparing starters days and weeks before you ever even get to the baking part. However, there are several breads in this book for the beginner, just be sure as a beginner you start with those. Advanced bakers would find this enjoyable as the author includes breads in his travels from all over Europe and the USA.
• 
  Micah Wallace

  Tons of recipes, and all of the breads I've made so far have turned out great. It's an excellent resource for when I need a good recipe quickly--saves me the time of trying to find a decent one online, and I know that I'm not wasting my time on a bad recipe since these are tried and proven (the same cannot be said for many recipes found on food websites... sorry, Food Network). I've been baking bread for several years and I find that I use this book as much as any other in my library. Highly recommended.
• 
  Ebookwormy1

  I love reading this book. It has such a quiant, sharing stories and recipes over a cup of hot liquid kind of feeling.
  
  I have also enjoyed learning baking concepts/ science and baking these recipes.
  
  My only regret is that I don't have more time to experiencially learn and bake as he directs!
  
  But I own it, as a dream that I refer back to and occassionally have the enjoyment of savoring either in imagination or by actual practice.
  
  
  
• 
  Saleris

  From the first month I owned this book, I tried a recipe. It's well written, and even if you don't agree with everything he says, there's some solid logic behind his reasoning behind his ideas of breadmaking. If you're serious about breadmaking (either by hand or machine) buy this - you won't be sorry. I recently became lactose intolerant and while there's a large percentage of breads I now can't make (because of ingrdients I cannot substitute) *boo hoo*, I wouldn't get rid of this book.
• 
  Carmen

  I got a Kitchenaid standing mixer for Christmas and instantly i wanted to bake bread. The cook at work recommended and i instantly fell in love. It has directions bread using your hands, a standing mixer, and a food processer [i didn't know you could use one!]. My first loaf of bread was English Oatmeal Bread- delish!
• 
  Zelda

  All of my unrisen loaves were explained by this book. Mr Clayton gives measured temperatures for hot water added to yeast mixtures -- not the "hot water" direction that led me to use hot tap water, which is nearly always the wrong temperature. Need to make co-workers your slaves? try the blueberry lemon muffins dipped in butter and sugar.
• 
  P.

  I made the zucchini basil muffins and mint yogurt bread. I love bernard clayton! His recipes are nicely formatted, but I always forget there's a food processor option because it's printed after the regular way. Everything that I've made from his books always comes out great.
• 
  Marlee

  Great little backgrounds on each recipes and some personal stories. Great variation in levels of difficulty. For people who go by hand or by machine. Breads for all tastes and occasions.
  
  Contrast in type could have been better and of course a few more pictures.
• 
  Molly

  I like the wide (really, incredibly wide) variety of breads collected here. It's also cool that the author is from Indiana, so if you read the recipe intros there are some references to local places.
• 
  Jennifer

  This is the best cookbook I own & use it every week. I even nicknamed it the "Bread Bible" & recommend it to all of my friends. I just love that each recipe has hand/mixer/processor instructions. Everyone should own this book!
• 
  Lindsay

  Many of the recipes in this book sounded good, but his overuse of dried milk was frustrating to me, and the blueberry mufin recipe had way too much baking powder and was, as a result, nearly inedible.
• 
  Sophie

  I love this book. It's fun to read and the recipes I've tried have been great. Here's my adaptation of the Kolach recipe, a braided festive enriched bread:
  http://painterlychef.blogspot.com/201.... It turned out great.