Amy's Bread - revised and updated
The first "real" bread book I ever read was Amy's Bread, borrowed from the library. I copied out some of the recipes and over the years looked for it again in different libraries with no luck. There were copies on Amazon but they were out of my price range, so I was thrilled to find the new version. I haven't read every page yet but one item caught my eye - they have increased the hydration in most of the recipes "because we believe that today's home bakers are more sophisticated and are ready to work with bread dough that is exactly as we make it in the bakery." Hooray for us, TFL members! The book has good clear directions and ingredients are listed in grams, ounces and volume. I especially like the biographies of some of the bakers, most of whom have been with Amy for many years. In fact my only disappointment with the book is that they no longer give directions for shaping the cute little teddy bears although they include the recipe which uses a Rye Salt Sour Starter. Two dough whisks up! A.
Comments
Sounds like a winner, Annie! Nice acknowledgment that today's bakers are becoming more skilled.
Was astounded to read at Amazon that Amy serves 50,000 customers each month and supplies over 300 restaurants and stores each day. Wow. It's got to be great bread to be so popular.
If this is the Amy's Bread that I just ate at in Chelsea Market in NYC last week, no wonder they're doing so well. I bought a 1 lb sourdough loaf there, carried it around with me in NYC all day and only got to take a taste when I got home that night. As soon as we warmed it up a bit, me and the wife ate 3/4's of the thing in about 20 minutes.. the remainder didn't survive the net morning. I was astounded on how good it was.. I have never had bread like that before, and it really opened my eyes as to what you can do with bread.
Good to see you!! I'm going to check this one out! Thanks!
Betty
I am so happy that this book is finally out. I have had it for a couple of weeks now, and it quickly became my favorite bread book (and I have well over a hundred books on bread!). The book is beautifully produced, with full color pages and amazing photos of almost all the breads.
I have already baked three breads out of this book, and all have turned out to be winners: The whole wheat bread with toasted walnuts is my number 1 favorite bread. The whole wheat sandwich bread with oats and pecans turned out to be fantastic as well. I was a little worried that it might be a little too sweet, but it was just right. Finally, I made Toy's Teddy Bread. This took a few days longer because I decided to make their sourdough from scratch (worked like a charm). What an amazing bread this was! I made two loaves yesterday. Only one is left now...
The book contains many of the recipes from the previous "Amy's Bread" book, but they have been rewritten and updated. There are a few omissions (such as the Grainy whole wheat and seeds with apricots, prunes, and raisins that I liked so much), but there are a few new additions (such as the organic miche and the brioche). There's also a whole new chapter on sandwiches.
Sadly, the book does not contain the recipes for all the breads that Amy's Bread sells; I'd love to know how to make the semolina-fennel-raisin bread, their whole-wheat with five seeds, and their peasant bread. But, it contains recipes for so many other great breads, that I don't mind as much...
I cannot recommend this book enough. (And I am rooting for Amy to publish another book!)