Hamelman's Bread - suitable for a beginner?

Welcome to bread making!

For the specific purpose of learning concepts and terms, as well as a wide variety of  kinds of bread, I'd probably suggest Reinhart's _Bread Baker's Apprentice_ first.  You are its target audience, and he's an experienced teacher.

Hamelman is written for professional bakers, with enough discussion that amateurs can follow along.  That said, Hamelman rocks.  It is, IMHO, the best bread book available now.  Sooner or later you will want it, and it's written with great cogency and clarity.  So no harm buying it and seeing how much you can get out of it.

Hi Leaph. If you find discussions too complicated, it's usually because everyone tries to adjust to the person asking. The solution to that is to post and ask on your own - people will adjust to you. And every now and then you will get something out of other threads as well.

Welcome and happy baking :)

Many years ago when I started I took the advice of many on this site and bought Reinhart's BBA as my first "real" bread book.  I tried several of the recipes and had some successes, and some failures.  I used it, and enjoyed it, but didn't feel that I learned enough.  And I as I worked all week and was the parent of two young children, I was frustrated that most of the recipes seemed to take several days.  I simply didn't have the time to spend closely following Reinhart's recipes.  I was really looking for a book with recipes I could make in a single weekend.  Reinhart really wasn't that book.

A few months later I bought Hamelman's "Bread" and found I much preferred it.  Still do.  It had lots of recipes that were straight/yeasted breads, and lots that used starters.  I still find the recipes easier to follow, and I like the extensive nature of it.  To be honest there were things I didn't understand when I started using it (like how to regulate dough temperature), but even without this knowledge almost every loaf was a success.  And I soon learned that Hamelman explains everything pretty well in the book if I took the time to read it.

I still have both books, and I still use them both.  But Hamelman is dog eared and Reinhart looks new.

Hope this helps.

I looked at a bunch of bread books in the bookstore but none were as satisfying as Hamelman's.  I've been cooking and baking for a lot of years and did not find the technical discussion in the book problematic at all.  The recipes require reading a couple of times to best understand where he is coming from.  I use a metric scale so the "home" recipe weights were useless.  I quickly figured out that dividing the "commercial" metric weights by 10 gives one pretty much the same scaled down amount.

Also don't ignore the utility of this website.  You can find lots of experienced bakers who will answer questions you might have.  Learn to use the search function as there are also a lot of good recipes.

It's my now: go-to book.  The best out there in my opinion.  You might find better recipes for a certain bread elsewhere, but his is really complete.  I never like Reinhart's BBA.  My starter book was: Flour, Water, Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish.  I loved that it made me feel confident at the beginning.  His feedings are hugely wasteful, though.... You end up tossing out a lot.  I'm still glad I began with Forkish.  He holds your hand, Hamelman does not.

Thing to know about Hamelman, he assumes you know the basics... so he gives formulas and you have to know about stretch and folds, or rising times for your kitchen, or how to tell if it's ready for next stage etc.  It's my favorite.  But I waited 6 months to buy it, until I knew the terminology, which Forkish's book helped me with.

hester

I think that BBA and Hamelman's are both excellent, I would not give up either.

I am a Hamelman evangelist.  He was recommended to me as soon as I started asking questions here, and I've never looked back.  Hamelman is masterful at explanation, and there are many, many recipes, including a whole section on rye breads.  It is comprehensive.  You'd be hard pressed to find something not covered in the book.  One of the beautiful aspects is that it's dually for pros and home bakers.  I've also found that the recipes are so good, they can withstand the baker's experimenting with new methods.

I bought BBA before Hamelman, and although I like some BBA recipes (particularly pain a l'ancienne), I find his approach and direction convoluted.  Hamelman's directions, in contrast, are simple, with a thorough explanation about the methodology behind the formulas in each chapter.