The Village Baker | The Fresh Loaf

I walked over to a local thrift store while my car was in for an oil change and was thrilled to find a copy of The Village Baker by Joe Ortiz - for $2! I was able to do a quick scan while waiting for my car and it looks like a keeper. Does anyone have this book? Any comments, favorite recipes, errors? Now if I could only find a used (slightly) DLX mixer... A.

AnnieT's Blog
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It is very much a keeper. You are quite lucky.

Very good, indeed. Prices for hardcover copies on some of the Internet used book search engines run to upwards of $100. Softcover copies aren't exactly cheap, either.

-brian

This is a softcover copy, in good condition - I had no idea what a bargain it was! Very rare to find a baking book, probably because we fanatics won't part with them. A.

AuntieT,

After reading your post I pulled down my copy of The Village Baker (a soft cover copy) from years ago (1997). It along with Bernard Clayton's book was one of my first bread baking book acquistions and I really like the book very much. I haven't used it for a while and after thumbing through it I noticed I had made many notes, had highlighted and underscored, in red, a lot of information and had rated many of the recipes (1 to 4 stars). I had tabbed Pain Aux Pommes, Poolish Baguettes, Pan Ordinaire and a number of others as having baked them and rated them high. I used the flexible small plastic Post It tabs, which work well and allow for a small amount of writing and can be easily removed without harming the book's pages. Thanks to you, AuntieT, I feel like I just ran into an old friend that I haven't seen for awhile.

Your post reminded me how good and well written Joe's book is, I'm going to keep it out and get going on some of the recipes. If you got it for $2 you got a real bargain. I paid 19.95 in 1997. If you're interested in desserts and pastries Joe Ortiz along with his wife, Gayle, also published The Village Baker's Wife, a copy of which I also have, and that book is also excellent. In The Village Bakers Wife I had tabbed Pecan Schnecken (noted that it was totally decadent) and Lemon Bread and gave both 4 stars. You got a real deal on The Village Baker book, enjoy!

Howard - St. Augustine, FL

Howard, I was hoping to hear from someone who had the book and liked it. I sat and read it and enjoyed the writing very much, but some of the recipes look a little daunting. Pain aux Pommes, for instance with all of those refreshments. I will mark the recipes you mentioned and maybe one day I will be brave enough to try them. I'd love to see pictures of any you bake again, A.

Annie,

There's a number of breads in the book that use the direct method (yeast only); Pain Ordinaire and Whole Wheat that are fairly straight forward. When I make something out of the book I'll post it and see what you think. Even if you don't bake from it there's great stories and information in it. Take care.

Howard - St. Augustine, FL