Paul Hollywood's Bread Hardcover – June 4, 2013

I have been baking most of the bread that my family eats for more than 50 years. Even though I bake loaves just one or two at a time now that I live alone instead of the half-dozen at a go three times a week that I once produced, baking my own bread is something I still enjoy, it is still the single easiest thing that I know of to do to save a big bundle of money on your grocery bill and I'm still always on the look-out for new recipes and new ways of doing things.Back in early May I acquired a little Kindle sampler for the not-yet-available-in-the-US cookbook companion to the British TV show, "Food, Glorious Food." As luck would have it, even though episodes of "Food, Glorious Food" are available on the BBC website, you cannot watch them from this side of the pond. Youtube came to my rescue and while I was watching episodes of "Food, Glorious Food" I also discovered an episode or two of "Paul Hollywood's Bread", also from the BBC. (I'll put the link to one in the comments for you.)Paul Hollywood knows how to bake bread and he is very good at teaching too. Paul Hollywood's Bread contains the recipes from the show. It's been out in the UK for a bit, but only just made it to this side of the pond a few days ago.Paul Hollywood's mission is not to teach baking to people who will be professional bakers, but to ordinary folk who have perhaps never even thought of baking bread. That focus shows in Paul Hollywood's Bread. You'll find no baker's formulas here and no kitchen math either. Pictures illustrating various techniques are frequent, large and well captioned. Directions are clear. The photography is mouthwatering - a full page picture for every recipe. Interestingly, while most US bread recipes call for a set amount of liquid and a variable amount of flour, Hollywood's recipes are exactly backwards - a set amount of flour and a variable amount of liquid.The book includes recipes for thirty different breads, many of them unusual, each followed by a recipe that uses the bread initially produced to make something else - a Grilled Vegetable Picnic Loaf, an unusual topping for a beef stew, a Limoncello Trifle. (Lemons are in season and inexpensive right now, my fridge is full of them, so the Sicilian Lemon and Orange Sweet Bread is underway in my kitchen.)Recipes are divided into six chapters - Classic Breads, Soda Breads, Flatbreads, Continental Breads, Sourdough and Enriched Breads. Each chapter contains recipes and techniques for five different breads. The top of my list tip - Paul's method for producing perfect Ciabatta. Most recipes call for no special equipment of any kind. Only one or two even require a loaf pan.Most recipes make just one loaf of bread. Thankfully, nobody has been at Paul Hollywood's Bread to "edit it for the US market", something that invariably leads to confusion and mistakes. Thus, ingredients are given in metrics and teaspoons/tablespoons (the same ones that we use). You will need a digital scale that measures in grams if you do not already own one. Liquid measures in ml are on one side of your Pyrex glass measuring cup (they've been there for a couple of decades or so, you probably just haven't noticed) as well as most other liquid measuring vessels sold in the US these days.Baking temperatures are given in Celsius rather than the Fahrenheit used here in the US. If you have a fairly new stove with digital controls, you may be able to use either, but if you are like most of us, conversions will be needed. Luckily, nearly all of the bread recipes in the book bake at 220C, equal to 425F (rounded off to the nearest multiple of 25, just as our ovens are.) Other temps you need to know are180C = 350F200C = 400FA few other translations that you may find in order -strong flour - bread flourplain flour - all purpose flourcaster sugar - superfine sugar (sometimes labeled bartender's sugar)black treacle - dark molassesHollywood's recipes call for the same sort of instant yeast that I use in my kitchen. (I prefer Saf Instant Yeast) I find buying an entire pound far more economical than buying individual packets. Unused yeast can simply be stored in a container in the fridge for about a year or frozen indefinitely. Single packs are usually available at health food stores and co-ops, where you will also find the malt syrup called for in a couple of recipes.Grandma's $0.02 - Whether you just think you might like to bake bread or have been turning out loaves for years like I have, you'll find easy new techniques and unique recipes in Paul Hollywood's Bread. Highly Recommended

I don’t know this author, I don’t know his other books, and I don’t watch TV or Youtube videos (that other reviewers refer to): I bought this book because I buy loads of cookbooks and bread-baking books... and this seemed interesting.Hollywood’s book is very nice. So far, every recipe I tried was a triumph! So much so that I am able to post here only the photos of today’s Soda Bread and not of the other breads and dishes I made because the latter were devoured immediately by my family and I didn’t have the time to take pictures.The instructions are clear, the photos are exhaustive, helpful and very beautiful.According to a recent trend in bread-baking books, this one too has many sections devoted to what you can do with the bread you make (recipes for sauces or spreads, recipes for side dishes, and so on): I usually dislike these sections in other bread-baking books, but those included in Hollywood’s volume are quite delicious and worth trying regardless of whether you actually made a certain type of bread from this book or not. (I am a bit horrified when I open a page of a bread book and see meats! I am vegetarian and those images make me a bit queasy…In my imagination bread-books ought to be meat-free spaces, but this is certainly my own fault. Others might love it, of course.)I highly recommend this cookbook. (It is written by a British baker/chef, hence many expressions might be unfamiliar to American-English speakers… nothing Alexa or Google can’t clarify😁)

I finally made successful sourdough after multiple tries across twenty years! And this book made it so easy!I bought this book a little over a year ago and have now made all but two of the recipes. Every single one turned out well, and we liked all but a small handful - which is a matter of taste, not the recipe quality. We live at high altitude, but that doesn't seem to have affected any of the recipes.I love the conversational style used through out the book, and his love of bread making comes through. The recipes are written in a very easy to understand format, and there is an abundance of pictures to make it easy. A scale is almost mandatory, as it makes the English to American conversions very simple. I did have to google some ingredients to see what the American equivalent is (cornflour is corn starch, dark treacle is molasses, and so on).I also bought Paul Hollywoods how to bake book and there is some overlap, but not so much that I thought I wasted my money. Just a tiny handful of recipes and I think most of those included different variations between the two books.

I had used 'professional' bread-making books full of formulas, temperatures, & other various complexities & all of my bread turned out heavier & thicker than bricks! I was just about to give up on making a decent home-made loaf so I ordered Pauls book in desperation. After reading the first chapter, I really didn't expect much & already regretted spending the money. However, I decided to go ahead & at least try making the Bloomer recipe. What else did I have to lose at this point? At first, the dough was thick & unwieldy, like a mass of rubber. I let it prove for 3 hours & something magic had happened to it! It was a thing of beauty -- soft & very pliable with a texture of silk. I still didn't expect too much from it but when I took it out of the oven it was plump, light & fragrant. My son said it was the best bread he'd ever eaten, consumed the entire loaf & immediately demanded another. I thought my first attempt had been a fluke but, the second loaf turned out just as good. Pauls recipes seem to be foolproof. I can't wait to make his crumpet & pizza dough recipes!