Bread by Hamelman, Jeffrey. (Wiley,2012) [Hardcover] 2ND EDITION

This is a book filled with great recipes. It also has a number of pages dedicated to explaining the science behind the dough and the techniques you can use. The problem for me was that this book only contains recipes that would work if you owned a bakery.Nearly every recipe in this book is calculated to make dough for 20-30 loafs at a time, and since I can't just divide each ingredient by 1/8 and get the same result, this book is practically useless to me in my kitchen at home. I don't have a giant stand mixer or any equipment that would allow me to combine 20lbs flour, .5lb salt, etc. or an oven to bake 30 loafs of bread. This was a failure on my part to research the book before buying it but still disappointing in the end. I wish it had been more clear in the title and description that these were all restaurant recipes. It will collect dust on my shelf now.

_bread_ is a very thorough reference but, as other reviews note, the recipes are aimed at commercial bakers with stand mixers. i have the 2nd edition and whilst the recipes do include a home version, it uses imperial weight units: .13 oz of yeast anyone? even with a scale that can list pounds and ounces, this is annoying as it complicates comparisons with other recipe sources. at least baker‘s percentages are also listed.for learning how to make bread at home, both _tartine bread_ and _flour water salt yeast_ are much better introductions and guides. save _bread_ for when you want to go beyond country loaves and pizza. just be ready to do some conversions.

Great