Zingerman's Bakehouse Kindle Edition

I lived in Ann Arbor for 6 years (up until 2011), so I spent quite a bit of time at the various Zingerman spots. There are a lot of desserts I've loved from Zingerman's, but the Hot Cocoa Cake is definitely my favorite. I've been dying to find out whether the recipe for Zingerman's Bakehouse's amazing Hot Cocoa Cake would be included in this cookbook and it is! More importantly, the recipe is easy to follow and produces a cake that tastes just like I remember. Warm and chocolatey, with fantastic chocolate chunks (use chunks, don't use chips) interspersed throughout the tender cake, it makes for a great treat with coffee, an easy crowd-pleasing chocolate cake (and it travels well), and also makes for the best breakfast slice ever.Likewise, the included recipe for challah and the very precise instructions for shaping it is worth the cost of this cookbook. The Bakehouse makes some of the best challah I've ever had, and I was able to reproduce it at home. Their recipe calls for a lot more egg (yolks) than most other challah recipes do, which along with the touch of oil helps make it so tender and golden in color.Since Amazon hasn't included the Table of Contents or Index in their preview, I'm attaching them to this review. It's true that the cookbook doesn't have that many recipes overall, but the expertise of the bakers and uniqueness of some of the recipes (like the Hungarian savory fried dough and the Transylvanian cinnamon swirl bread) more than makes up for it. Happily, this cookbook includes plenty of color photos (which the previous Zingerman's cookbook did not), while still managing to pack in a ton of information about the Bakehouse itself, how each recipe came into being, and ways you can tweak the recipe it make it your own.If you really enjoying baking desserts or breads, if you like learning more about the history of a place or a company, if you like hunting down recipes for unusual items, or if you are interested in what striving for perfection while running a thriving bakery looks like - Zingerman's Bakehouse is definitely a cookbook you should add to your library. If you aren't so interested in any of those things, but you're willing to buy a cookbook that will have the best recipe, one that's easy to follow and certain to succeed, for a few items you do want to make - Zingerman's Bakehouse is also worth adding to your cookbook library.

The recipes in here are excellent. As others have noted, the bread recipes are rather involved and take time and patience. If you have both, you'll be very happy with the results. I've been baking bread for 50 years and their Paesano bread was, possibly, the best loaf I've ever baked. (That's the round loaf in the pictures.) The "dinklebrot" (spelt) bread was delicious (rectangular loaf with seeds) and a wonderful basis for a meal of cheese, soup and bread. I think my challah recipe is better than theirs (mine has more butter!) but theirs isn't bad at all. The Black Magic brownies are wonderful. The pie crust recipe wasn't as good as Julia Child's, but, really, most things aren't.As a long-time customer of Z's, I enjoy reading the essays between recipes where they discuss their history, their corporate culture, and their philosophy. They politely refuse to enter the fight about gluten-free baking (nothing here is g-f, that I recall) or arguments about health.I do agree with other reviewers that the organization is a bit... arbitrary. Or maybe "quirky" is a better word. It would have been a lot more accessible a book if they'd put all the bread recipes together, all the cakes together, etc. It may be that they found that they wouldn't have chapters of equal length if they did, but it still would have been preferable.Other than that -- I'm delighted to have my hands on these recipes, and I'm doing the "Julia and Julie" thing of working my way through every recipe. I haven't been disappointed yet.

The food was so good

This is a wonderful book, beautifully illustrated and written. The breakdown of philosophy and stories makes for a compelling read. Complex recipes are broken down into clear, precise steps. So far, the recipes have worked flawlessly. I got the book for my mom and me to play over the holidays with, and it was wonderful for that.My one quibble with the book is the extremely random organization--this particularly affects the bread recipes. Early on, the book gives wonderful instructions to make a sourdough-like starter, and even gives some instructions for using your own starter (if you already have one) in the margin. It leads you to a basic bread recipe, from which you reserve 1 cup of starter ("put-away-farm") to store for the next batch of bread. There are several recipes that use this "put-away-farm", but they're scattered through the book (I ended up marking them with post-its), and NONE of them uses 1 c of "put-away-farm"--they're all very inconsistent about how much they use of this starter. This means that you really need to plan ahead at least 2 days, because you're going to have to make a batch of the Farm Bread (a VERY good bread), and reserve the starter you need for the next recipe, and then after you bake your 2nd batch you're going to have a TON of bread in the house (which would be great for making friends and thanking the neighbors). This isn't really a problem for an experienced bread baker who has read through the book and the instructions thoroughly. It is going to be frustrating and intimidating for someone less experienced with either bread and/or starters and sourdough. It's also going to be very time-intensive--the breads require babysitting pretty much all day. Not a problem when you're home for the holidays or on vacation, or you work in a bakery and it's just all part of the daily workflow. Impossible on a busy weekend when you've also got a lot of running around to do. That's fine, and completely worth it, but it does need planning and awareness.

I own and use many baking books. I originally purchased this as a kindle edition and have baked many of the recipes successfully, but truthfully the physical book is beautiful and so nice to flip through and makes the recipes way more accessible. I am so glad to own it now and add it to my collection. Their pie crust and technique are my favourite of many recipes i've tried. Other favourites so far are their pecan pie, their challah, the sour cream walnut cake, and their chocolate coconut macaroons. I have bookmarked many other recipes to try and will do so this summer.

Gostei do livro, as receitas são bem explicadas e as medidas estão no sistema internacional de unidades.

Love it. Interesting read and fab recipies

I am Hungarian from Transilvania emigrației to Canada 25 Years ago! I am into Baking lately, and saw this book! I was thrilled about learning and seeing tradional recipies preserved and captured so well. The historical background brought me tears, so well described. It Will be my new favorite Banking book! Thanks a milion FOR printing this. I can pass it to my kids...

interesting book