Daniel Leader

Simply Great Breads is a wonderful authority on some of the lesser-known breads that are generally not cooked in a home. If you have ever made your own bread, you will enjoy Simply Great Breads because your repertoire will compound immediately. Daniel Leader is a professional baker in his own bakery, and in Simply Great Breads, he included recipes he uses in his own home. When I travel, I realize that those of us who do not live in areas where we can easily purchase excellent artisan breads miss this pleasure. Now, if you have the time, you can make your own. Leader includes English muffins, bagels, and yeast pancakes. Even if you have never baked bread before, the recipes are detailed enough that a beginner bread maker will achieve excellent results.… (mehr)

I'm getting better at it, but I still consider myself a novice breadmaker. When I first read Bread Alone by Daniel Leader a few years ago it scared me. All the recipes seemed terribly complicated, involving a lot of steps, additions, rests and hand-kneading. I've got a bit more experience now, but I still wasn't sure I was going to like his latest book. Simply Great Breads proved me wrong. Many of the recipes use a stand mixer for all or part of the kneading. He also often recommends using the refrigerator to slow down fermentation, which allows you to better shape the process to fit your schedule. Some of the breads I'm planning to try include Quick Chestnut Cinnamon Sugar Spirals, an amped-up cinnamon roll; Mana'eesh, an Eastern Mediterranean olive oil flatbread; and Cider Doughnuts. After this I might even have to try reading Bread Alone again!… (mehr)

So many bread books are filled with the same recipe repeated over and over with a few alterations. They make the reader feel cheated out of new and exciting recipes. That is not the case with this bread book.
The variation of recipes is nice, a sampling of bread recipes from pancakes to challah to flatbread to doughnuts to monkey bread. There are great stories with the recipes and cultural explanations as needed. I loved the bounce from sweet to savory but more so I liked the small sections after each recipe that explained different ways you could make the bread.
I loved the addition of non-bread recipes such as the three jam recipes after the Jelly-filled Berliners (a stuffed doughnut).
This is definitely one book for my shelves. I can't wait to get elbow deep in flour and try the recipes. I have been wanting to make crumpets and bagels so I know what I am doing this weekend.… (mehr)