Looking for the best bread baking books to learn how to make fresh bread at home? Whether you want to bake artisan bread in your oven or learn how to make your first loaf of bread in a bread machine or delve into homemade sourdough, all the best bread cookbooks are right here.
The best bread baking books cover a wide variety of bread skills from beginner level to expert.
Whether you're hoping to learn how to bake fresh bread in your oven at home or you've got a shiny new bread maker and you're curious about the first bread recipe for your new machine, there's a perfect bread baking book for you.
Sourdough bread is even more next level and there are several amazing bread baking books that will help you learn the basics and how to make your breads as beautiful as they taste.
My favorite thing about bread is that it has such a wonderful history and is an essential part of the food culture in most countries.
So of course I also included the best books about traditional Jewish bread baking, Italian breads, and even an amazing title on the Chinese bakery style breads that are becoming so popular today.
No matter where you are in your bread baking journey, there is for sure a book that is just the right fit for you:
Whether you want to learn how to bake fresh bread in your oven, learn how to navigate a brand new bread machine with your first bake, or level up with sourdough, artisan breads, and delicious European bread recipes, you'll find all the best bread baking books right here!
Best Bread Baking Book for Ovens:
With more than half a million copies of their books in print, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François have proven that people want to bake their own bread, so long as they can do it easily and quickly. Based on fan feedback, Jeff and Zoë have completely revamped their first, most popular, and now-classic book,Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
Responding to their thousands of ardent fans, Jeff and Zoë returned to their test kitchens to whip up more delicious baking recipes. They've also included a gluten-free chapter, forty all-new gorgeous color photos, and one hundred informative black-and-white how-to photos.
Best Bread Baking Book for Bread Machines:
Not Your Mama's Bread Machine Recipes
Whether you’re unboxing a brand-new bread machine or pulling a well- worn model from the cupboards, Tiffany Dahle’s flavor-packed recipes will get you more excited to bake bread than you thought possible.
With this beautifully photographed modern guide, enjoy everything from bakery-style loaves to breads featuring unique fruity fillings, savory mix-ins and streusel swirls.
Get creative with your machine's unique features to effortlessly whip up gorgeous buns, cinnamon rolls, focaccia or pretzels.
With just a handful of ingredients and the press of a button, you can make delicious, freshly baked bread a daily occurrence, no matter how hectic your schedule is.
Begin your sourdough journey with the bestselling beginner's book on sourdough baking―100,000 copies sold!
Many bakers speak of their sourdough starter as if it has a magical life of its own, so it can be intimidating to those new to the sourdough world; fortunately withArtisan Sourdough Made Simple, Emilie Raffa removes the fear and proves that baking with sourdough is easy, and can fit into even a working parent’s schedule!
Any new baker is inevitably hit with question after question. Emilie has the answers. As a professionally trained chef and avid home baker, she uses her experience to guide readers through the science and art of sourdough.
Baking homemade sourdough can often seem like a complex, time-consuming task, but Elaine Boddy is here to prove that this incredible, delicious and healthy bread is within reach of everyone, any day of the week―no matter how busy your life is.
A trusted author and teacher when it comes to all things sourdough, she returns with her simplest, most versatile recipes yet. Hands-off methods such as overnight proofing and plenty of same-day recipes ensure that even with a hectic schedule and limited budget you can successfully create bakery-level bread in your own kitchen.
Elaine has also utilized common baking pans and trays to remove the difficulty of extensive shaping―saving you time and effort while still producing delicious results.
Make Every Loaf a Work of Art
Get ready to bake bread that looks as phenomenal as it tastes. From graphic artist and baker Brittany Wood comes a gorgeous and comprehensive guide to all things sourdough scoring.
With lush full-page photography, step-by-step tutorials and expert tips, Brittany covers every skill you’ll need to successfully create one-of-a-kind patterns on your loaves.
Learn how the depth and timing of your cuts can affect the way your lines bake and burst, and never be disappointed by deflated dough again as Brittany’s calm, encouraging voice guides you through a huge variety of dazzling designs.
The Elements of Pizzabreaks down each step of the pizza-making process, from choosing a dough to shaping your pie to selecting cheeses and toppings that will work for your home kitchen setup. Forkish offers more than a dozen different dough recipes—same-day “Saturday doughs” that you can make in the morning to bake pizza that night, levain doughs made from a naturally fermented yeast starter, and even gluten-free dough—each of which results in the best, most texturally sublime crust you’ve ever made at home.
Co-founder of the legendary Brother Juniper’s Bakery, author of ten landmark bread books, and distinguished instructor at the world’s largest culinary academy, Peter Reinhart has been a leader in America’s artisanal bread movement for more than thirty years. Never one to be content with yesterday’s baking triumph, however, Peter continues to refine his recipes and techniques in his never-ending quest for extraordinary bread.
In this updated edition of the bestsellingThe Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Peter shares bread breakthroughs arising from his study in France’s famed boulangeries and the always-enlightening time spent in the culinary college kitchen with his students. Peer over Peter’s shoulder as he learns from Paris’s most esteemed bakers, like Lionel Poilâne and Phillippe Gosselin, whosepain à l’anciennehas revolutionized the art of baguette making. Then stand alongside his students in the kitchen as Peter teaches the classic twelve stages of building bread, his clear instructions accompanied by more than 100 step-by-step photographs.
Tartine - A bread bible for the home baker or professional bread-makerIt comes from Chad Robertson, a man many consider to be the best bread baker in the United States, and co-owner with Elizabeth Prueitt of San Francisco's Tartine Bakery. At 5 P.M., Chad Robertson's rugged, magnificent Tartine loaves are drawn from the oven. The bread at San Francisco's legendary Tartine Bakery sells out within an hour almost every day.
Based on overwhelming requests from their readers, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François have returned to their test kitchens to create an entirely gluten-free bread cookbook―most of the recipes that readers loved inArtisan Bread in Five Minutes a Dayappear here in a gluten-free version. In just five minutes a day of active preparation time, you can create delectable, gluten-free Sandwich loaves. European Peasant Bread, 100% Whole Grain Loaves, French Baguettes, Crock Pot Bread, Caraway "Rye" Bread, Challah, and even fabulous dessert breads like Brioche, Doughnuts, and Sticky Pecan Caramel Rolls.
Step-by-step instructions for the seven core doughs of Jewish baking.
Jewish baked goods have brought families together around the table for centuries. InModern Jewish Baker, Sarna pays homage to those traditions while reinvigorating them with modern flavors and new ideas. One kosher dough at a time, she offers the basics for challah, babka, bagels, hamantaschen, rugelach, pita, and matzah. Never one to shy away from innovation, Sarna sends her readers off on a bake-your-own adventure with twists on these classics. Recipes include:
- Chocolate Chip Hamantaschen
- Tomato-Basil Challah
- Everything-Bagel Rugelach
- S’mores Babka
InMooncakes & Milk Bread, food blogger Kristina Cho (eatchofood.com) introduces readers to Chinese bakery cooking with fresh, uncomplicated interpretations of classic recipes for the modern baker.
Inside you’ll find sweet and savory baked buns, steamed buns, Chinese breads, unique cookies, whimsical cakes, juicy dumplings, Chinese breakfast dishes, and drinks. Recipes for steamed BBQ pork buns, pineapple buns with a thick slice of butter, silky smooth milk tea, and chocolate Swiss rolls all make an appearance--because a book about Chinese bakeries wouldn’t be complete without them!
Kristina teaches you to whip up these delicacies like a pro, including how to
- Knead dough without a stand mixer
- Avoid collapsed steamed buns
- Infuse creams and custards with aromatic tea flavors
- Mix the most workable dumpling dough
- Pleat dumplings like an Asian grandma
Carol Field introduces artisanal doughs and techniques used by generations of Italian bakers. Every city and hill town has its own unique baking traditions, and Field spent more than two years traversing Italy to capture the regional and local specialties, adapting them through rigorous testing in her own kitchen.
Field’s authentic recipes are a revelation for anyone seeking the true Italian experience. Here’s a chance to make goldenAltamurabread from Puglia, chewy porous loaves from Como, rosemary bread sprinkled with coarse sea salt, dark ryes from the north, simple breads studded with toasted walnuts, succulent fig bread, and Sicilian loaves topped with sesame seeds.
There are few things more satisfying than biting into a freshly made, crispy-on-the-outside, soft-and-supple-on-the-inside slice of perfectly baked bread. For Portland-based baker Ken Forkish, well-made bread is more than just a pleasure—it is a passion that has led him to create some of the best and most critically lauded breads and pizzas in the country.
InFlour Water Salt Yeast, Forkish translates his obsessively honed craft into scores of recipes for rustic boules and Neapolitan-style pizzas, all suited for the home baker. Forkish developed and tested all of the recipes in his home oven, and his impeccable formulas and clear instructions result in top-quality artisan breads and pizzas that stand up against those sold in the best bakeries anywhere.
Paul Hollywood conveys his love of bread-making in this collection of fantastic recipes. He reveals all the simple techniques you need to make this staple food and shows you that baking bread is far easier than you could possibly have imagined.100 Great Breadsfeatures a wide range of recipes, from a basic brown and white loaf to savory and sweet, Mediterranean, traditional and ancient breads.
