Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

First published in 1973, Bernard Clayton's The Complete Book of Breads immediately became a modern classic; under his guidance, a generation of home bakers was introduced to the seductive pleasures of baking and produced their first loaves. But new products and equipment revolutionized the kitchen, and these changes inspired Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, which first appeared in 1987. With an electric mixer, a food processor, or a bread machine, and with faster-acting yeasts, anyone could produce home-baked loaves in a fraction of the time bread-baking once took. The availability of a wide variety of flours and specialty products, once found only in health-food and gourmet stores, opened up a world of possibilities. Clayton revised 200 of the original recipes and added 100 more with these new ingredients and equipment in mind.

Now America's best-loved bread-baking authority returns with the 30th anniversary edition of the New Complete Book of Breads, the definitive version of this baking classic. Clayton has written a new introduction, added a glossary, updated the sections on ingredients and equipment, and gone through every recipe, correcting and refining each one. The inviting new design keeps Clayton's explicit, easy-to-follow instructional format and makes the book easy to use.

In these pages, home bakers will find an extraordinary range of variety, nearly enough to supply a new bread a day for a year. There are wheat breads -- Honey-Lemon, Walnut, Buttermilk; sourdough breads; corn breads; breads flavored with herbs or spices or enriched with cheese or fruits and nuts; and little breads -- Kaiser Rolls, Grandmother's Southern Biscuits, English Muffins, and Popovers, to name a few. For the baker who observes the holidays with a fresh loaf there are Challah and Italian Panettone.

Offering classic recipes while making use of modern kitchen technology, this comprehensive volume is an indispensable reference for the novice or experienced home baker looking to make the best bread with ease.

Award-winning author Bernard Clayton Jr. began his career as a reporter and foreign correspondent; baking was his hobby. He has been writing cookbooks for more than thirty years. When Mr. Clayton travels, he investigates historical and regional recipes, conversing with bakers and cooks around the world. He is the author of several cookbooks, including The Complete Book of Soups and Stews, The Complete Book of Pastry, Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Small Breads, Bernard Clayton's Cooking Across America, and The Breads of France. He lives with his wife in Bloomington, Indiana.