Rating: 
Summary: I Love This Woman!
Review: I am slowly working my way through all of the recipes in this book, and every one has been superb! My husband (the picky eater) has just finished polishing off the pizza I made with her dough recipe, and has pronounced it perfect! This is quite an accomplishment ~ marital harmony and great bread combined. Her filoncino and baguette recipes are outstanding and easy to accomplish. Get a stand mixer, and never knead again!
Rating:
Summary: Hurray for Suzanne Dunaway!
Review: I bought this book a few months ago and since have not bought a single loaf of bread from the store.
Easy, clear recipes with a minimum of effort - great results!
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Summary: No need for other bread books!
Review: I have a bookshelf of cookbooks. I rarely use them. That's because I like the sounds of the recipes but as far as following them...who needs it? I know how to cook. I just a need a concept, an idea, or some background. Or I need a specific piece of information to get certain results. That's how I stumbled across Suzanne Dunaway's awesome bread book. I had eaten some loaves at a reputable bakery about 200 miles from where I live and I wanted to replicate those loaves at home if at all possible. The bakery would not supply me with information on how they got these wonderful holes in a chewy bread they called "Paesano". So, I got on line and found this cookbook. I thought how many Italian breads could there be? I'll find the bread I'm looking for. I got Suzanne Dunaway's book and I've baked a loaf of some bread or other every day since. And I've reproduced the chewy loaf I was looking for using her Ciabatta recipe. The results are incredible. The bread is chewy and light, with lots of texture and eye appeal, (very rustic with the irregular shape and the sprinkle of rosemary). She encourages the use of instincts and discourages complicated techniques and materials. (I especially like her thoughts on tap water and regular flour.) I don't need complicated instructions and impossible ingredients. This is the best bread book investment one could make! I also think it would make an excellent gift for cooks and those just starting out as cooks...(college students, newly married couples...), because success is almost guaranteed.Aside from the great instruction and appealing recipes. The stories Ms. Dunaway tells are equally pleasing. She is clearly a generous spirit who LOVES to cook and share food. I'm convinced that for those very reasons everything she produces in her kitchens is delicious. Reading her book is like getting to go over to her place for a meal. After the first successes using her recipes, I felt guilty that I hadn't invited her over for a bite, yet!
Rating:
Summary: If you bake, you Need this book
Review: I have baked bread for over 30 years in my home kitchen, and, while I enjoy reading new bread cookbooks from the library, I seldom buy one as my Fannie Farmer does quite well. This book is an exception. I make bread every day with these recipes, and yesterday introduced my 3 yr old granddaughter to the fine art of bread making ... she made the bread from start to finish (1/2 of the child's loaf recipe) by herself. (I use Pyrex measuring cups as mixing bowls so she has something to hold on to. For this 1/2 recipe, I used the 4 quart size.) She brushed the ready-to-bake loaf with rosemary oil and sprinkled rosemary on top; then I placed the small frying pan in the oven. When the bread was finished, she was excited and happy with her handiwork. It was a delight to watch her smell it, lift it, thump it, and bag it once it had cooled. Life doesn't get better than this.
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Summary: My comments are to inspire cooks who can and cooks who can't
Review: I have cooked since the age of 5, so you can be sure I am inspired. Many, however, are not, yet love to imagine baking all sorts of things and smelling up the house with the fragrant aroma of bread. My book will give you courage to plunge in and dismiss those ungrounded fears of yeast or starters or baking of any kind. Flour, water, yeast and salt might become your best friends in the kitchen, and if nothing else, your family and friends will give their tastes buds a little more education in what is good bread and what is not. My book is a working journal for the kitchen. Each recipe was developed for optimum flavor and texture, or at least it's my view of a great recipe. The Italian recipes are simple and direct and as authentic as the food I eat in Rome. The recipes from my mother and grandmothers are my legacy from them, such as the best dill pickle in the world and Czech kolaches filled with apricots. I wrote my book to get rid of FEAR in the kitchen, to inspire great cooks and hopeful cooks to think about food in a simple way. To keep in mind that simple and fresh will win out any day over ambitious and complicated. That tastes must be separate first in order to be complementary in the end, sort of like marriage. That cooking is for anyone who has the will and the enthusiasm to plunge in and throw fear to the wind. I welcome reader reviews on line and correspondence through my email.
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Summary: Do not fear yeast or kneading...ever again!
Review: I just made my first loaf of successful whole wheat bread--ever! Used to think that my skin had some adverse chemical reaction to yeast because nothing ever worked out when I used it. I watched as the bread rose, worrying every minute (even thought about praying over it!...seriously). Would THIS bread recipe RISE? YESSSSSSSS! It rose, it rose! Would it bake up properly? It did and the flavor was scrumptious!
Thank you, Suzanne Dunaway! No more dependence on stores and their psuedo-bread products for this old broad! Ahhhhh...and the fragrance of bread baking throughout the house....near Nirvana!!!
Rating:
Summary: Do not fear yeast or kneading...ever again!
Review: I just made my first loaf of successful whole wheat bread--ever! Used to think that my skin had some adverse chemical reaction to yeast because nothing ever worked out when I used it. I watched as the bread rose, worrying every minute (even thought about praying over it!...seriously). Would THIS bread recipe RISE? YESSSSSSSS! It rose, it rose! Would it bake up properly? It did and the flavor was scrumptious!
Thank you, Suzanne Dunaway! No more dependence on stores and their psuedo-bread products for this old broad! Ahhhhh...and the fragrance of bread baking throughout the house....near Nirvana!!!
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Summary: I Smell Bread!
Review: I love this book for many reasons. Many of my books on breadmaking tire me out before I get through the intro. While the writers extoll the virtues of baking your own bread at home, they then lead the reader through a complicated series of chefs, levains, & other types of starters that take DAYS, sometimes even WEEKS to bubble & fizz enough to allow you to begin making your first loaf. Enough! It's exhausting just reading about it. Suzanne's book is upbeat, clear, & definitely makes you want to get started making your first loaf NOW! Best of all, with her recipes you can. I have tried several of the breads, including the fougasse & the ciabatta. Yummy, absolutely yummy, & incredibly easy. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the author guides you along in a supportive, 'you can do it' kind of way. Her love for bread is totally there & she so very generously shares the recipes that have worked for her & her lucky customers at Buona Forchetta. Many of my cookbooks gather dust because, while they seemed interesting in the bookstore, they don't prove to be very practical for the home kitchen. Suzanne's book is on my kitchen counter, opened to the basic foccaccia recipe, & covered with a fine coat of flour. And my house is filled with the wonderful smell of bread baking in my oven!
Rating:
Summary: No Need to Knead is a great book
Review: I love this book. I'm very busy making great crusty, rustic breads and I learned that I don't have to stay home all day to do this. The commentary is fascinating and Suzanne has a great sense of humor, which I thoroughly enjoy. I've ordered one for my son-in-law and have recommended it to friends. I will treasure this book.
Rating:
Summary: No Need to Knead is a great book
Review: I love this book. I'm very busy making great crusty, rustic breads and I learned that I don't have to stay home all day to do this. The commentary is fascinating and Suzanne has a great sense of humor, which I thoroughly enjoy. I've ordered one for my son-in-law and have recommended it to friends. I will treasure this book.
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