Book Review: 200 Fast and Easy Artisan Breads: No-Knead, One Bowl

I tend to be quite picky about my cookbooks. I enjoy chillin' on the couch looking through my cookbooks marking exciting new recipes, but I don't have the patience for a cookbook that just sit on my counter being uninspiring. Uninspiring cookbooks get booted.

Currently, I very much like all the cookbooks I have so I was hesitant to "invest" in a new one. But, I have had zero success making delicious bread. Every try has come out super dense - not chewy, not airy, and not flavorful as in my childhood memories.

So, discussed my failures with a dear friend who has all the bread making success in the world, and she chalked it up to this book "200 Fast and Easy Artisan Breads: No-Knead, One Bowl".


Finally I bought the book and gave it a try this past weekend. All I can say is A M A Z I N G.

On Saturday I made a loaf if sun-dried tomato bread and couldn't help but try another recipe, whole wheat boule, before the weekend was over. Not only were the loafs beautiful, but they had great flavor and texture. Beyond all, they were simple.

A few piece of equipment are required for various recipes in the book. You need to own an instant read thermometer, a baking stone, and a broiler pan. Also, this book uses instant or bread machine yeast rather than active dry yeast.

I already had stone(s), but I picked up the thermometer at Target for about $14 and the broiler was sadly $25, but you could probably thrift one if you keep your eye out.

I'm plan to try another recipe this weekend and I'll let you know how it turns out, but my current conclusion is this - if you want to make awesome, tasty, fancy looking breads that are easy and have very little hands on time then this book is for you.

Check it out from your library to give it a try!

For those of you who come by here for knitting more than cooking/baking here's peak at what I'm working on.