Another winner from Mark Bittman and long-time collaborator Kerri Conan. This book uses a slightly tweaked version of Bittman's groundbreaking no-knead bread to jumpstart many variations of whole-grain sourdough. I tested the two master recipes with excellent results. The bread was crusty, chewy, and well-flavored, and the straightforward directions were easy to follow. The authors' approach requires no wasteful discard and gives the baker confidence in working flexibly with the starter. Measurements are mostly by metric weight, although a general discussion of volume equivalents is provided.

A few things to note: Temperatures are in Fahrenheit, with no Celsius crosswalk. The variety of recipes is enticing, with both sweet and savory options, but this is not the book for someone avoiding gluten.

Highly recommended.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A great little book to get you started baking bread with whole grains. I'm a big fan of the author, and this latest book just reinforces my admiration of him. In the beginning, you will learn to make your own starter. Then, using that starter, you can learn to make all kinds of breads. Pizza, flatbreads, rolls, and on and on. Full of easy to understand instructions and good photographs that will help you along.
I spent two weekends with my wife and son experimenting with these recipes. Together we made a basic bread, and cinnamon rolls. The second weekend we made delicious waffles and pretzels! Yummy!

This is a great cookbook filled with all kinds of recipes for whole grain, sourdough, no-knead breads. Colorful photos accompany the recipes and they're simple and sound delicious. While some no-knead bread cookbooks offer gluten free recipes, this one does not provide any GF breads so it's not a book I can test in our kitchen. No nutritional information is provided. There is a huge range of recipes though, including nontraditional sourdough no-knead items. Well recommended.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

Love the idea of a jump stater for my starter! Great recipes and easy to follow explanations. Can't wait to try some of these breads.

Mark Bittman always teaches me things I did not know and find valuable. This volume is no exception whatsoever. Lots of good info, ideas and possibilities. Worth a read.

An excellent book on an innovative technique for making naturally-fermented no-knead bread using a variety of whole-grain flours. A real plus in this book is the detailed, friendly instructions and photos -- it's as if you had an experienced bread baker at your side. A great surprise is the ideas for using leftover bread and the delightful non-bread recipes, both sweet and savory.

This book is an excellent guide to making starter bread (sourdough or a “mother”). The reader will learn how to make the Beginner Bittman Bread 🥖 using the author’s original no-knead bread technique.

Chapter two deals with the why and how of whole-grain baking and covers grain basics, fermentation, wheat flour 🌾 , and home milling, as well as the essential pots, pans and tools needed.

Subsequent chapters cover how to make the Bittman Bread using the author’s technique (the jumpstarter, dough, seasoning, folding, and finally baking)

Here there are some variations such as Bittman Bread with seeds, Bittman Bread with Cracked Wheat, Bittman Bread with Cheese, and so on.

Another chapter is devoted to baking other kinds of bread such as rye bread, sandwich, rich brioche, and baguettes 🥖

In the Pizza, Flatbread, and rolls section, you’ll find a new spin on recipes for delicacies such as pizza 🍕, focaccia along with toppings. You’ll also find recipes for biscuits such as Amazing Drop Biscuits and Amazing Cheddar Biscuits.

There is Scallion Pancake and other pancake variations like Leek Pancake 🥞, Shallot Pancake, Chickpea Pancake, and Kimchi Pancake.

The Sweet Stuff section covers tasty treats such as. pancakes and waffles, cinnamon rolls, beignets, and cookies 🍪.

Thank you to Mark Bittman, NetGalley, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the ARC of this book.

I received this book from the publishers via Netgalley for a review. Clear and easy to follow recipes. Tried two breads both came out well. If you like baking bread try this book

For over twenty years I’ve baked all of our loaf bread, English muffins, flatbreads and more using a potato flake starter. I’ve stuck with that simplistic, easy to maintain starter for so long simply because I’ve always thought a traditional sourdough starter would be too labor-intensive, messy, and needy.

After reading “Bittman Bread” cover to cover, I think I’m ready to make a change. I know there will be a learning curve, and possibly a few odd-but-edible loaves of bread in my future, but I feel I’ve found a good mentor and teacher to help wean me off the potato flakes and show me what real sourdough is all about. Can’t wait to get started!

My thanks to authors Mark Bittman and Kerri Conan, NetGalley, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for allowing me to read a digital advance review copy of this book. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion.

Bittman’s cookbooks are always a fun read. Bittman Bread is written with co- author Kerri Conan and is focused on baking the perfect 100% whole grain loaf. I could have really made use of this book a year ago when we all went into quarantine and so many of us succumbed to the smell of freshly baked bread, that is, until we ran out of flour. Bittman and Conan walk bakers through the two essential elements to mastering the best homemade bread with the creation of natural starter ( sourdough) and using “ real” whole grains. Included are also recipes for pizza dough, flatbreads, rolls, and a few sweet doughs. Baking by weight vs volume is explained for those who do not have access to a scale, (but for most bread bakers, weight is really the only acceptable measure.)
Essential reading for serious bread bakers.

Excellent tips on making starter for all the recipes. Recipes with pictures, include breads, cookies, pancakes, waffles, pizza and more, all of which use a starter in the recipe.

#BittmanBread #NetGalley

I've followed Mark Bittman for quite a few years and he hasn't steered me wrong yet. I was so excited to see this book since I haven't mastered bread as best as I would like. It's all edible of course, but I'm left with doubts more often than not. Also having some issues digesting bread (thank you, new decade of life), I'm also not sure what I can process or not but I appreciated his note on gluten and how he breaks down the bake step by step, providing the science behind it. It's such a great resource and I'm excited to start a self-experimentation with self-made bread through the Bittman Bread reference book.

Bread making is certainly on trend in this COVID era. Newbies in this area of the baking world may find the idea of sourdough rather intimidating. Bittman Bread does an excellent job of simplifying the starter process. In fact, this is the first I've seen of this technique. There are quite a few recipes in this book, using a variety of grains, including some desert options. It is important to recognize, however, that this book is specifically geared toward those who want to eat 100% whole grains. If this is down your alley, I suggest you give this one a go.

I've read many cookbooks and recently cookbooks on baking bread. This book offers something different than the others that I have read in the past. Many bread books bog you down with lots of technical information it can seem overwhelming. Mark Bittman has taken a different approach in writing this book as well as how he created the recipes. He as taken many of the pitfalls out of sourdough bread baking and streamlined the process. If the reader is interested in diving deeper in a particular area, he has information available. The photography is well produced and makes the steps easy to understand and execute.

Owning many books on bread, I appreciate that he offers other recipes such as sandwich breads and sweet breads. This is a true baker's book as all of the recipes are in grams (most accurate way of measuring ingredients). He does offer a conversion chart for bakers that want to use volume measurements.

I'm looking forward to adding this title to my collection.

What a wonderful resource for the art of bread making! You start with a no knead dough that gives you you starter of sourdough and from there, the possibilities are endless. I can't wait to try the lemon torte recipe. This book belongs on every cook's resource shelf. The photographs are divine.

Mark Bittman has always been my go to guy for cooking and now he has made my day by creating the most wonderful book on baking bread. Anyone who can make sourdough a less labor intensive process wins in my book..

In Bittman Bread, Mark Bittman and Kerri Conan take no knead bread, make it healthy and doable, and then take the starter and use it for all kinds of different breads and baked goods. Their recipes are made with a 100% whole wheat starter and the recipes use mostly whole wheat to make them not just healthier, but also tastier. This approach to making a jumpstarter is interesting, and very close to having a sourdough starter. However, somehow these sometimes seem more complicated to me than baking with sourdough.

I have specific requirements for my recipe books that I feel could have been better addressed here. I don't mind some prose but only if it doesn't take over the recipes, or if it's so compelling that I find myself enchanted with it anyway. In this case, I think the full-on essays crowd out the reason why I would pick up a book like this in the first place, and that is to learn how to make good bread. Similarly, I would have appreciated more pictures, especially given how much of a random crapshoot breadmaking is!

I fell in love with the original no knead bread made in an enameled cast iron pot. But I really wanted something healthier and still simple to make. enter this book and I’ve got my heart’s. desire!

The instructions are easy to follow and make. I’ve expanded my bread repertoire with this book and can’t wait to show off whole grain breads at our next family gathering.

Thank you for the chance to review this book in exchange for honest feedback. I think this book’s two main strengths are in its 1) unique approaches and 2) layout/design. I don’t know much to anything about making bread, but it was definitely something on everyone’s minds last year during quarantine! I know at least 4 people in my small circle of friends who tried to become bread makers. This book’s guide would’ve been helpful for them. The second strength comes from the crisp food photography. Sometimes a picture can sell more than the words. This book utilizes a lot of color photography to depict the processes and I think it is appealing and modern.