Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza [A Cookbook]

This book is fine for those who are interested in making fermented breads from a commercial yeast, but for those looking to make naturally leavened bread from a starter you would be better off trying a different method than the one described by Forkish. His method wastes way too much flour, over 1000 grams per day just to get the starter going! Completely unnecessary! All you really need is 100 grams of a 50/50 white and wheat blend and 100 grams of water, more or less depending on your baking schedule. That's it. The method in this book would have you go through a bag of flour a day. Try Chad Robertson's Tartine instead for a better daily method. I also have to wonder if all the 5 star reviews actually made some of the recipes as described or if they just glanced over it. If you try to make the Pain Au Bacon there is a typo that has you adding an unnecessary 604 grams of whole wheat flour in the method (it should read only 16 grams!). He also has you build a huge levain for this recipe and only use a fraction of it. There are much more economical recipes out there with much better methods. Other reviewers stated that a combo cooker is preferable to the Dutch oven method used here and they are absolutely right, a combo cooker is much easier to work with. Forkish also apparently isn't a fan of scoring bread instead advocating for using the natural seam, it's a personal preference but I quite like scoring and making unique designs. Forkish also claims that in order to have a good rise and taste out of bread you need a combination of natural leaven and commercial yeast. Not true at all, some of the best risen and tasting breads I have ever made have been from using my own starter alone. Commercial yeast has its place at times but you absolutely don't need it to make good bread. Humans have been doing it for thousands of years before yeast was sold and packaged. I do agree that bread needs to be cooked a lot longer than most people think, a dark flavorful crust is preferable to an under baked loaf any day, and most people negatively reviewing it for that reason probably don't know what good bread looks or tastes like. Overall, if you are dipping your toes into the water and trying out long fermentation methods with commercial yeast, this book should be fine, but be sure to do the math on the recipes and calculate the correct baker's percentages before you waste flour and time on a typo. If you are looking for a book to get started making naturally leavened bread, go buy Tartine by Chad Robertson.

I began baking bread about 7 years ago. The books that made the biggest influence on me on this journey have been "Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day" and "Bread Baker's Apprentice" and finally this book. "5 Minutes" turned out to not lead to the most satisfying of breads, just too many shortcuts were taken. But, "Apprentice" could sometimes just take too long, you had to spend practically all day with careful attention, but the results were incredible! I tried to find a middle ground using techniques from both, and developed my own style that could produce good results, but reduced the amount of labor since I have a day job after all. Particularly the recipes for ciabatta and pain l'ancienne were excellent in "Apprentice". Then I found this book. Ken confirms many of the techniques that I'd already been using, and then added a whole slew more that I could utilize. Note, this book focuses on baking one particular style of bread: the slack-dough (high hydration) country rustic boule. But, it does this very, very well. Also, after years of baking, this is the type of bread that I found to be the easiest, most flexible, and often the most rewarding to bake. It is also pleases everyone, bread aficionados and those who have never tasted artisan bread before. The real beauty lies in that you can use Forkish's techniques to bake bread regularly with very little work and get absolutely stunning, flavorful, and healthy results. Highly recommend his techniques for whole wheat breads, the 40 and 50% varieties are very healthy and so flavorful you would think you are eating a decadent white french bread. So, in short, if you want to bake incredibly delicious rustic breads regularly without much effort, this is the book to buy. But, if you have the time on your hands, and want to bake many other styles and types of breads, may want to also look up Reinheart's Bread Baker's Apprentice. But, I'll say this, after years of baking from "Apprentice", I hardly ever crack it open anymore now that I found this book unless I want to bake a specific type of bread like challah or need help with shaping for baguettes.

This book could be pared down to half the size if Forkish didn’t keep repeating the same information , stopped talking about how he is different from Lahey, and stopped name dropping and stroking his own ego. I am not a new bread baker and this book is complicated because he chose to write the recipes in the most asinine of ways. He can’t get out of his own way to write a descent book. Go buy Lahey’s book. No ego, little repetition, straightforward. I have no idea how this windbag got so many positive reviews.

This book could easily receive one or five stars, depending on what you are looking for. It was perfect for me, but I would like to clarify exactly what it is you would get out of this book, and what you would not. First off, if you are looking for a book of great, simple recipes that you can throw in the breadmaker real quick once you get home, this is NOT the book for you. If you're looking more for a diverse bread recipe book vs break knowledge, this is not the book for you. This is a very good equivalent of a breadcrafting 101 textbook. Now, I say 'breadcrafting' vs just 'baking' because this book takes you far beyond "mix X and Y, bake at Z, eat." Using the same very simple ingredients (see title), you will make a variety of different flavors, based on times, ferments, etc. You will learn how to literally use temperature and times as ingredients and how these can make bread made with the very same ingredients VERY different. You will truly learn the basics of making great bread. I would note that this book also calls for a covered dutch oven to finally bake these loaves in, which will replace much in the way of expensive baking equipment and give a lovely crust. For the book itself: There are literally over a hundred favored methods of breadmaking all over the world. This book contains a much smaller focused area than, say, Peter Reinhart's "Bread Baker's Apprentice". The recipes are for lean dough, non-enriched breads, made straight, with delayed fermentation, and finally as pure sourdough. The doughs he uses are very wet (usually well in excess of 70% hydration), and his preference to hand-forming everything in the bowl vs using a mixer, etc, will actually give some excellent groundwork in learning dough handling. An advantage to wet doughs (among other things like quality), is that you can most easily feel changes in the dough as you work it, teaching you to make bread by feel, and really KNOW when things are ready. The basic recipe is varied with different flours, bigas or poolishes, and finally making and using a sourdough culture. The variations one learns of a recipe are incredible in terms of taste and texture, when the main variables are time and temp. This book is a fantastic stepping stone for more varied texts (Bread Bible, Bread Baker's Apprentice, and the all but sacred bread text "The Taste of Bread" by Raymond Calvel). If you are looking to learn the basic knowledge needed to make truly magnificent bread in your home, this is the book to start with. If you are a more advanced baker, but still need to solidify the basics covered in this text, you will find that material familiar but new at the same time, and will get more than your money's worth. Happy reading!

I love this book. I have made three of the bread recipes, each with increasing complexity, and they are great! It’s nice that each one makes two loaves since if something looks amiss with the first one, then you can tweak the baking of the second. Also, you can use the dough from the second half for pizza and focaccia – I have done both with really excellent = delicious results! I have to admit though, that I do not appreciate the very dark baking he encourages. While my over is very accurate, if I bake as dark as he suggests, the bottoms taste burned. All the breads in this book require that you use a Dutch oven. Kind of an important detail. I was at first skeptical since I just bought a baking stone, but these recipes are really different. You also do NOT need a stand mixer! I was really getting into baking breads using the dough hook of my stand mixer, so I was a little concerned at first. But now, I really enjoy the 100% hands on (hands in?) approach. Note, the methods are fairly technique intensive - the book has great and detailed descriptions, but I found the videos on his web site to be great to clearly show you what he is explaining in the book. Ken has a great section on required equipment and gives you specific descriptions of things he used for the recipes in this book, and they are available on Amazon. Some examples: For the Dutch Over, he recommends 2 brands, of which I got the Lodge since it was much less $. I also decided on the enameled version since I did not want to deal with the uncoated cast iron, and the seasoning process. It works great, and frankly is a thing of beauty in our kitchen: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QM8SK2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 He recommends Cambro plastic containers for mizing etc, 12 quart and 6 quart. I tried using just large bowls, but then could see the advantage of these so ordered them. No regrets! Also I did buy the set of two for the 6 quart and very glad I did. One is always good for your working hand water, and the other if you are making Poolish, Biga, etc. 12 Quart: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000KIE73I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Plus the lid: http://www.amazon.com/Camwear-Cover-Quart-Storage-Containers/dp/B001E0FNCU/ref=pd_bxgy_k_text_y 6 Quart, set of 2 with lids: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002PMV77G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 He also suggests Banneton Baskets for proofing the loaves prior to baking. I bought one, tried it, decided I needed two (they are two loaves recipes after all) went back and could only find the set of two, so now I have three. My wife likes baskets anyways! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006J7JWHU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 He also recommends a digital scale and specifically OXO brand. He actually recommends a cheaper one, but it had a lot of negative reviews so I bought this one and love it. It works perfectly! Weighing ingredients is a great way to go. There are a lot of digital scales out there – if you go with another brand, be sure to consider one that has a pull out display. You will need it for large mixing containers. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WJMTNA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 These all bake at 475 degrees F! Handling and manipulating a heavy 475 degree enamel coated cast iron Dutch Over is a challenge. My potholders and BBQ Gloves did not do the job comfortably = worried. SO I bought these and have been very happy with them. Still, exercise caution! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CHO64NE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Enjoy!

The point of a cookbook is to make cooking understandable and approachable. This book does just the opposite. Recipes and methods provided in this book are arcane and impossible. Sometimes censorship is advisable-this book being a case in point.

Great book, changed the way i do things in a profound way. Highly recommended. Not a lot of technical jargon, just good technique for making fine breads. Hope Ken keeps on writing. You won't go wrong with this book. Thanks Ken.

I've read many of the usual suspects of this genre: Jim Lahey, Chad Robertson, Amy's Bread, Peter Reinhart. You would think that there wasn't that much room for improvement based on what those fine books have taught. But what Ken Forkish has done here is not simply to give you recipes, but to teach you to think with the flexibility that bread baking demands, and to also demand creativity out of you to go past what's in the book. One of the very best things about Ken's book is that he doesn't just throw recipes out there, then try to explain with a little blurb above them, or even, as Robertson did, to give an in-depth explanation after you've tried your hand at it. Instead, Ken goes and teaches you the concepts first, then goes and gives you a structure of recipe writing that helps you identify the concepts taught within the context of the recipe. You're going to feel more comfortable making the bread from the first attempt. There's a lot here for the experienced bread baker here. Different mixes of flours, double fed levains, hybrid levain-commercial yeast solutions. There's a fantastic section on how to make recipes your own, whether it be about flour choices (and the different hydration requirements that some flours require), rearranging schedules to make your bread revolve around your life, the various options you have with levains, how to document your experimentation so that you can reproduce the results the next time. Like Robertson and Lahey, he's baking in cast iron pots-- he prefers the smaller (and harder to find) 4 quart models, which contribute to higher rises in his opinion. The book, because of his structure, works exclusively in those pots, but he tells you how to adjust his system if you wanted to take a batch of dough meant for two loaves and turn it into one massive miche. There's also an excellent pizza making section, with sauce recipes, pizza tossing instructions, plus pan pizza recipes. He ends with a Lagniappe of some hazelnut butter cookies, but I have to admit, I was really hoping he'd share a baguette recipe since he'd referenced them so often in his own story. All in all, a superb book that adds a lot of depth to the genre.

This book completely makes you rethink the bread making process. It's simple, an easy read, and once you knock out the first few chapters the recipes could not be more simple to follow. I know it's asking you for a lot of equipment. But you can get by with the bare minimum. 4 quart dutch oven ($31 or optional)- I don't even have a dutch oven yet. I've just used 2 giant cast iron skillets and placed one on top of the other. I have replicated bread identical to the cover shot. Still it be useful to have, but even throwing it in the oven uncovered would work fine. You will not get a super nice beautiful crust, but will still get great bread from the recipes that's a simply softer. 12 and 6 quart buckets ($10-20 and optional)- You can get these cheap on amazon with the Rubbermaid brand, but if you wanna use what's in your kitchen....simply use giant bowels and cover with plastic wrap. Banneton baskets ($20 and optional)- I seriously throw the dough in a large soup bowel that's lightly coated in olive oil for proofing. It works, and it's free Digital thermometer $5-10 - Honestly doesn't even need to be instant read. Or Digital. Simply use what you make and make sure your water is the correct temp and that your loafs are done. Digital Kitchen scale $10- Go to Walmart and buy the cheapest one. This is seriously the 1 item that I would consider required. And it can cost you less than $10. Bottom line, buying everything he suggests will definitely simplify a few things for you and make your life easier. However if you want bread identical to the cover the bare minimum you need is the dutch oven and a digital scale (assuming you have an thermometer). You can even get beautiful tasting bread and a nice look without the dutch oven but it's not going to have crackling crust that shatters when you bite it. Get this book! It will make you rethink the way you bake bread and once you learn the technical stuff and the bakers percentage concept....you can create your own breads and make it your own. Edit: Its been 2 months and I have been baking bread every single day. This book has revolutionized my life. I eat fresh bread all the time, and my family loves the bread as well. I have started working on the sourdough recipes and it's incredible to watch. I have a very active starter and it amazes me how one can rise bread just using natural yeast that collects in your culture. I love the tools it gives you to simply make your own bread. Here is a photo of some wheat bread I made with flaxseed. Another shot of some sourdough crumb held to the light. Both were made not with the recipes found in the book but what I created with the knowledge gained.

I have been baking with sourdough for the past eight years and have used the excellent “artisan sourdough made simple”. I wanted a book for my brother’s birthday as he got interested in baking with this home stay orders, so I got this new one. I deeply regret it. Don’t get me wrong it’s a beautiful table book, nice pictures and professionally looking. But just too complex. The intro part is very good if you are interested in the chemistry of bread making and want to go in depth into it all. If you just want to bake a nice loaf you can skip it. The two things that put me off this book are: 1) the very limited range of recipes (a few artisan loaves that are good and tasty but fairly similar) a few pizza recipes and that’s it. 2) recipes are too complex. The double fed sweet levain is unbelievably complicated. I’ve been baking for eight years, 2-3x/week and hard a hard time explaining to my brother when he asked me questions. Plus you throw away half the levain twice in the same recipe. Really?! Will likely return it.

This book is fine for those who are interested in making fermented breads from a commercial yeast, but for those looking to make naturally leavened bread from a starter you would be better off trying a different method than the one described by Forkish. His method wastes way too much flour, over 1000 grams per day just to get the starter going! Completely unnecessary! All you really need is 100 grams of a 50/50 white and wheat blend and 100 grams of water, more or less depending on your baking schedule. That's it. The method in this book would have you go through a bag of flour a day. Try Chad Robertson's Tartine instead for a better daily method. I also have to wonder if all the 5 star reviews actually made some of the recipes as described or if they just glanced over it. If you try to make the Pain Au Bacon there is a typo that has you adding an unnecessary 604 grams of whole wheat flour in the method (it should read only 16 grams!). He also has you build a huge levain for this recipe and only use a fraction of it. There are much more economical recipes out there with much better methods. Other reviewers stated that a combo cooker is preferable to the Dutch oven method used here and they are absolutely right, a combo cooker is much easier to work with. Forkish also apparently isn't a fan of scoring bread instead advocating for using the natural seam, it's a personal preference but I quite like scoring and making unique designs. Forkish also claims that in order to have a good rise and taste out of bread you need a combination of natural leaven and commercial yeast. Not true at all, some of the best risen and tasting breads I have ever made have been from using my own starter alone. Commercial yeast has its place at times but you absolutely don't need it to make good bread. Humans have been doing it for thousands of years before yeast was sold and packaged. I do agree that bread needs to be cooked a lot longer than most people think, a dark flavorful crust is preferable to an under baked loaf any day, and most people negatively reviewing it for that reason probably don't know what good bread looks or tastes like. Overall, if you are dipping your toes into the water and trying out long fermentation methods with commercial yeast, this book should be fine, but be sure to do the math on the recipes and calculate the correct baker's percentages before you waste flour and time on a typo. If you are looking for a book to get started making naturally leavened bread, go buy Tartine by Chad Robertson.

I began baking bread about 7 years ago. The books that made the biggest influence on me on this journey have been "Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day" and "Bread Baker's Apprentice" and finally this book. "5 Minutes" turned out to not lead to the most satisfying of breads, just too many shortcuts were taken. But, "Apprentice" could sometimes just take too long, you had to spend practically all day with careful attention, but the results were incredible! I tried to find a middle ground using techniques from both, and developed my own style that could produce good results, but reduced the amount of labor since I have a day job after all. Particularly the recipes for ciabatta and pain l'ancienne were excellent in "Apprentice". Then I found this book. Ken confirms many of the techniques that I'd already been using, and then added a whole slew more that I could utilize. Note, this book focuses on baking one particular style of bread: the slack-dough (high hydration) country rustic boule. But, it does this very, very well. Also, after years of baking, this is the type of bread that I found to be the easiest, most flexible, and often the most rewarding to bake. It is also pleases everyone, bread aficionados and those who have never tasted artisan bread before. The real beauty lies in that you can use Forkish's techniques to bake bread regularly with very little work and get absolutely stunning, flavorful, and healthy results. Highly recommend his techniques for whole wheat breads, the 40 and 50% varieties are very healthy and so flavorful you would think you are eating a decadent white french bread. So, in short, if you want to bake incredibly delicious rustic breads regularly without much effort, this is the book to buy. But, if you have the time on your hands, and want to bake many other styles and types of breads, may want to also look up Reinheart's Bread Baker's Apprentice. But, I'll say this, after years of baking from "Apprentice", I hardly ever crack it open anymore now that I found this book unless I want to bake a specific type of bread like challah or need help with shaping for baguettes.

This book could be pared down to half the size if Forkish didn’t keep repeating the same information , stopped talking about how he is different from Lahey, and stopped name dropping and stroking his own ego. I am not a new bread baker and this book is complicated because he chose to write the recipes in the most asinine of ways. He can’t get out of his own way to write a descent book. Go buy Lahey’s book. No ego, little repetition, straightforward. I have no idea how this windbag got so many positive reviews.

This book could easily receive one or five stars, depending on what you are looking for. It was perfect for me, but I would like to clarify exactly what it is you would get out of this book, and what you would not. First off, if you are looking for a book of great, simple recipes that you can throw in the breadmaker real quick once you get home, this is NOT the book for you. If you're looking more for a diverse bread recipe book vs break knowledge, this is not the book for you. This is a very good equivalent of a breadcrafting 101 textbook. Now, I say 'breadcrafting' vs just 'baking' because this book takes you far beyond "mix X and Y, bake at Z, eat." Using the same very simple ingredients (see title), you will make a variety of different flavors, based on times, ferments, etc. You will learn how to literally use temperature and times as ingredients and how these can make bread made with the very same ingredients VERY different. You will truly learn the basics of making great bread. I would note that this book also calls for a covered dutch oven to finally bake these loaves in, which will replace much in the way of expensive baking equipment and give a lovely crust. For the book itself: There are literally over a hundred favored methods of breadmaking all over the world. This book contains a much smaller focused area than, say, Peter Reinhart's "Bread Baker's Apprentice". The recipes are for lean dough, non-enriched breads, made straight, with delayed fermentation, and finally as pure sourdough. The doughs he uses are very wet (usually well in excess of 70% hydration), and his preference to hand-forming everything in the bowl vs using a mixer, etc, will actually give some excellent groundwork in learning dough handling. An advantage to wet doughs (among other things like quality), is that you can most easily feel changes in the dough as you work it, teaching you to make bread by feel, and really KNOW when things are ready. The basic recipe is varied with different flours, bigas or poolishes, and finally making and using a sourdough culture. The variations one learns of a recipe are incredible in terms of taste and texture, when the main variables are time and temp. This book is a fantastic stepping stone for more varied texts (Bread Bible, Bread Baker's Apprentice, and the all but sacred bread text "The Taste of Bread" by Raymond Calvel). If you are looking to learn the basic knowledge needed to make truly magnificent bread in your home, this is the book to start with. If you are a more advanced baker, but still need to solidify the basics covered in this text, you will find that material familiar but new at the same time, and will get more than your money's worth. Happy reading!

I love this book. I have made three of the bread recipes, each with increasing complexity, and they are great! It’s nice that each one makes two loaves since if something looks amiss with the first one, then you can tweak the baking of the second. Also, you can use the dough from the second half for pizza and focaccia – I have done both with really excellent = delicious results! I have to admit though, that I do not appreciate the very dark baking he encourages. While my over is very accurate, if I bake as dark as he suggests, the bottoms taste burned. All the breads in this book require that you use a Dutch oven. Kind of an important detail. I was at first skeptical since I just bought a baking stone, but these recipes are really different. You also do NOT need a stand mixer! I was really getting into baking breads using the dough hook of my stand mixer, so I was a little concerned at first. But now, I really enjoy the 100% hands on (hands in?) approach. Note, the methods are fairly technique intensive - the book has great and detailed descriptions, but I found the videos on his web site to be great to clearly show you what he is explaining in the book. Ken has a great section on required equipment and gives you specific descriptions of things he used for the recipes in this book, and they are available on Amazon. Some examples: For the Dutch Over, he recommends 2 brands, of which I got the Lodge since it was much less $. I also decided on the enameled version since I did not want to deal with the uncoated cast iron, and the seasoning process. It works great, and frankly is a thing of beauty in our kitchen: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QM8SK2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 He recommends Cambro plastic containers for mizing etc, 12 quart and 6 quart. I tried using just large bowls, but then could see the advantage of these so ordered them. No regrets! Also I did buy the set of two for the 6 quart and very glad I did. One is always good for your working hand water, and the other if you are making Poolish, Biga, etc. 12 Quart: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000KIE73I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Plus the lid: http://www.amazon.com/Camwear-Cover-Quart-Storage-Containers/dp/B001E0FNCU/ref=pd_bxgy_k_text_y 6 Quart, set of 2 with lids: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002PMV77G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 He also suggests Banneton Baskets for proofing the loaves prior to baking. I bought one, tried it, decided I needed two (they are two loaves recipes after all) went back and could only find the set of two, so now I have three. My wife likes baskets anyways! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006J7JWHU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 He also recommends a digital scale and specifically OXO brand. He actually recommends a cheaper one, but it had a lot of negative reviews so I bought this one and love it. It works perfectly! Weighing ingredients is a great way to go. There are a lot of digital scales out there – if you go with another brand, be sure to consider one that has a pull out display. You will need it for large mixing containers. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WJMTNA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 These all bake at 475 degrees F! Handling and manipulating a heavy 475 degree enamel coated cast iron Dutch Over is a challenge. My potholders and BBQ Gloves did not do the job comfortably = worried. SO I bought these and have been very happy with them. Still, exercise caution! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CHO64NE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Enjoy!

The point of a cookbook is to make cooking understandable and approachable. This book does just the opposite. Recipes and methods provided in this book are arcane and impossible. Sometimes censorship is advisable-this book being a case in point.

Great book, changed the way i do things in a profound way. Highly recommended. Not a lot of technical jargon, just good technique for making fine breads. Hope Ken keeps on writing. You won't go wrong with this book. Thanks Ken.

I've read many of the usual suspects of this genre: Jim Lahey, Chad Robertson, Amy's Bread, Peter Reinhart. You would think that there wasn't that much room for improvement based on what those fine books have taught. But what Ken Forkish has done here is not simply to give you recipes, but to teach you to think with the flexibility that bread baking demands, and to also demand creativity out of you to go past what's in the book. One of the very best things about Ken's book is that he doesn't just throw recipes out there, then try to explain with a little blurb above them, or even, as Robertson did, to give an in-depth explanation after you've tried your hand at it. Instead, Ken goes and teaches you the concepts first, then goes and gives you a structure of recipe writing that helps you identify the concepts taught within the context of the recipe. You're going to feel more comfortable making the bread from the first attempt. There's a lot here for the experienced bread baker here. Different mixes of flours, double fed levains, hybrid levain-commercial yeast solutions. There's a fantastic section on how to make recipes your own, whether it be about flour choices (and the different hydration requirements that some flours require), rearranging schedules to make your bread revolve around your life, the various options you have with levains, how to document your experimentation so that you can reproduce the results the next time. Like Robertson and Lahey, he's baking in cast iron pots-- he prefers the smaller (and harder to find) 4 quart models, which contribute to higher rises in his opinion. The book, because of his structure, works exclusively in those pots, but he tells you how to adjust his system if you wanted to take a batch of dough meant for two loaves and turn it into one massive miche. There's also an excellent pizza making section, with sauce recipes, pizza tossing instructions, plus pan pizza recipes. He ends with a Lagniappe of some hazelnut butter cookies, but I have to admit, I was really hoping he'd share a baguette recipe since he'd referenced them so often in his own story. All in all, a superb book that adds a lot of depth to the genre.

This book completely makes you rethink the bread making process. It's simple, an easy read, and once you knock out the first few chapters the recipes could not be more simple to follow. I know it's asking you for a lot of equipment. But you can get by with the bare minimum. 4 quart dutch oven ($31 or optional)- I don't even have a dutch oven yet. I've just used 2 giant cast iron skillets and placed one on top of the other. I have replicated bread identical to the cover shot. Still it be useful to have, but even throwing it in the oven uncovered would work fine. You will not get a super nice beautiful crust, but will still get great bread from the recipes that's a simply softer. 12 and 6 quart buckets ($10-20 and optional)- You can get these cheap on amazon with the Rubbermaid brand, but if you wanna use what's in your kitchen....simply use giant bowels and cover with plastic wrap. Banneton baskets ($20 and optional)- I seriously throw the dough in a large soup bowel that's lightly coated in olive oil for proofing. It works, and it's free Digital thermometer $5-10 - Honestly doesn't even need to be instant read. Or Digital. Simply use what you make and make sure your water is the correct temp and that your loafs are done. Digital Kitchen scale $10- Go to Walmart and buy the cheapest one. This is seriously the 1 item that I would consider required. And it can cost you less than $10. Bottom line, buying everything he suggests will definitely simplify a few things for you and make your life easier. However if you want bread identical to the cover the bare minimum you need is the dutch oven and a digital scale (assuming you have an thermometer). You can even get beautiful tasting bread and a nice look without the dutch oven but it's not going to have crackling crust that shatters when you bite it. Get this book! It will make you rethink the way you bake bread and once you learn the technical stuff and the bakers percentage concept....you can create your own breads and make it your own. Edit: Its been 2 months and I have been baking bread every single day. This book has revolutionized my life. I eat fresh bread all the time, and my family loves the bread as well. I have started working on the sourdough recipes and it's incredible to watch. I have a very active starter and it amazes me how one can rise bread just using natural yeast that collects in your culture. I love the tools it gives you to simply make your own bread. Here is a photo of some wheat bread I made with flaxseed. Another shot of some sourdough crumb held to the light. Both were made not with the recipes found in the book but what I created with the knowledge gained.

I have been baking with sourdough for the past eight years and have used the excellent “artisan sourdough made simple”. I wanted a book for my brother’s birthday as he got interested in baking with this home stay orders, so I got this new one. I deeply regret it. Don’t get me wrong it’s a beautiful table book, nice pictures and professionally looking. But just too complex. The intro part is very good if you are interested in the chemistry of bread making and want to go in depth into it all. If you just want to bake a nice loaf you can skip it. The two things that put me off this book are: 1) the very limited range of recipes (a few artisan loaves that are good and tasty but fairly similar) a few pizza recipes and that’s it. 2) recipes are too complex. The double fed sweet levain is unbelievably complicated. I’ve been baking for eight years, 2-3x/week and hard a hard time explaining to my brother when he asked me questions. Plus you throw away half the levain twice in the same recipe. Really?! Will likely return it.

Lots of information and quite a few recipes. Not very well illustrated. I was not happy with the fact that it also arrived with the book cover badly wrinkled and ripped. I like having the jackets on my cook books so I scotch taped it and stuck the book in my Bakers rack. Doesn’t look nice though. Especially since it’s rather new. Anyway I’m not sure that I would recommend it, I’m 50-50 on it. I just like more pictures so that I can see what the end product should look like and perhaps some demo pictures as well

I've been waiting to write this review until I had the chance to try out a few of these recipes multiple times. Now after wasting a bunch of cash (not only on the book but also all the gear he recommends from a giant mixing tub to proofing baskets to a kitchen scale - oh and not to mention a boat load of flour) and a bunch of time (in some cases over a week worth of effort to produce a loaf of bread) I can finally say - I wish I had never heard of Ken Forkish and his ridiculously wet dough. Maybe it's just me, and if someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong I'll happily update this review, but every recipe I've attempted has produced an unworkable, soggy pile of goop which, once baked becomes an inedible brick of bread or a disgustingly doughy pizza (just the opposite of what I'm looking for). In the depths of my despair this evening, following another filed attempt at pizza, I even took to Twitter to message good old Ken to see if he can help me understand where I'm going wrong. I eagerly await his reply. In the meantime, if you're an aspiring baker there must be better and easier to follow books out there. Please don't waste your time on this method.

I've been learning on my own over the past few years how to bake bread. My primary resources to that end have been a few books and lots of trial and error. This is my most recent acquisition, and I must say that so far I am supremely pleased with the results I'm getting. Now admittedly I haven't worked through the full range yet of what the book has to offer, but I have used its methods and formulas enough to know that, yes indeed, they work very well. This volume more than any other has helped me to gain a much deeper understanding of how time and temperature function as ingredients in the fermentation process, and how to use them to develop rich, full flavor from my flour using only the four essential bread ingredients: flour, water, salt and yeast. I took the author's advice and acquired a few new items of equipment that I didn't already have, and that investment has made all the difference. The heart of the method presented in this book is the use of the dutch oven as the baking vessel because of its unique ability to replicate the conditions in the baking chamber of a professional oven. Keep in mind that the target audience is home bakers, whose ovens (as I can attest from personal experience) simply cannot match the moisture conditions needed to obtain the beautiful crust development that pro bakers can achieve. I have tried a variety of methods for that purpose, but none of them have come close to what the dutch oven method creates. With great consistency I am getting well developed, flavorful, crusty, chewy loaves that look very much like the photos in the book. And after all, isn't that the point of the exercise? I highly recommend this book for any home baker.

I bought this (Kindle edition) about 7 weeks into "shelter in place" after working with Bread Baker's Apprentice for years previously. First things first -- the book works as advertised. It creates high, flavorful sourdough boules and fills in a style that BBA doesn't have. If you want to learn how to make modern-style airy breads, this is a great guide to the how and the why. But a few negatives that make this four stars. - The salt measurements, especially if you do a half recipe for a single loaf, run up against the tolerance of my Oxo scale. An alternative volume measurement for a brand that has standard sized crystales (e.g. Diamond Crystal Kosher) might help. - The levain quantities are WAY too high and wasteful of flour. The recipes calls for building a 1 kg levain and then using like 20% of that. Even if flour were plentiful (which it isn't now) that would be a lot. One can use baker's percentages to cut, but then the starter quantities, again, start to get down into numbers where kitchen scale tolerances aren't great. - It is a good book for two styles (boules and pizza) - if you want a broader survey of bread recipes, there are other places to look.

Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast is one of over a dozen books on bread which I own, and my most recent acquisition. If you do not have any other bread books this willl give you what you need to make a very nice yeasted bread. For myself it has been a journey of over 10 years. When I moved to Hawaii I discovered that it was near impossible to get, realy most of the foods I loved. Sourdough was effectively non-existent, so I started making it. When I started, 10-15 years ago, all I could find was a thin pamphlet which provided the basic recipe for starter. I made some sour dough bread, but they werre not fabulous, at which point I started looking for books which would teach me more. I actually have found a number of good boks on bread. Thew first to kick things up a noith was Nancy Silverton's book. She knows sourdough, and her recipe for starter made a big difference. Then I got a couple of Peter Reinhart's books. His recipe for starter is something of a riff off of hers, and realy did the trick. In fact I have told friends who are just gettijng started that if they buy 1 book it out to be Crust and Crumb, or the Baker's Apprentice. All that said, I do not know why I piocked this book up (as I was well on my way). I likely bought it because of the critical acclaim. It did teach me one new trick, which did, in fact, elevate my breads to a new level (when I bake that way). This to is a good book for beginners. It certainly gives you the rudimentaries, and teaches you your way around a variety ofg breads. In my opinion it is not as good for sourdough as Peter Reinhart's or Nancy Silverton, but sets out to do different things.

Lengthy and somewhat tiresome never-ending explanations for each and every step and detail. As for real down to earth recipes I was hoping for, there are much less than expected which is very disappointing ( the first recipe appears on page 81...) It is a nice book for those who want to learn and expand their theoretical knowledge, less so for those who just wont to bake a nice loaf of bread.

IT is amazing how different the results are when you change one element. I have been making bread for over 60 years and have books by Rosbottom, Rheinhart, robinson,Henberger, ameica's Test Kitchen and on and on. Have had fun and learned a lot from each and have made a lot of bread. For my everyday bread he uses a technique I have come to love over the years with a polish or biga. You don't have the waste or maintenance time to keep a sourdough going but you still end up with great bread and you can time it to fit your schedule. Have had RA for 40 years and have to accept it is too dangerous to use a hot cast iron pot and have learned to make adjustments. Think if I could find the right clay planter and put a knob where the hole is it may work and be more manageable but can't shop now so I will use other techniques to keep my oven humid. This book has really only one style of bread RUSTIC crusted, so if you are looking to make challah, American loaf bread, sweet rolls, this book is not for you. Sometimes his sentence structure leaves me wondering just what he is saying and I HATE those blue charts with the tiny print. Some of us have old eyes and I am glad I have kindle which has a workaround to make it visible. This book won a James Beard award for a reason; it gives you a lot of great information and if you want to make a great rustic bread this is a great book

I've been baking pretty regularly for about 18 months. Bought this book a few months shortly after I started baking, and the whole while i've had a lot of respect for this book and the author. However very recently that's changed. The recipes in this book don't work. at first i thought this was just a difference in our kitchens, ken explains in his book that his kitchen is very cold. That's fine i told myself, but then came the typos and the errors in the book. They're everywhere. All of his levian recipes say 12% levian, but the math doesn't add up when he says it's 210 grams of levian, that's 21%. You can assume it's 21% levian which i think it would be a correct assumption, or is it 120 grams of levian @ 12%? There's also many other errors. I also can't find the errata for this book, and from what i've seen on the internet people have different opinions about what ken actually means in this book. However, i've baked his commercial yeast breads that over ferment as well in my kitchen, assuming those ingredients are correct. Either way you bake this bread 12% or 21% the fermenting times he list in this book to bake bread are wild. What good is a recipe if the ingredients aren't correct and the fermenting times aren't useful or correct? I even think the temperature he bakes at is sub optimal, and he doesn't give any insight on the topic. The most frustrating thing about using this book as a novice was the fact that the fermenting times were wildly off. His book would say bulk ferment for 12-15 hours, and poof bread for 3.5 - 4 hours. However, in practice a proper time would be more like 6-9 hour bulk 1.5-2 hour poof. He also says in the book to preheat your oven 45 mins prior to the bread being ready, and in practice my oven takes an hour to preheat and 15 mins more if you want to make sure your oven is properly preheated. I have a cheap oven, but it's new and works fine. So you have these fermenting times which are off by hours often off by margins of 5 to 7 hours and then you can't even get your oven preheated in time because 45 mins isn't even close to enough time. These kinds of errors would be wildly apparent if he tested the recipes in his book at all outside of his own kitchen, and with the cult following ken has, there's really no excuse for not printing a new issue or making the errata easy to find. I've seen so many people on the internet doing FWSY for the first time have dough soup as a result, and if you followed these recipes and got poor results, I would blame poor resources, not lack of talent. You can read this whole book and you won't get much insight. Also the recipes don't work. A good tip for beginner bakers is to underpoof your bread, this will give you more oven spring, and an under poofed bread is better than dough soup. Opposite of the advice ken gives. I gave the book 3 stars because it was a useful guide for sometime, but I don't find it useful anymore and think i would have been better off following a different mentor. I would not recommend this book to anyone, it's not advanced, it's not for new bakers, it's luke warm with errors.

After beginning my wild-yeasted sourdough baking obsession, I was singularly focused on Chad Robertson's book, Tartine. But members of my bread baking forum kept raving about FWSY and I finally picked it up, unaware that Ken Forkish is "the" Ken of Ken's Artisan Bread shop here in Portland. I am mad about his bread and buy it often. I was having trouble getting a crumb I liked with the Tartine formula, so I was excited to try another method. Ken's book is friendly and approachable and appropriate for the dedicated home baker. (All measurements include baker's percentages). He walks the reader through building a starter, leaven, and many different types of bread, including several recipes that call for a combination of commercial and wild yeast. I found his instructions to be a little confusing. As I did with Tartine, I sat down to read through a recipe and reread it several times until I understood the entire sequence. But with Ken's instructions, I had to write my own simplified, bulleted steps, because the way he described the steps was difficult to process quickly. But the most important thing was the finished product. Would his recipe and method yield a better loaf? The answer is, definitely, kind of. I used his recipe, but with my Tartine starter. I also employed some of Tartine's proofing techniques, worried that Ken's method would not give the dough enough structure. But the end result? Holy cow. The crumb had a slightly gelatinous quality, with amazing aeration, and a soft, chewy crumb. The crust was very thin, slightly crispy. Taste was sublime, not surprisingly, because his recipe took more time and allowed the flavors to develop further. My loaves weren't perfect, but they were so, so good and I will be using his recipe (along with aforementioned techniques from Tartine) for the next bake, and the next as I inch toward a better loaf of wild-yeasted sourdough. Highly recommended.

Description says “a cookbook” but should say “a textbook for culinary students or professional chefs.” The average home baker will have little use for this. Cookbook implies recipes, which are severely lacking, and while I feel I’m somewhere above beginner, this book is mostly theories and essays about bread baking. Will return for credit.

Like so many during covid, I’ve been getting into bread baking, and wanted to take my game to the next level. It was a bonus that this also included some pizza recipes. Well, I’ve been making pizza for years, and this “recipe” (procedure) alone was worth the cost of the book, in my opinion. This gave me what I’ve been looking for - a nice, light crust with a good rise, slight browning on the bottom, all in my home oven. Wonderful. I can’t wait to try the bread recipes. All in all, a great book that took me to the next level. I’d call this solidly intermediate-level. Not for a true beginning bread baker, there are books that I’m sure are a little more basic than this. But if you’d like to go beyond the basic “no-knead bread in a dutch oven” baking, this is it. Only thing I’d like is a little discussion on making baguettes. Will have to get that from another book. But honestly, not disappointed. UPDATE: Ok, a little disappointed. The “overnight brown” recipe calls for an overnight bulk ferment at room temperature. After a second loaf came out flat as a bialy, I searched the issue and it seems it needs less time at room temp, or to spend most of the night in the fridge. Not changing the rating, because the flavor is great and still learning a lot, but seems that this is a big enough issue that others are having it, and probably should be addressed. Regardless, enjoy it, all!

I have been baking bread for years. I have spent way too much money on various bread cookbooks that just never seemed good enough (or easy enough). This book...well, it is the best I have ever used and I have only baked the first bread recipe in the book which is the Saturday White Bread. It not only turned out the best I have ever had (or made) but it is so darn forgiving. I live at 6000 ft and didn't have to make one adjustment. Well, except the proofing time but that was it. My husband, who isn't the bread fan that I am, won't stop eating the loaf that just came out of the oven. I can't wait to start on the rest of the recipes in this WONDERFUL book. Another trick, which is super important, is to watch his videos before you start. They are very good and explain better how to utilize his techniques. Thank you Ken Forkish. This 60+ year old woman is in love with your bread!

When it comes down to brass tacks, the book is going to teach you how to make bread better than almost any other book about bread I've found at the same pricepoint. It's detailed, it provides well illustrated instructions for technique, and is organized well so that you can graduate in skill easily. I've been using it for my weekend loafs since I purchased it and it's a delicious product each time. I am getting better always! It defines techniques and ingredients well. The memoir sections of the book are kind of weird, though. It's clear that baking is a passion for him and that he worked very hard to learn and to develop this skill, but there's also a glossing over the fact that he was ABLE to totally uproot his life and apprentice under famous bakers and travel because of how financially well off he must have been with his previous salary. You, dear reader, won't be able to do what Ken Forkish did. But this book is likely going to suit your needs and resources just fine.

Ok let’s be honest. $35 for a book on bread is a lot of dough. Sorry! Don’t go! First and last bad pun. Ok yeah it’s a pricey book but also arguably the prettiest coffee table book I own. If you’re willing to actually read the parts that aren’t telling you how to make bread, it’s got some genuinely funny anecdotes. That being said, you can tell Ken Forkish is that self-congratulatory guy who was a hipster before hipsters were a thing and secretly looks down on people who don’t locally source their ingredients. But I just used it to make the absolute best-tasting bread I’ve ever made. The crust is perfect, the crumb is open and soft and shiny, and the taste is slightly sour and sweet. I agree that the methods Ken favors can mean you throw away a lot of flour, but anyone who maintains a sourdough starter already knows that life. This is not really a book for novices, nor is it for experts who have sourdough down. It’s for that in-between group of people who want to get their hands dirty in some 70% hydration dough and don’t get why theirs is always flattening all over the workbench. TLDR: Expensive, but pretty book and helps you make the best bread of your life if you’re moderately+ experienced.

This is my first bread book, and it feels more like a science text book over a cook book (more words than pictures), which I like. If you're looking for a book loaded with tons of recipes, then this book probably isn't for you. If you're looking to gain a better understanding on making bread, and the processes that it entails, then this is the book for you. Each sample recipe that's listed, the author will give recommendations what to use the dough recipe for: bread, pizza dough...etc He also advocates the use of Dutch Ovens, which actually makes a rich, deep colored loaf. The picture I included has two loaves of bread that I made. The round, darker loaf was baked in the Dutch Oven, the smaller, lighter loaf was done in a bread pan (I placed a tray on the lowest rack of the oven, after placing the loaves in the middle rack of the oven I dropped 8 ice cubes in the bottom pan to create a burst of steam to hit the smaller loaf with, and to attempt to mimic the process of using a Dutch oven). If you do this, be extra careful that no ice touches the glass window of your oven, or it will break. I place a thick towel over the window while I drop the cubes to prevent that accident from happening. Also he urges anyone to try and get your loaves as dark on the outside as possible, without fully burning it. My lighter loaf definitely wasn't as good as the darker one, I believe I could have let it go another 5-10 mins. My dark round loaf was perfect.

I'd given up on baking bread long ago, just figured I didn't have what it took, or maybe it was the altitude, humidity, etc. Then I got this book and decided to go for it. I tried the 2nd most-difficult category recipe, the White Bread with Poolish (a pre-ferment). I bought a digital scale and thermometer, and a 4-qt dutch oven. Everything else I had already, or could work-around. I was pretty skeptical, but followed the directions exactly and was completely amazed with the crispy crust and airy, spongey, complex inside. It looked exactly like the picture, and tasted like heaven. Honestly I'm the biggest critic of my own cooking, and this was hands-down the best homemade bread I've ever tasted. I can't wait to do it again!

This book is better suited for professional bakers rather than the home baker. Let me explain. I have owned this book for a couple of years and have used it occasionally to bake bread. The recipes generally worked well for the various "Straight Doughs" given in the book with one exception - all the recipes overestimate on the water, leading to a slightly wetter dough. The bread turned out fine though once you get comfortable working with a slightly wetter dough. Finally, now I decided to try out the pure Levain bread and it has turned into a mess! Firstly, the recipes for making Levain are extremely wasteful - in the first 4 days you will use 2Kgs of whole wheat flour to get 200 grams of the mixture! The rest you are instructed to "throw away". Then on the fifth day you will feed the Levain with 400 grams of white flour and 100 grams of wheat flour of which you will use only 216 grams and "throw away" the rest. This is immensely wasteful and might work in a professional baker's shop but should families be wasting flour at this rate? Then I made the final dough for a pure Levain bread using the exact measurements and let it ferment for about 15 hours and the result was goop! See the attached image. So much waste and then this is the end result. I am giving it 2-stars because the "straight dough" breads actually came out tasting good and the book has some useful tips about making dough. The author really takes the trouble to make the layman get a real feel for dough. I found this quite helpful in making adjustments to the dough when needed. I think I am a better baker because of Ken's commitment to sharing unique insights which can only come from a baker dedicated to the art of baking bread. I wish the book's recipes were less wasteful and were more tuned for the home baker.

This is, at best, an intermediate book. PROS: I love his technique of using a dutch oven. His pizza recipes are great if you like a flavorful fluffy crust not a thinner Italian style one. His equipment recommendations are good. Don't get the big cambro unless you want to store your bannetons in it. Cons: I wasted about 800g of flour since his recipies for his levain did not specify that it was enough levain to make 6 loaves. Also while his technique does create a moist loaf, the rising times have a high fail rate. I had one kickass loaf for about 3 ok loaves an 3 total abject failures. I hadn't failed yet until this book. I learned a ton (failure is a good teacher.) Do not buy unless you own baking stones and duch ovens. If you are a beginner get the bread baker's apprentice.

The recipe section is a bit repetitive. For the repeating verbiage it could just point at an earlier recipe, saying "follow steps x..y as described on page xx. You could probably slim down the book by 30%. No big deal, the book is full of useful, well presented info. If you want to learn baking bread at home, this is the book to get. The biggest challenge is to follow the recipes faithfully, without the random improvisation we tend to be pront to. ( I know I am) But, even if your first few attempts are slightly imperfect, chances are that you end up with something that is much nicer than any brad you could buy in the supermarket. e.g.: My first attempt, I used half rye and half whole wheat flour by mistake, and did not wait enough for the dough to rise. Needless to say I ended up with poor texture ( too crumbly) , but the flavor was divine. :-) I am on my 4th bake, so: a big thanks to Ken! for some reason the Kindle version is a lot cheaper the the printed versions, so I recommend getting that unless you have a strong preference otherwise.

Shame on Amazon. The dustcovers of this book have been punched and spiral-bound without regard for the book or the purchaser. The margin of the paper cover was not reconfigured to allow decent room for the spiral (3/8") so that it cuts into the dustcover title and doesn't allow enough margin for the heavy cardboard beneath it. The inside pages are also punched too close to the left hand edge and will probably tear out, just as the cardboard will. The corners of the paper dustcover are already peeling back on my copy and the cardboard beneath two corners has begun to deteriorate. The pages don't turn easily. The decisions made here are bad enough, but this is a James Beard Award book, and an IACP Cookbook award book, which is to say, an important reference book purchasers will want to be serviceable for a long time, so this cheap, clumsy binding is especially disappointing. Also, Amazon is asking over $30.00 for the spiral bound edition, which will undoubtedly be falling apart before I finish reading it. One of the reasons I was willing to pay this much is that Amazon is sending out more and more of these clumsily bound, overweight, junky-looking, "hard-covers", many of which will barely open, let alone stay open, and I wanted a version that would display the whole page. If it were possible, I would have given this book's content five stars and the binding zero stars.

I highly, highly recommend this book! I had previously dabbled in bread making using recipes found in other cookbooks and various websites. The results of these recipes had various results. However, from the very first attempt at making a recipe from this book, the results were phenomenal (with room to grow). Ken Forkish is clearly a natural educator due to the way he describes the bread making process. There are chapters in the book that give incredibly helpful introductions to various concepts, which make the actual bread making a breeze. As a visual learner, I have also benefitted greatly from the way processes are explained with both words and photos. Ken Forkish recommends a list of supplies in order to make the breads/pizza. Of the supplies he recommends, I would suggest that, minimally, a thermometer, scale, and dutch oven are available for your use. A few bannetons would be the next most important purchase.

I made so many attempts at bread and dough prior to this book, and every one of them was a lump of garbage. My friend was always posting the most beautiful loaf pictures and he swore by this book. I hesitated because I've had some real bust cookbooks. Then, for Christmas, another couple gave me the most beautiful walnut sour dough; I don't normally like sour dough but it was heavenly as toast with cream cheese and fig spread, or cinnamon sugar and butter. I needed more in my life, and it turns out they also swear by this book. I bought in. I had the scale and thermometer, I bought the big plastic tub, the dutch oven, the instant yeast, even a basket for proofing in. I committed and now I'm a convert. I read all the opening chapters to be safe and I haven't looked back since. Every loaf I've made has been perfection, to the point where my dad (who has been baking bread for years) said "I'm jealous of your bread". My mom always requests my loaves, because she prefers them. The Saturday white is heavenly- so good I've only made four other recipes from the book. It's definitely a technical book- this is not a flip through and "oh, that recipe looks good, maybe I'll make that this afternoon" kind of book. If you're serious about making beautiful bread, and are ready to commit to the process this is the go-to book. I love it for changing the bread game for me and I can't recommend it enough.

I've been engaging with sourdough for more than 50 years, off and on, in the spirit of the geezer in the Klondike, so I'm curious about bakers now needing digital scales, thermometers, proofing boxes and baskets. Once I pried my mind open and quit sneering, I could appreciate the value of new things discovered by this new generation of bakers. The recipes at first seemed just too complicated, but I like the way they are laid out in timing--that is, if you want to start at 8:00 Saturday morning to end up with a loaf ready to eat for supper on Sunday, just follow the directions. I compromise these techniques quite a bit and still get lovely results. Enjoying a deeper understanding of the process. Never too old to learn.

My wife is the cook in our home. I saw an artisan bread table at a food and wine festival and thought, as a bread lover, "I could probably do that". Bought this book as my first (and only) guide and haven't looked back. I can only cook on weekends due to a busy work schedule, but have made perhaps 5 batches thus far with amazing results and consistency. I've mostly done the standard Saturday White Bread (see pics), and it tastes even better than it looks. Eager to start, I skipped the first few chapters on the science of bread making (he gives guidance on how to jump right in), but look forward to going back and learning that material since I'm hooked on my new hobby. Definitely get the supplies he recommends. One additional tip - get proofing baskets with fabric liners - MUCH easier to clean (wash liners with your laundry). After cooking the Overnight Whole Wheat Bread next, looking forward to trying some pre-ferments and other variations, but truthfully, I could live the rest of my life on just the standard white bread and olive oil. So delicious! The Italians in my family give it rave reviews as well. Have you seen the animated movie Ratatouille? When the restaurant reviewer had his childhood flashback when tasting the ratatouille? That. Anyhow... As a newbie to any kind of cooking whatsoever, I give my strongest recommendation on this book. Follow-up 7/8/17: Forging ahead, poolish pre-ferment today.... Wanted to update on product recommendations. Ken advises organic King Arthur flour which is fantastic. I tried Pillsbury unbleached all-purpose flour, and a blind taste test with my wife showed it was equally delicious (at least for straight breads). It's half the price.

If you are a home baker and want a solid introduction to breadmaking technique this is an excellent choice. There are not as many bread recipes as in Field's

all my life, I’ve set a vision to achieve and have enjoyed the torturous path to attempting to touch that rainbow. Some are simple, a few have taken years. I love the process. It keeps life interesting. And, I have a long list of failures, shortcomings and micro-disasters behind me down this pinball’s path of my past ‘adventures’. Baking a good loaf of bread has been one vision. When I was young... damn near every loaf was a bread pan sized cracker. Interesting flavor, but you wouldn’t be able to get one past a TSA screener. Too easily used as a weapon. Not only did Flour Water Salt Yeast guide me through to producing a spectacular loaf of bread right out of the starting blocks- honest to God; but this is also a magnificently crafted and written book. Beautiful photographs, it could easily demand coffee table space. Reading-on-your-vacation quality writing. It is a well built book. Take it from one who has started off ‘all thumbs’ so many times I have a set of gloves for that stage of the process of learning. You will be making artisan bread on your first loaf. But, I think bigger than that, we get to follow Ken Forkish on his path to transform his life from a cog in the company gear to an artist of life: Baker, business starter and author. This is an inspiring book. I’m a kid again, watching a cucumber transform into a pickle or a caterpillar into a butterfly. It is an invigorating process and Ken is a tremendous mentor. Now I have a new vision, to go to Portland and buy a loaf of bread from his bakery.

I already have a 8 qt container and a couple of 6 qt containers and I do not want to spend $20 on the 12 qt brand he recommends. All his bread recipes make two loaves at a time and I just want to make one loaf at a time so I guess I will try halving his recipes. As other people have stated, he wastes a lot of flour making a poolish. Every day he discards 3/4 of the starter. I only use organic flour (expensive) so I will have to modify his recipes again to not be so wasteful. So, this book is not very useful for me.

I enjoyed the detailed tips and explanations regarding techniques and tools. However, I grind my own grains so why would I want to use so much white bread flour? The only recipe I would possible make as written is the 75% whole wheat Saturday bread. I wish there was something completely whole grain utilizing a levain. I've been baking my own carefully developed (beautiful and delicious despite the author's opinions on whole grain) breads for years and was hoping to shake things up with some inspiration but this isn't doing it for me. Great ideas for pizza toppings though and pics are beautiful.

Ive been baking bread for more than 10 years. I wish I had had this book when I started. It's by far the best I've seen. Ken doesn't bother with all kinds of fancy recipes for frilly 'breads' that you'd try only once. Instead, it's focused on understanding the basics of creating really good bread, they kind of bread you can eat every day. This book, together with a La Cloche bread baker has completely changed my bread baking game. And my loaves are as pretty as the ones in this book- see the pictures.

I tried baking bread a few times in the past. Every time it ended up just as a fun science project to do with my kids. But that's it. I never enjoyed the actual result. Once in awhile I tried and failed it again. When accidentally stumbled upon Ken's book one thing that caught my eye - the photos people attached with reviews. I decided to give it a try. There are so many videos on youtube. You think what else can someone teach in a book? But Ken nailed it! Tiny although priceless recommendations about the right temperature, right measurement, other eye-opening tips - all combined together make a difference between total failure and success. After following the first couple of recipes in a book I finally built up confidence. For the first time, I loved the bread I made! But the more important - friends and family loved it too. Attaching a photo of my 80% biga. So far the tastiest one. I'm extremely excited to start playing around with levain recipes now. Which I was always considered as professional only territory. All thanks to Ken's book! UPD: After a month experimenting with starter was able adjust it to my schedule (1-2 times a week). 2nd photo is my first zero-yeast bread. My life will never be the same again!

Aside from the origin story of Ken Forkish, this book really is terrible. It goes into a bit about how the flour and yeast interact, which is good, but that's the highlight of the book. The recipes lack explanation of the most important part of the dough - the feel. Unless you're going to make his "Saturday" breads over and over again, I strongly suggest you get a book or read an article about someone that wants to actually teach you how to make bread. He explains nothing about what a biga or poolish should feel like, look like, when it's ready, when it's too wet, etc. It's impossible for a novice to know these things. There's not even a very common "dough Troubleshooting" section like many books have, so you can at least know what you're doing wrong, or have some ideas to try. His explanation for everything seems to be "well, try varying something and see how it turns out". Yeah I'm doing this in my kitchen, and I don't have a 50 lb sack of flour to "just play around" with. The 80% biga recipe is flat out wrong. It'w ay too wet for a biga, and after 3 attempts, there's no saving it once you get the biga that wet. Very disappointing.

I followed the recipe to the T. After four days of rejuvenating a starter that I received from from a French baker, when it came time to cut and shape the dough it was a sloppy mess. I’m a chef and I’ve wasted so much time and money on this recipe. I weighed everything. I’m really upset.

I have done lot of bread baking over the years - some of it in the competitive area (State Fair, etc.) - and this is an excellent resource. I really don't think it's interest should be limited to advanced bakers. If you can follow well written instructions plus pictures, you should have no problem turning out really fantastic bread. If you are new to bread baking, expect a 'flop' or two - the family dog will love them as cubed treats. The only tools really needed are the cast iron dutch oven and an accurate scale. A 4 quart dutch oven can be purchased at Amazon for $35

As a home baker completely new to baking bread, I got good results from this book from the first try. The quality of bread has far exceeded my expectations of what I could do in a home oven. I consider this book a life-changing opportunity for home bakers -- I now bake bread every week, make lunches from it instead of eating out, and have lost weight and saved money as a result. Pros: -- Excellent detailed instructions and pictures; from the start I felt confident about what to do. -- Focus on a few basic methods; as a new baker I would have been intimidated by too much variety. Cons: -- The options to experiment with different flour mixes are too hidden away IMO; the base recipes make it seem like you have to adhere to their quantities super precisely when in fact you are free to experiment quite a bit -- the bread will come out just fine with significant changes. -- Like most food books this one starts with a bunch of self-congratulatory narrative, but it is relatively brief. Note that although the Dutch oven method is fantastic, results can still vary a lot by home oven; after moving between apartments, although I still have the same make of crappy GE electric oven, I no longer get the same thick crust, even at a higher temperature.

I started baking bread maybe 10 years ago with limited success. I got this book and read it cover to cover and finally started to have some success. Now, with perhaps 3-400 loaves baked I will still glance at the book and refer back to it but bread making is something that I fully understand and enjoy and I bake bread every week. My children have grown up on my home baked sourdough and I'm really happy that this will be a memory for them. So get the book, get the supplies he recommends but the one critique I would offer is that all the recipes are for 1000g of flour and two loaves - just way too much. Get a smaller 6qt Cambro container, scale the recipes to half and scale the starter recipe to half and just bake one loaf at a time. Be sure to get the smaller dutch oven - it's essential to get the right oven spring (a tall loaf that isn't flat) and then work your way from front to back. Then get Ken's pizza book - it's at least as good as this book. I've gifted this book to a dozen friends and it's helped launch many a bread baker on the road. Just the best book on the subject you can get. Easy to read, easy to follow and refreshingly simple.

This book is GREAT! The clarity of exposition (text and pix), the care and consistency in explaining and illustrating the requisite techniques. The recommendation for tools and suppliers. The precision in the measurements. The variety of recipes. The guidance to experiment. And there are online videos by Ken to accompany/illustrate it all. And not just exceptional French-style artisan bread -- the pizza comes out great too -- I'm a convert to the no muss no fuss cast iron skillet variety. No wonder it's a James Beard award winner. And Ken is a hell of a nice guy to boot. I do recommend the Cambro tubs and an Oxo scale -- makes it so easy, and I'm a fan of a wire-top 1 Liter wide mouth wire-top jar for the holding the starter. Lastly, I tend to retain the "spent fuel" during the recharge cycles and make killer crumpets with the recipe from King Arthur -- as good or better than the Thomas's English Muffins I grew up eating on the East Coast.

I rise in defense of this cookbook against the criticisms of other reviewers who found it overly detailed and daunting. Three points: 1) Yes, its detailed. What did you expect? The author is a professional baker, a highly regarded one, who takes what he does seriously. Would you have it any other way? 2) The book is not so detailed you can't figure it out. Just spend a few hours studying the instructions and start with the earlier, easier recipes. If you find Mr. Forkish's dough-handling techniques a little hard to decipher, he has helpful videos on his web site (they're also posted on YouTube) that demonstrate them. It also helps after you've baked a few loaves to go back and review the instructions again. They mean a lot more after you've tried them. 3) You can make mistakes and still produce amazing bread. Despite the detail, the recipes are surprisingly forgiving. I doubt I'm handling the dough even close to the way Mr. Forkish would have me do it. I've mis-timed recipes and mis-measured ingredients. And still I've produced bread that looks like the loaf on the cover, bread that tastes like it came from a boutique bakery. (And I'm no baker. I can barely make a birthday cake from a mix.) Buy this book.

I’ve been baking bread for over 40 years and have really gotten into making artisan breads in the last year. I had success with making Tartine bread using my own starter, but found that my entire day revolved around baking. I also had success making breads from recipes found online and from various cookbooks I own. A week ago, I purchased this book and I’m so happy I did! I’ve now made 6 loaves of bread using 3 different recipes in the book. All were delicious and I’ve found the processes much easier to fit into my day. Best of all, the oven spring I’m getting is phenomenal. The very first two loaves sprang so much that they actually touched the top of both my Le Creuset Dutch oven and my cast iron combo cooker. The crumb is exactly what I’ve been looking for and the flavor is amazing. I found the instructions, illustrations, and explanations to be very clear. With my first batch, I knew as soon as I started shaping the dough following the bulk rise that it was going to be a winner. I could just feel it in the dough. I’m so happy I bought this book and am really looking forward to trying all the different varieties. The possibilities are endless. If you only buy one book for making artisan breads, this is the one you want.

This is much more a book about the process of making bread than it is a cookbook. Yes, there are some recipes in it, mostly this is about technique and learning how as a home baker, you can adapt the process to suit your schedule. The most basic recipe takes 7.5 hours to make from start to finish. A pre-ferment method takes about 20 hours. Levain (sourdough) takes days when you factor in the care and feeding of your new pet starter. These are not casual recipes for the impatient. ( but to be fair, the yeast does most of the actual work) Once the process of making bread becomes demystified, it becomes fairly easy to adapt the process to suit your schedule and the amount of effort you want to put into making your bread. I had very little experience baking bread before I read this book and in a fairly short time I've been able to make excellent bread quite reliably. This is certainly not a book for everyone, but for a person with patience, decent organizational skills, and any kind of technical background, this is an excellent book.

It was boring to read but I got the hang of it. I learned a lot. I made bread. Even though painfully detailed, adding water for autolyse was not told with perfection. Add it a little at a time. First time, I just dumped the water that eventually didn’t work out. Use a bigger bench press for goopy dough. I put away all my doughs in the fridge overnight. Sometimes, I waited three days to bake my bread. It still worked. In these cases, I put away my doughs to the far end of the fridge. I took them out while my oven was reaching 475F which took 45 minutes. I used both my Staub n pizza stone. Make sure they are hot as crazy. Taking the hot Staub out of the oven to put semolina flour n place the dough were done with extreme carefulness. The pizza stone works better in my opinion. No water was needed. As soon as it is done, I liberally brush kefir starting from the bottom that gives me a moist bread n crust. I used King Arthur’s bread flour not AP flour as the book asked for.

This is an excellent book that changed the way I felt about breadmaking. What was formerly a bit of a chore is now an art form and an opportunity to learn, smell, feel, engage, and interact with dough to create amazing breads. I never buy bread at the bakery now because mine is far better, and the process is actually not very time consuming. Yes, there are long levain or preferment developments and bulk fermentations as well as overnight proofing, but the results are well worth the wait. I’ve become a planner. My breads and pizzas are now the envy of all my family and friends. Thanks to Ken Forkish for sharing his knowledge with the world. Don’t hesitate. If you want to get serious about bread, this is the book for you.

For $40 I was hoping for a bread making reference book. Something that I could refer to for years. Instead I got was essentially one recipe. Yes there are several kinds of bread to make but they are all variations in one basic recipe. Things that would have been more valuable: - How to tweak a recipe to work in your kitchen. Everyone’s is slightly different and so are ingredients - how to make trade offs. Eg. more yeast for less fermentation time when you’re short of time - how to bake without a Dutch oven - how to bake a rectangular loaf instead of just round ones - creating variations. Artisan raisin bread? Rye? In short the author shared a teaspoon of his wisdom when I was hoping for a gallon or two

This is a perfect book to explore quality bread without dozens of specialty pans. This was the 3rd book I read on the subject and it produced the best results. It will recommend you have: -A dutch oven -food scale -12 qt cambro -6 qt cambro It will have excellent recipes for white and whole wheat bread, pizza dough, foccacia, sourdough, and recipes for the final bakes of the pizza and foccacia. I haven't hit a dud recipe yet in nearly 2 years of referencing it. I recommend also purchasing yeast in bulk on amazon (far cheaper than the groceries) and flour in bulk from restaurant supply stores (Gordon Food Supply, etc. $7 for 25lbs)

This is a good book for you if you’re ready to get into the why of breads as opposed to just the what and how, if that makes sense. Forkish begins by recounting the ups and downs on his path to becoming a capital B Baker (a dose of reality for anyone who has dreamed of turning a hobby into a career), then moves on to the science of bread. You can skip these sections and go straight to the recipes in the later chapters if you like, but promise yourself that you’ll come back and read the nerdy parts. If you do, you’ll be rewarded with a basic understanding of hydration and fermentation, and how heat and time work with the flour, yeast, water and salt to produce bread. Even those of us who have no interest in being anything other than little b bakers benefit from a grasp of the underlying science at work in our kitchens.

I've wanted to bake artisan bread at home for years but the books I read all seemed so arcane and difficult. Ken Porkish has written a book which contains important theoretical background about the art of baking but most important includes clear, step-by-step methods and recipes as well as photos of the necessary dough handling techniques. I purchased the book a few weeks ago, ordered the equipment, and just baked my first loaf of his Saturday Morning Bread (the first recipe in the book--see photo). It not only came out of the oven looking like the photo in the book but tastes delicious. Don't hesitate--buy the book, read it carefully, buy the recommended home baking equipment (total cost is under $100) and enjoy superior baking results. It's only been a few weeks but I'm already comfie with the jargon--pre-ferment, poolish, biga, Levain, proofing bowls, folding, forming--all clearly explained and clearly diagrammed. I once confessed to a Brit friend who baked that yeast "intimidated" me. He responded, "Oh, don't think twice about it--yeast is the friendliest thing in the world." The same is true for Forkish's book--"Don't think twice about it--it's the friendliest book in the world."

After years (and years) of baking bread but never being one to get up at 3 a.m. and still longing to have fresh home baked bread in the morning, a few months ago I experimentally overnight proofed some bread dough. I had not added much yeast and the room was cool and I thought, eh, if it is even edible I'll be shocked. To my surprise the next morning it looked pretty good, so I divided, proofed it and voila, I had a decent breakfast bread! Fast forward to Covid days..... played around with "my" invented bread recipe, started doing online research for overnight bread and found out about Ken. Now, mind you, I live only about 45 miles from downtown Portland and we periodically travel north for a night out, to try a new restaurant, etc, and somehow I had never heard of him! I immediately bought the book and much to my delight discovered the WHY of what I had accidentally done, and even more happily I read how I could do it better. Picture is of my first batch this morning, which seems pretty perfect. I'm not sure I love the darkness, but it's probably an adjustment. The book is wonderfully written and I adore the depth he goes into about the science of it all. Can't wait to begin my levain starter! Thanks, Ken.

I received this cookbook a week ago, and I really enjoyed reading about the technique before I even started baking anything. I have only made one dough (the white bead with poolish) and made 2 breads: a loaf and a focaccia. The entire process I found very fun! The breads turned out delicious!! Some thoughts on the process: 1. I will say I had to buy some of the equipment suggested, but most of it is useful for other kitchen purposes anyway. 2. The lack of kneading was a great surprise because most other bread baking experiences I've had have been workouts. 3. I am a biologist, so the protocol-like instructions appeal to me a lot. 4. One of the things I really loved is you don't have to do much guessing about the recipe because of the thoroughness of instructions and pictures. 5. There are not a ton of recipes compared to other cookbooks, but the one I tried was honestly worth it if the other are even close to as good. 6. I could see how some people are looking for less detail and more simple recipes, but I thought the attention to the small details was totally worth it. I can't wait to make a pizza!!!

This author is very detailed and tangential, which gets a little wearisome BUT there is a lot of details in making a GREAT loaf of bread. I think you have to have some committment and read quite a bit BEFORE attempting to bake. If not, I can see how easily the very last step screw up would be upsetting after making a loaf w many steps & nuances- It is not a book to crack open and use a recipe in 20 minutes...BUT, he does manage to simplify some things. His you tube video are short but a good adjunct to the book.

I have been making bread for over 40 years. It's been good bread, but very different from the wonderful artisanal loaves now available, with chewy, crispy crust and soft open crumb. My pizza dough was, well, pretty boring. I could never get the balance between chewiness and lightness. No more. It's not the flour, it's not the water, it's not the yeast. It's all about technique, time and temperature. I am a changed baker. No, it's not as easy as the bread I've been making for decades, and i still do it that way for some loaves. I know it by heart, a base recipe that I can make into a dozen styles. But for the rustic, crusty, chewy loaf, and the perfect pizza crust, this will be my go-to from here on. Flour, water, salt, yeast, time and temperature, a dutch oven (or baking cloche) and a steel for pizza. This old dog has learned a new trick.

I tried making the Saturday White bread and it turned out very well. I am looking forward to making several of the others. The story of the author's journey from sales of high tech items into having his own bakery was interesting. Nevertheless the book is extremely repetitious: He provides a well written general outline about the how and why of each step of his method commenting that what he writes applies to most of the recipes he provides adding that there is no need to repeat what he just wrote in the recipe section. Then he goes on to repeat what he wrote in the general section to each recipe in the recipe section. I found this a bit tedious and by the end of the book wondered if all this wasn't just filler to flesh out the book under the theory that bigger books fetch larger prices. It would have been a much better book had he used more of his bakery anecdotes and perhaps stores of the Portland food scene as his bread was involved in it. Still, it is a very good book for those willing to learn to make authentic artisan bread that is far superior to those "no knead" breads popular on YouTube videos. All use the same four ingredients but this book demonstrates how to use them properly to make outstanding bread that will rival the best artisan bakeries.

I was really excited to get this book as I, like many in quarantine, have been playing with making sourdough. I was kinda bummed to find all the recipes in this book are just round bread. Nothing else bread related. Even the pizza and focaccia recipes are just leftover from the OTHER bread recipes in the book. I guess I was expecting at least a croissant or maybe even a scone recipe. He even mentions baguettes multiple times but says nothing on how to shape and make them. Actually he only gives one shaping technique and that's it. As another reviewer mentioned, A LOT of flour is wasted and has you thinking you need to buy extra equipment. He says this book is for the home but there's no need for me to make TWO loaves of bread each time. I should have read up on this before purchasing as I don't know if you can return a book. edit: Amazon is allowing me to return.

I greatly enjoy cooking. We regularly enjoy hosting dinners with friends and family......or at least we did before COVID arrived. I recently retired and decided it was time to add baking breads to my bag. Friend told about this book and author so I checked it out and purchased. The author’s background story is interesting but more importantly his recipes are well tested and and tasty and more importantly well written but a little wordy and nerdy. As I never baked and always considered backing a chemistry or mixologist skill I read through the book before my first attempt.....it was the right approach for me. The breads are truly artisan in texture and flavor. I also learned how to make a great Neapolitan pizza.

I've been making very good sourdough bread regularly for years, but I had stagnated, wanted to take it to the next level, and was attracted to Flour Water Salt Yeast by the cover photo and reviews. I bought it and read it almost cover-to-cover, invested in the recommended equipment (12 quart tubs, Lodge dutch ovens, bannetons, etc.), followed Forkish's methods, and immediately and consistently began making artisan quality bread that looked just like the cover photo with dark brown beautiful crust, soft elastic crumb with huge holes, and beautiful flavor. As a bonus, I also went from making unsatisfying pizza to making some of the best pizza I've ever had. Since then I've made almost every recipe in the book (something that just doesn't happen for me, usually), bought Forkish's next book, The Elements of Pizza, and when wowed friends and family ask for my bread recipe, I buy them a copy of this book, because it's not a collection of recipes, it's a system. Besides the quality of the results, there are several things that are noteworthy or remarkable about this book. For one thing, despite the beautiful photography, it is very no-nonsense, with very common ingredients, and doesn't bother with fluffy decorations of the loaves with stencils or cuts. I really appreciate the omission of such distractions, and appreciate being "allowed" to focus on the recipes and bread as they pertain to eating. Why is this so rare? As noted elsewhere, this is not a general purpose book in that it just tells you how to make round boules like the photo, and pizza. Again, Forkish focuses in on one thing, explores it thoroughly, and omits distractions. This is so rare, and having explored it well, I appreciate it immensely. The net result is basically a study of how minor variations in nothing more than flour, water, salt and yeast can create very different quality breads. All of the bread recipes in this book use very high hydration doughs, and are worked with pinch and fold methods rather than kneading. Though I had been making bread for years, both of these concepts were new to me (okay, I had heard of stretch & fold, but as more of an emergency maneuver), but Forkish explains them thoroughly. For educational value, this book includes a very useful section on customizing recipes, and discusses how to improvise or adapt to circumstances by thinking of time, temperature and leavening as ingredients. While this seemed obvious on first reading, I've found that applying it in practice has revolutionized my bread making. And then there's Forkish's Youtube channel where he demonstrates numerous techniques using recipes directly from this book, just to really give you no excuse not to make amazing bread. I even enjoyed Forkish's amusing, humorous and unpretentious back story, all the more since I lived in Portland for a time. He does a good job of delivering reality checks, dispelling myths and reaffirming a few truths about the romantic notions of owning a bakery. Some criticisms I have include the amount of wasted of flour in feeding starter noted in other reviews (which Forkish actually admits in his follow-up book The Elements of Pizza; I use about 1/4 the quantity of the called-for ingredients when making these recipes, and they work out great), I wish there were more pure sourdough recipes, more recipes with higher whole wheat percentages, and some discussion of fresh milled wheat, but these are extremely minor issues. Between the existing recipes and the section on designing my own, I can and will make my own customized recipes to suit myself. I should also add a footnote that I live at an elevation over 7000 feet, adjusted nothing, and had no problems.

I have been baking a long time and recently about 6 months ago wanted to up my game on bread making. This book came to me highly recommended. I was very excited to get it. I have all of the required equipment and I don't mind using a scale. I found the recipes scattered and extremely wasteful. The author writes things like have 2 dutch ovens ready for baking. Honestly, who owns two dutch ovens? Secondly the excessive waste of making the such large quantities of levain, to only use half of it. Lastly, needing to make special levain from a mother levain for recipes also seems wasteful and rooted in my values as a cook or a baker. On the positive, I think his technique and process is informative and helpful to integrate into your own method.

In company with the videos pertaining to pincer method mixing, folding, shaping, this book (largely the bread formulas) got me going. Like the author of this book, I ultimately went to the San Francisco Baking Institute (SFBI) to learn more conventional baking methods. But for unscored boules baked in dutch ovens, this book is excellent. I have adopted his Field Blend 2 as my daily bread, using locally sourced, cold-stone milled flour from Baker's Field in Minneapolis to make bread that tastes better than anything I've ever had, including during my time at SFBI, and bread from excellent boulangeries in and outside this country. This book will get you going and change your bread world.

My first loaf using the Overnight Whole Wheat bread recipe was my best as relatively new bread baker). I have always used a dutch oven, but my loafs were OK, but not memorable. I learned many tips from Ken's experience in dough prep, handling, folding, proofing, and starter preparation. The first loaf using Ken's methods was crusty delicious, and gone within a day (an unintended consequence of irresistible bread!)I'm anxious to follow more advice Ken shares in various recipes. I am pleased with the book, well worth the price and would buy it again.

I always used to make bread recipes I'd find online and they'd turn out very very average. This book. This changes all that. It's a little pricy to get started because I didn't have a lot of the equipment it requires (cost about $150 in total - but that's paying full price for everything and not substituting). This book made me realize how much of science bread baking really is. Has both bread and pizza recipes that have all turned out incredible. Not only that, but he explains the concepts and science behind everything, which is what I was most interested in. I attached the first pizza and bread pictures I made because of this book (I thought they were pretty great for a first try).

This book helped guide me through my first foray into baking sourdough using all natural levain. The book is highly informative and slowly walks you through the process of making bread so that you understand the importance of each step. There are a good variety of recipes, including recipes that use yeast, starter and a combination of both. The recipes are versatile and the author explains how they can be adapted to your tastes. The pain au bacon is wonderful! It was a huge hit with my family. Note that the method of establishing the starter, as written, is highly wasteful. (The author does note that the amount of ingredients being used to make the starter can be reduced, but this may not be obvious to a novice baker that just picks up the book and follows the instructions.) I read it multiple times, incredulously, before researching other sources to ascertain whether it is actually necessary to (1) make such a large amount of starter and (2) discard so much starter. You can (AND SHOULD) reduce the amounts used to cultivate the starter, and you also do not need to discard as much of the starter as the author recommends prior to each feeding. Once your starter is ready for use, any excess starter you have after feeding can be applied to other purposes (e.g., pizza dough, waffles, pancakes, english muffins, etc.). Unless you bake every day, I would recommend keeping your starter in the fridge so that you do not need to feed it daily.

I really love this book, and would highly recommend it! I have really enjoyed the journey of both reading the book, and exploring bread baking. The techniques have worked amazingly well. I have not had any "disaster loaves" despite baking regularly over the last year. I have had good luck pairing his recipes with the KA Unbleached AP flour, as well as multiple kinds of local and organic flours. If you are new to baking, and really want to understand the "why" in addition to the "how," this book is for you! This is much more than just a collection of recipes. If you follow recipes carefully, results are consistently excellent.

I don't know where the 5 stars came from, maybe because it is the cheapest book of the category. I would spend a few more dollars and get Bread Bakers Apprentice which is methodical and well organized. Fornish uses a TON of flour for the starter, what a waste! I agree with the previous reviewer, he talks about his bakery over and over again, dude this is for the home baker, let's move on!

I’m a culinary school grad specializing in artisan breads and was skeptical of the no-knead method used in this book. I decided to make every recipe to examine the results. At first it was strange because I’d lost the sense of ownership over the results that comes with kneading. But much to my amazement, every single loaf came out better than any loaf I’d ever made. As other reviewers have said, this isn’t about making quick loaves. Most take two days. But if you really want to make artisan breads at home, get this book, a Dutch oven and high quality flour and you’ll be on your way very quickly. Mr. Forkish has indeed cracked the code for getting consistent results.

The simpler yeasted recipes work amazingly well when followed exactly and provide a rewarding boost which gets you into baking quickly if you are just starting. However the pure sourdough timings don't work very well in Dallas where I guess it is much hotter then Portland, so I had to experiment until I found out how to get bread that was not like a rock. However, the basics were there and I wouldn't have even attempted pure sourdough without this book so I can't complain too hard. Also the simple skillet pizza with the smooth pizza sauce (I used the recommended tomato brand) is really great, no need for the complexity of a peel and a baking stone to have fantastic pizza (the book details both methods).

What purposes do the different stages of the process serve? How will adjusting the ingredients affect the outcome? What will happen if I adjust x factor? I've been successfully baking bread for a few months now, but, even after finding a method that worked for me, I didn't understand exactly why I was doing certain things. Now I do. What's more, I can adjust the method as needed to make it work better for me. If you want to really understand the "why" of "how to make bread," this book is what you are looking for. One last thought: while the author is extremely knowledgeable, his word isn't gospel. Before buying, I saw a few reviews criticizing x, y, or z choice the author made, which made me hesitate to buy it. Everyone has their own preferences. I generally don't bake quite as dark as he suggests, and his no-scoring method simply does not work for me. But what I like is that is that the author explains why he make certain choices, so you understand what you are losing/gaining when you choose to deviate. Basically, if you're just looking for a few bread recipes, maybe it's not the best option. But if you want to really understand how to make bread, this book is perfect.

We decided to try and bake our own bread using only those ingredients that we wanted. Ken Forkish's book has simple to follow instructions, although I did read through each one of them at least twice to fully understand what I had to do. The first picture was my first bread, and it was sensational how easy it was to make and how great it tasted. Here in Germany there has been a long tradition of artisan baking, but it is on the decline as more local bakers are forced out of competition from larger chains. I can honestly say that the recipes in this book can be mastered by anyone who wants to make his own bread. The pizza was as good as the one we get from a local Italian pizzeria inclusive of the extra thin and crispy crust (used a Lodge cast iron cookie pan). The third picture is from a 6 hour baking marathon which yielded a total of 6 loafs that were given to our neighbors and friends. Everyone was thrilled to have been given such a great tasting bread. This weekend will be another baking marathon, with white bread (made with a poolish), walnut bread (wife's favorite), pain au bacon (first time making it), and a pizza made from the white bread dough. If you are serious about baking your own bread that has no fillers or unnecessary components in it - this is it folks. We haven't been to a local baker in three months, simply because our own bread tastes so much better and fills you up longer. Speaking of which, our lunch today consisted of homemade bruschetta (last picture) using the remainder of two loaves I had baked 6 days ago. Our bread doesn't have the tendency like store bought bread to go bad within a few days. Thanks Ken Forkish, for your wonderful book. :-)

This book is fantastic for the bread enthusiast. Not too advanced, it gives just enough information to get you making informed choices when baking bread. It is worth sitting down and reading the first few chapters thoroughly to understand the chemisty involved in baking bread successfully, before you try the recipes One of the most important aspects of this book, for me, is that Ken outlines a detailed timeline/schedule for baking at the start of each recipe. Most of the recipes make dough that can be refrigerated overnight to proof; the timetables are incredibly useful because they suggest when you should start your bread the day before, and what time to bake the next day. You can start earlier or later to suit your schedule, but you have a time template to follow which is a useful planning tool. My first attempt at one of his recipes was almost perfect and while I am not a fan of dark-crusted bread I went with Ken’s expertise on cooking temp of 475°F and wow, just wow on the taste of the crust. The baked loaves may look burnt but do not taste so, they taste nutty and flavorful, the crust is chewy and delicate, not hard and cracked where the crust could actually cut you (like other bread I have tried). I never knew wheat bread could be so light and airy. The photo doesn’t do the color of the bread justice, it was lighter in color and texture in real life, and the aroma of the bread is just delicious. Great book Ken. Thanks so much for sharing your joy of good bread. Will never, ever, buy supermarket bread again.

I wanted to learn more about bread making and this book has not disappointed me. I also enjoyed the back story of starting his own bakery in Portland Oregon, since I lived not far away from this city and knew the neighborhood he spoke of and saw the growth of the foodie community there over the years. I have yet to actually bake one of the recipes in the book, so can't speak to that aspect, but have learned much about the process and methods, which for me, is half the fun. I HAVE used some of the concepts in baking a few other breads and they have turned out to be much more amazing than what I usually bake. Highly recommended!

Great book! Exactly what I was looking for. I’ve tried the Saturday overnight bread twice now and it’s been devoured within an hour. Personally I was looking for recipes for artisan bread that weren’t sourdough and Ken’s recipes are perfect for that. Love the detail in instruction, photos, the back story. If your looking to take your bread baking o the next level like I was, this is the book for you!

For people wanting to make crusty bakery-quality bread, this is the definitive reference. Not only the recipes, which are carefully documented, but the background knowledge, which is indispensable for stating the bread making journey. That being said, after about a year of use, I have deviated quite a bit from the original recipes. For example, the suggested process of maintaining a sourdough starter is too complex and tedious for the real world. Also, the recommendation to cook everything in a cast iron pot at high heat has delivered too many burned loaves. My own solution are much more reliable.

This book answered all my long-held questions about bread making. It is very detailed and informative without being dry. The author has a sense of humor and is candid about which rules are not actually necessary. This is not just a cookbook with recipes but also has a lot of text teaching you about different aspects of bread making which is exactly what I was looking for. As a professional pastry chef I also looove that all the recipes are in grams and he shames people who use volume measurements. (Don't worry if you use volume measurements the book has them on the side but he really educates in the book about why using weight measurements is best and it is!!!)

This book talks about where bread comes from where flour comes from and what flour is used for what type of bread. 1/2 of the book is educational on the history of bread making. Now, for a beginner like myself this is not a book I would recommend since it is very intricate and most likely for a bread baker or someone with a lot of experience that makes bread on a regular basis and likes experimenting with different breads. As for me, show me the picture & give me step by step. Easy bread options. I got frustrated and intimidated by this book. Now it’s a centerpiece on my countertop along with my roller.

Bread making had always terrified me so I thought I should learn the basics. Plus I live in a rural area and had no place to buy good, healthy bread. This book was the key to success. It explains how wheat flours and yeast really work, going over the basics thoroughly before laying out some simple, very detailed recipes. I bought a scale and followed the instructions exactly and WOW! The flavor of these homemade breads is out of this world, and the house smells great. I make the 80% biga recipe most often, adding dried fruits and nuts if I want a nice breakfast bread. The pizza/focaccia dough recipes are also great.

You will learn how to get varied and optimal results from four basic ingredients. There are many well-tested techniques and even things to avoid addressed in this book. Ken Forkish gives an engaging account of how he started making and marketing bread. His history may open your eyes to bread history you may have never considered. When you get this book you will want to sit down and read it before you measure or weigh your first cup of flour. Even experienced bakers will find something new in how to get the most out of flour, water, salt and yeast.

To be honest, I actually bought this book twice. The first time was right after my initial foray into break baking, and I ended up returning it. This is not at all a reflection of the quality of this book, rather it just reflects where I was in the bread baking learning curve. I was still working my way through Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" and was looking for the next book. When I got this, I was sort of taken aback by the simplicity of the recipes. Where's the Ciabatta? The French Bread? Instead it's just a bunch of recipes of seemingly similar boules all cooked in the same dutch oven technique. And for a relative beginner, the price of the baking equipment (e.g., brotform and dutch oven) can be prohibitively expensive, not to mention the strong emphasis on making and using a wild yeast levain. Fast forward a year, and I'm determined to make the perfect bread. I've found great recipes for most standard breads, and I'm pretty comfortable - though by no means an expert - with more advanced bread making techniques (Hamelman's "Bread" is recommended on both of these accounts), and I'm eager to see where a levain will take me. Really this book is for those that want to focus on the art of bread baking and how they can go about perfecting a few recipes. This approach is reflected in the title: all bread is similar in the simplicity of its ingredients, but the best breads come about through repetition and attention to detail. That being said, if you're a beginner or someone new to artisan bread making, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book. Just be aware of what you're getting into: it will cost you another $100 to get all of the equipment unless you have everything on hand, you'll need to be mentally ready to use build and use a levain (there are plenty of non-levain breads, but that underscores the value of this book), and you won't find recipes for common types of bread beyond. But, you will find an approach that will change the how you view homemade bread baking.

I rate this book as average. I enjoyed reading the different techniques and tricks of the trade in creating bread, but it made me feel like I had to be an expert before putting together a recipe. In fermentation recipes, it calls for discarding too much of the levain, and all I can say is that I purchased this book in order to make bread at home and not own a bakery and profit from it; at least, that’s how it made me feel. I should have purchased Tartine Bread instead.

I bought this book with the sole purpose of getting a comprehensive bread book. On the technique and tools side, it did deliver – good explanations, relatively easy to execute. The pizza recipes are great too. They give a nice poofy and tasty crust which holds up. The levain breads were a disaster! The proofing times are way off they yield a sour, unenjoyable bread. I know that the author mentions that temperature affects the process and everyone should adjust the recipe time-wise but the way to get to a good loaf is too long. Recipes with commercial yeast, poolish or bigga seem to work fine after adjusting preferment's fermentation time. All in all, I recommend this book for learning the technique but the recipes need to be adjusted to get consistent, tasty results.

I have been baking loaf bread as a hobby for a number of years but with the pandemic I started doing sourdough. A friend loaned me her copy of this book and then I bought my own. It is a great book about baking artisan bread. I have tweaked the author's baking techniques a bit because he likes his crust a lot darker (almost burned) than I do, and I prefer a batard shape to a boule, but those are the only differences I have with his methods. Through a little experimenting, I have been able to work around them for crusts and shape more to my liking. Otherwise the advice, recipes,, and techniques in this book are spot on. I heartily recommend this book for those who want to bake artisanal bread, sourdough in particular.

I've been making bread for years and never made bread half as good as when I started using this book. The author puts in significant effort teaching you the details that you need to know in order to get the perfect rise, texture, and flavor out of your bread. The directions are precise, not just for quantities, times, and temperatures, but also instructing you on how to get just the right amount of stretch and form to your dough. This book came recommended from the chef at a high-end bakery and pizzeria in a swanky part of town near me. I waited years before I bought the book, always remembering him saying how this is the only book you will need to make great bread and pizza dough.

I started baking bread out of necessity when the COVID-19 pandemic started. I wanted to have fresh artisanal bread to share with my family. I had no experience baking. I started by failing, over and over again. I made hard bricks, soft porridge, and mediocre loaves. Then I discovered Ken Forkish's FWSY and his Youtube videos accompanying the book. I watched the videos many times and read the various chapters in the book many times. I took careful notes. I started with the easiest recipe, the straight dough called "Overnight White Bread." It worked on the first try, making a nice loaf of bread. I gradually went through the pre-fermented recipes, the hybrid levain ones, and the full levain ones. They all worked. I took careful notes, like Ken suggested, and adjusted times, temperature, and quantities when needed. I got the knack of making bread. One year later, I still use Ken's methods even when trying some of the recipes from other books and other styles, the book gives solid building blocks that can help you make great bread. Ken is a great writer, a scientific mind and an artisan heart, and his techniques are clearly explained and easy to understand Some important tips: (1) buy Ken Forkish's "The Elements of Pizza" for his improved version of making and keeping a sourdough starter. It was thanks to that book that I finally succeeded in making a sourdough starter after many failures using other methods. (2) watch Ken's Youtube videos, the explanations in the book are not as clear the actual videos. (3) pay attention to what the books says needs to happen (e.g., dough must rise to three times the size) rather than the times stated in the book, the times are often wrong; I find that I often need a lot less time to get to the right result. There are some errors in the book. After many failed full levain loaves I finally understood that the times for the full levain bulk rise are too long for room temperature, I now believe they are supposed to be for a bulk raise in the refrigerator. I figured this out after reading other books and comparing and contrasting the various formulas. Having said that, the book recipes are fine, as long as you pay attention to how things are supposed to look/feel rather than the exact times. Thank you Ken -- you made me discover and enjoy a new hobby and share good bread with family and friends.

Changed my life. Changed my neighbor's life. Changed my communities life. This book will have you reevaluating your fear about making bread. Just get a dutch oven (the Lodge 4 qt is pretty good). Avoid all the other really fancy stuff (although the plastic dough scrapers are pretty handy, as is a BIIIG mixing bowl). Then start cooking. OMG. I noticed that after I started serving fresh made bread to my neighbors they all got dutch ovens and started making Forkish style breads. There's a reason for that LOL.

Before I bought this book I tried no knead recipes 4 times. The bread was good but was lacking something (absolutely wrong crust, it didn't raise well, etc.). This book gives you not only the recipes but also gives you step-by-step workflow how to do it right. I tried the simple white bread and the first time it was perfect. P.S. Somehow I cannot upload the pictures of the breads I made using the book. 4/16/20 Baked two white bread with poolish today - amazing !!! You don't need any experience with baking you just follow the recipe and it works.

Baking bread has never been my forte. Throughout my adult life I've been absolutely convinced that I would never succeed at baking anything edible – only doorstops. But that was B.F. – “Before Forkish” – as in Ken Forkish, the author of this terrific book. This week - for the first time ever - I tackled making a loaf of artisan bread using a recipe from “Flour Water Salt Yeast.” The book is named (non-ironically) for the only 4 ingredients that go into any of the recipes - flour, water, salt, and yeast - in varying percentages based on the type of recipe. Now I understand why the stores were sold out of yeast and flour back in March. It seems that learning a new skill during a pandemic is cathartic, and that Pandemic Baking is a really big deal. Why did I choose this particular book? Because I’d already tasted the bread. It was at a small Portland restaurant – Le Pigeon, to be specific – that I first fell in love with Ken's crusty, earthy bread. Forkish’s bakery supplies bread to some of the restaurants that I love frequenting each time I pass through the Rose City. It was that particular taste memory that led me to choose Ken’s book when I impulsively decided to try – once again – to learn how to bake bread. I'm so very glad I did. This was my very first attempt at making an artisan loaf. (Photo attached). As I worked my way through each of the recipe’s steps, I was completely convinced that I was doing something wrong. Or doing everything wrong. But my first bread-baking attempt worked – and that’s solely due to this book. And the bread wasn’t just edible, it was delicious. Ken Forkish and his book “Flour Water Salt Yeast” did not let me down. His detailed explanation of techniques give an outline for the “why” of each step in the creation of the dough, as well as the baking process. This book provided the encouragement that allowed this (sometimes inept) home cook to successfully bake artisan bread. If “Flour Water Salt Yeast” could help me overcome my baking fears and avoid inept mishaps, just think of what the book can for you.

I am not a baker but I love bread. If you follow his instructions and Youtubes you can be successful with your first loaf. You must measure ingredients EXACTLY using weights. After you are successful a few times you can then experiment. I cut down the amount of Levain to 100 flour, 25 whole wheat, 100 water which leave me enough levain for 1 2lb loaf and enough for the levain tub. I use AP flour with 3 tbs of Vital wheat gluten that I get from the bulk items at WinCo here in Oregon.

For one I don't like how all the recipes are for two loaves of bread. We can barley finish one loaf in my house. I know I can half it but my kitchen scale can barley register 3 g of yeast so 1.5 g won't even register. I would rather the recipes be for one loaf and then someone can double it. Also I don't like that the recipe just says white flour (can you be more specific) I had to flip around to find out what kind of flour that is (I think they mean all purpose?) I bought all these nice organic fancy bread flours , einkorn, fredrick wheat, sifted artisian, high protein etc from JaniesMill.com (highly recommend this for bread lovers) and Im disappointed that every recipe is for boring all purpose flour I want to be able to use my fancy flour. Will try the book.

I have a few books on breadmaking and more than a few cookbooks. I needed something that broke the process down the right way, and this book does it for me. I've just started with the recipes in this book but so far the results have been outstanding. As others have said, this is not a mix X and Y, bake, eat kind of book. It really breaks the process down well and gives you a better understanding of the process. Well done. Another recommendation: The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Enjoy!

I had never made a loaf of bread before but with sequestering at home, thought to give it a try with the aid of this book (and some of the relatively inexpensive ancillary items it recommends). Just made my third loaf and each one has been among the best bread I or my family have eaten. Instructions are highly detailed and require some fussy over each step but if you follow the directions, you will be very pleased with the results!

First off, the technical information is five star. It is precise and following it will yield excellent results. Working with a very wet, very slack dough is a whole new experience. The only reason I don’t give it five stars is that the author is a brilliant baker in need of an excellent editor. As a book, it is failed by its prose.

I really liked this book. It tells you about the chemical reactions of all the things that happen while baking bread. It helped me understand the principles behind a lot of the prep work. I usually just followed the simple directions of a recipie and hoped for the best. The story of how alien got here to the baking world was entertaining and something I could identify with in a high pressure tech world. Recipes and pizza dough tips were good. I took off one star because sometimes he talked about equipment I didn’t really think I needed to have like 12 gallon tubs to mix things in. May have been better to mentions substitutes like “your biggest bowl” or something to mix in.

My house is located at 6200ish ft and baking has become a hassle anytime I want to bake something. I typically have to adjust every recipe I try and it drives me crazy! I can say with confidence that this book is perfect! I did NOT make any adjustments to the yeast and followed the recipe as it was written. The result? Amazing bread!!! I tried the white bread with a poolish mix. I can’t wait to try out every recipe!! The levain section is great and Ken adds so much detail to each section! Because I live in Colorado, our house is fairly cold in the wintertime. Ken has addressed that in his book. He has thought of so many variables that can affect his recipes and does a great job in explaining how the variables can be manipulated if needed. This is the perfect book for anyone in your life that likes learning the science behind cooking. Perfect for the professional or amateur chef!

I have always loved bread. Real bread. Not cheap stuff from the grocery store but bread riddled with holes that leak melted butter when toasted; bread that has a thick, bitter crust and chewy toothsome crumb. This book is about that kind of bread. Use other books to learn to shape a baguette or make rolls. This will teach you about bread and how to make a proper Boule with four different methods And a range of flour blends to give different flavor profiles. No pages wasted on some potato dinner roll you will never make. The best part is that Ken lays our recipes according to time schedules that fit to real life and are easy to adapt If needed. You know when to start to have bread ready when you want it. The first five times you might be intimidated but after that you will know the process and feel the dough. If you follow the recipes, after a few tries I guarantee you will bake the cover. Make your own levain. Don’t complain about wasting flour, because once it’s ready it will survive for weeks and you’ll rarely ever throw any out. It is not easy but the process is simple. You can get everything you need on amazon. If I landed on a desert island this is the first book I would take.

One should stick with the paper book. The digital version is missing all the pages with photos.

Love this book. Have been baking bread every week now. Have tried different recipes, both for bread, pizza and foccacia. Loved them all! Great explanations. You do need a bit of judgement, as the author explains, because depending on the dryness or humidity level of your home, you might need more water (especially with whole wheat flour). With experience, once you know what the flour is supposed to feel/look like, you can adjust the quantities successfully (I started doing that second time baking). Start with the simple recipe and then work your way up to the more complex ones with different flours. Have been mostly using regular white flour from Costco, bread still ends up tasting amazing. For pizza, definitely worth it to invest in type 00 flour, a pizza peel and a good ceramic cooking stone. We bought all the equipment (proofing baskets, mixing containers) as suggested by the author. Great results with making the bread in our Dutch oven in a gas oven (make sure you get a thermometer to calibrate oven before starting to bake anything). We also needed to replace the Dutch oven Creuset knob with one that withstands high temperatures (stainless steel knob sold on amazon).

I have recently been introduced to baking homemade bread and I have fallen in love with the challenge as well as the results! I purchased this book because of the reviews and I wanted to learn a little bit more about homemade bread baking. The reason I didn’t give it five stars is because it seems a little bit above my abilities at this point. Also, I feel that the recipes are a little hard to read and figure out. Again, I am a novice so for those who are more advanced in their skills, this would be perfect! Am I sorry that I made this purchase? No, I’m not. It was just a little more detailed than I needed. Having said that, it’s a good book and I’m glad I’ve added it to my collection.

I purchased this book in addition to the “elements of pizza”. That book is amazing. This one was for my wife. She loves the book, but we were quite disappointed in the hardcover with the paper cover. (See photo) did I miss something or did anyone else get a real book cover. The reason it upset me is because we use them so much for making bread and pizza that we leave it out in the loving room for decor. (Or had planned to). The elements of pizza book is gorgeous and what I expected this one to look like (see other photos). Anyone else with me here? Should I have returned it?

This is a cookbook to read like a story instead of a bunch of recipes bound together. Its a wonderful read, explains things in a professional tone that is still able to be understood by someone with little bread experience. I really appreciate the higher level of explanation as I am not new to bread baking or the reasons behind the methods so I didn't feel like I was reading a intro book at all. It still explains in simple jargon what things mean so a beginner wouldn't feel out of the loop either. Its got beautiful pictures and layout. I love the fonts and my only complaint is that instead of referencing "Chapter 14" in a recipe it should reference the exact page number to make flipping back or ahead more efficient.

I love bread, but was always afraid to make it because I thought I needed all this equipment. Also because it took hours to rise and ferment. After some hesitation I bought it. Now he does recommend you have a few pieces of equiptment, i.e. dough tubs, proofing baskets, food scale etc. I get by without the tub or the proofing baskets (though I do want them). Must haves are a food scale, Instant read thermometer, and a cast iron dutch oven. Forkish breaks down ingredients, times, and weights in easy to read charts. He also includes breads that can be made and baked that day along side the breads that need 12 hours plus to get ready. All in all if you ever thought about baking bread this book is the only starting point you need. It is addicting and once you get your hands in the dough, pretty easy

I am a complete beginner in that I have baked less than a dozen loaves of bread, and all using a bread machine. I wanted to make better bread and gave this book a try. After reading it over a couple of times and purchasing all of the suggested supplies, my very first loaf was incredible! See photo. Based on my experience, I highly recommend this book for any beginner who is willing to invest $100-$200 in supplies, a few hours of learning, and a willingness to spend the additional time it requires to back artisan bread. The results are worth it!

I bought this book because I recently got into sourdough bread making. Very informative and easy to understand. You won't go wring with buying this book. On the other hand, I also have the Tartine book on bread. I find myself drifting toward the Tartine, for some reason. I like his "Basic Bread" procedure somewhat better than. Lots of step-by-step photos, too.

I highly recommend this book. I was scared to bake sourdough breads for years before I got this book. I seriously studied his techniques of pinching and folding before I tried them. In short order, you’ll have bread you’ll be very proud of. I pull this book out more than any other bread baking book I own.

I have been trying to bake artisan breads for some time with limited success. I purchased this book at the suggestion of a friend and while I enjoyed reading about how the author learned his trade and started his own bakery, I was a little intimidated by the idea of making my own starter. I had a starter I purchased from King Arthur Flour and it was ok, but when I accidentally rinsed the starter down the drain one night, I decided to try the levain recipe in this book. It was very simple and after just a few days of following the instructions it was bubbly and mature enough to bake two delicious loaves of the Overnight Country Blonde bread. I work full time and look forward to the weekends when I can try a new bread recipe. This book is full of fun information!

Along with describing how to make bread, Mr. Forkish explains the "whys" and the benefits of the techniques he recommends. He has learned from and shares advice from several experts in an easy to follow description. He also recognizes you may not have some of the equipment like proofing baskets and offers workarounds so you can start baking bread without spending a fortune on specialized equipment. For those who don't like to waste flour, he also explains how to scale down the starter for home use. I keep a small amount of starter in the refrigerator to make the amount of starter required by the recipe.

My husband has been baking bread for almost two years and this is his go-to book. He suffers from anxiety and bread baking has become for him a meditative and healing practice. After a lot of practice, he has mastered the loaf pictured on the front (and we have gained a few pounds too). He now bakes our communion bread for church each week and it has become quite popular with our church friends. After surveying and purchasing many books... this one is the home run! I find it out on the counter often. I am grateful to this book for many reasons... who would have thought a cook book could work so much "magic"?!?!?!?

Like half of America I finally had enough time at home to finally learn how to bake artisan bread. This is an excellent, very thorough, full of useful information guide. I can’t wait to visit his bakery the next time I am up in Portland. I spent a couple weeks reading and researching before I attempted my starter and then baking bread. The first few rounds didn’t go so well. I stuck with it and - WHOA- I make really good bread now. They’ve mostly let us all return to the wild and I find that I still bake 2 loaves 2 times a week and give my extra loaf away - my friends love it too. Try adding walnuts to the country brown pain Au levain - slathered with butter and drizzled with local honey - it will change your life - well at least it will set your day straight.

This book was recommended to me by a friend who is a great baker! Since I've been trying to nurture my own sourdough starter and have recently started baking my own sourdough bread I wanted to find a detailed book on the subject. This book was the perfect answer! A beautifully illustrated book with attention to detail. There is a wealth of information for both the beginner and the more experienced baker. I am VERY happy with this purchase and this will be a lasting addition to my personal library.

I purchased this book because I am moving to a small town and I was worried that I won’t be able to have artisan bread. Worry no more. So far I have tried the Saturday morning and overnight white breads and the white bread with poolish and they all came out wonderful. I even tried some variations of my own substituting rye or whole wheat for a small portions of the white flour and these turned out wonderful. The only equipment I have purchased was a Dutch oven which produces wonderful crusts. Experienced or beginner bread baker, this is a useful book, although I would have loved to have more recipes and a little less history.

What an absolutely incredible book. From the author's own experiences, to the lowdown on wheat, to vital equipment, to techniques, tips, and tricks that will help you make awesome at-home bread using wild or commercial yeast. All of the recipes in this book use a few variants of one method. The result is spectacular bread that will make you a hometown hero. If you love bread, but can't stand the fake cotton-like garbage at the grocery store, get this book and get baking.

This is a wonderful bread book! I am not a baker - in fact, as a mid-thirty-year-old that is reasonably proficient in the kitchen with a decent recipe in hand, I had never actually made REAL bread (banana bread doesn't count!). I was inspired to try to bake my own bread after reading the ingredient label on our store-bought bread and seeing all the unnecessary ingredients like sugar and other preservatives. This book makes bread baking particularly accessible as there are sample schedules and recommendations for how to bake around a normal person's schedule. For the first time ever I made an amazing loaf of artisan bread (on the first try!). It looks and tastes like something out of a bakery. I am not often impressed with myself (a function of my midwest upbringing, no doubt), but I was truly impressed with what I was able to produce following the author's instructions. Like a baker's formula, Forkish balances just the right amount of context, background, and nuance with actionable steps, tips, and encouragement that allows you to turn out a great loaf of bread without requiring an advanced chemistry degree. He really took the guess-work out of the entire process and had an uncanny ability to anticipate my questions and have an answer right there in front of me. My success with the white bread with poolish has inspired me to keep exploring the rest of the recipes and techniques in the book. It feels good to know that you're really just putting a simple few ingredients into your body when you eat that piece of toast or sandwich. And it's empowering to know you can create an amazing loaf with just those four ingredients. Ken puts real food well within reach of even the most novice cook or baker and inspires appreciation and interest in the craft of artisan bread making. In addition to the great instructions, the book itself is very high quality: glossy pages with a lot of pictures (including photo-illustrations of some of the most critical process steps like folding the dough). I highly recommend this book.

If you ever want to know the science behind making great bread this is the book for you. It's a perfect book for budding bakers. It's a foundational book that bread makers can build from. I use this book along with Tartine and Bread Baker's Apprentice as my baking bible. My understanding of the other two books was greatly enhanced once I learned from this one. This book does not have a tremendous number recipes but, with a little work and practice, it will make all bread recipes you encounter so much better simply by applying the principles in this book. It is the catalyst to making truly great bread.

So the results of this cookbook are amazing. I love to bake, but have never had much luck with any kind of bread. A friend recommended this book saying it’s the best book for understanding the whole bread baking process. I’ve thanked her every time I take a gorgeous artisan bread out of the oven. Awesome results every time. The one criticism I do have is the recipes are a little hard to understand at first. You have to flip between several chapters during each recipe to understand what is being said. I recommend reading through it fully including each page being referenced before you start. (It took my courage to build up for several days before I actually tried a recipe). Once you get that first attempt done your confidence will be there and the results are amazing. Great recipes, great book.

I really liked this book and somehow in every recipe and step-by-step instruction I felt like I was on a master class with Ken. I started making bread a little before I got this book, which was actually a recommendation from a close friend so I went and tried some recipes and experimented a bit with them. Learned a lot about autolyse, proofing, fold technique (which I consider is great) and another name for the Sourdough culture. Another good thing is that you learn and get yourself acquainted with using percentages, I had to modified the portions in some recipes and by knowing the porcentage of each ingredient was able to come up with a good-tasty smaller version. The good thing about having the Kindle version is that you can jump from one place to another using the links, but I'll probably have the physical copy ordered. Overall, really good book and can definitely recommend this to someone learning how to make bread and even seasoned bakers from around my area.

This book is perfect. It assumes you know minimal about baking and takes you from a novice to making world class bread and delicious artisan pizza. Everything is written exact and the rationale explained- it takes time and patience but the result is worth it. I hope Ken makes a dessert book soon.

This is an incredible book. I've been blown away by the quality of the bread I've been able to make because of Ken Forkish's excellent instructions. Bread comes out looking just like the photo on the cover, and it is so delicious! It's no exaggeration to say this book has changed my life for the better. It's nice because there are a variety of categories of bread in the book, from 1-day straight doughs to longer process levains. At first I was disappointed because I was looking for a book of pure levain recipes (no commercial yeast), and many of his recipes call for either commercial yeast or a hybrid levain + commercial yeast dough. But turns out the hybrid doughs are fabulous! I'm hooked for good. My only small complaint is he has you mix up a full kilo of levain, when the recipe only calls for a third that amount. Even after saving some levain for the next time, you end up throwing out quite a bit. I like to minimize how much gets thrown out (good flour is expensive!) so I make the half recipe for levain that he provides. Other than that, the book is perfection. It's great for someone who wants to learn, beginning with the straight doughs, and working up from there. Or for a more experienced baker ready for levains. It would make a great gift, along with a couple cane bannetons, a probe thermometer, a scale, or a dutch oven! Highly recommended. Happy Baking!

I have tried a number of different bread books, and now after working through something like 50% of the recipes in this book I have never gotten better results. Even better, this book teaches you how to adapt to things like kitchen temperatures (a problem not frequently addressed for those of us living in old houses in the midwest where kitchen temperatures might dip below 60 F overnight in the winter). I am a much better Baker now. A criticism that I agree with from other reviewers... the instructions for building and maintaining your starter are pretty wasteful. But you can simply scale back the proportions (or follow whatever starter method you currently use and adapt it to these recipes with some simple math) and everything works fine.

Ken Forkish makes bread baking at home a breeze. The book is well structured and if you just follow the recipes exactly you will have great tasting artisan bread in no time. It explains how to make your own levain and with pictures how you should work the dough. Please keep in mind that if you do not have a steam oven or similar, most recipes require a Dutch oven that can easily be bought here on Amazon. I even got the next book from Ken.

Bought for myself to bake different breads. Made a bunch so far. Most have turned out like the book. I do adjust the yeast quantity on some of the recipes because I like the big holes. If I use the suggested amount, it seems to make the inside more like store bought bread instead of an artisan loaf. Just can't make too much. Gotta watch the waist line. Nothing better than a warm slice right out of the oven slathered in butter! Yum..

This had some great technical info on bread but I wonder who his audience is. He advised using potholders to take a hot pot out of the oven. Seriously? His starter recipe uses a crazy amount of flour to get started. Such a waste of flour. Will try another book.

Really love this book. I love the back story and the tech talk . I'm going to work my way through this book. I also have been inspired to try some new things in my own recipes. This is a book for the home baker who wants up to date and reliable instruction . It really sucks to follow and old recipe and get a doorstop. You can skip the tech stuff and get right to baking if you want I suppose. I was hesitant to spend this much but its an investment in the craft of breadbaking and well some well spent "dough".

This book is fantastic. It walks you through making the bread in very detailed steps, and refers back to the pages that explains the process if you forget. The beginning of the book teaches the baker about the different processes and why they work. Later in the book they explain how you can tweak the recipes to make them your own. The overnight white bread has become my families favorite go-to recipe. I love this book!

Oh Ken Forkish...I would run away with you if I could. I think my husband would come along, too! This is a game-changer of a bread book. Easy to follow once you get the steps down, and amazing, amazing "professional style" results. The Saturday and Saturday overnight breads have become almost a weekly occurrence at Casa Kaelipup, and it's what we are asked to bring to all the family gatherings now. The Saturday bread is perfect, really, but allowing the dough to continue working its magic overnight results in an even more tasty and airy loaf. No need for any fancy equipment - purchase a Lodge dutch oven and two cheap bread proofing baskets from Amazon and you're all set. Highly recommend the book, and a trip to his bakery and pizza place when you're in Portland.

This book is really great for first time bread-bakers who want to understand the techniques and principles that go into bread-making, instead of just blindly following recipes. The way that the information is framed regarding percentages, temperatures, and flour-to-moisture balance makes me confident that I will be able to develop my own bread combinations instead of just always looking for recipes, and not really understanding why I am adding what I am adding, or how much. There is a bit of initial equipment required, but overall it makes the bread much more consistent (and there is waaay less mess). He does provide measurements by weight (which is the best for bread making), but there are easy conversion charts for each recipe into American volume measurements (like tbsp, tsp, etc). Also, not many know that Forkish has Youtube videos showing the techniques he uses for mixing and folding-- which can be quite confusing to understand from reading alone. Just search Ken Forkish on Youtube, and he has his own channel with quick guides that compliment the book.

I love this book by Ken Forkish. It is inspiring and instructive. I have baked for about ten years a couple of decades ago, but I enjoy the way Forkish promotes a rational and solid technical base on which to build successful home bread making. His videos on YouTube that illustrate some of the crucial steps in bread are wonderful. Inspired by Mr. Forkish I'm relearning bread making — he just gained a new disciple.

I fell in love with this cookbook from the first page! So far I've made the 75% whole wheat bread about four times in the past week--my first week to have the recipe. It is awesome! I am intrigued with every recipe in this book and intend to try everyone of them as soon as I can get my stomach's share of the whole wheat one. This is the bread I've been wanting to bake for years! Finally Chef Ken makes it simple to understand and I'm having fun with it!

What a wonderful book this is! It is packed with useful information about baking bread accompanied by detailed pictures. I truly enjoyed reading the author’s journey of his baking career. Great sense of humor! I tried the Saturday Bread recipe and so pleased with the end product. Between the cookbook instructions and Ken Forkish’s how to videos (YouTube and his website), my first project was a success! Also got author’s “The Elements of Pizza.” Can’t wait to try recipes! I hope my bread makes Ken Forkish happy. 😃 It sure made me happy!

The knowledge gained is useful and good but the amount of flour & levain wasted is crazy! Not everyone has access to mass quantities of white and whole wheat flour and can afford (or want) to waste the supplies. While supposedly written for the home baker, recipes are not conducive to home baking. Why create 600-800g of levain to only use 300? Not logical. Rather disappointing as far as the recipes go.

I'm sure my great grandparents would laugh at the glee I get every time I bake bread, but the alchemy of it makes me very happy. I've made bread on occasion in the past and thought I did a good job, then I started using this book and get a result I never thought I could have, one that looks AND tastes on par with what I would buy at the bakery. I have only tried the first two recipes, and both times it turned out well. I also enjoyed the chapter about starting his business.

This book is extremely well written, logical, and organized. I am not a lifelong baker, just some guy. My very first loaf of bread after reading this book and following a recipe looked just like something from a local artisan bakery. The bread tastes delicious. I brought a couple loaves into work and my coworkers ate it all! Once you do a couple of the recipes the genius of the way this book is written becomes clear - every recipe calls for the same amount of flour. There are only 4 ingredients in each recipe but the breads are totally different. I have definitely had the best results using bread specific flour.

Great book! First two loaves I made following the basic recipe were fantastic. My kids requested it in their lunches over the bakery "artisanal" bread my wife had purchased the same day. I forgot to tell her I was baking bread that day - or maybe she just remembered my past attempts that resulted in inedible bricks. The one thing to keep in mind is that you will need/want a 4-6 qt Dutch oven to make the breads in this book. The book recommends 4 qt, but I made mine in a 6 qt and they turned out fine. I did not use a proofing bowl (a banneton) and all worked out fine (although I do plan to get some).

I bought FWSY after borrowing a copy from the local library. I already had Tartine Bread

I don’t buy to many cookbooks as there are a ton of recipes online. However, I bought this one because of the reviews saying that this book teaches you. That is what this book does. Ken teaches you how to bake the perfect loaf of bread. The book arrived and I started reading from page 1. I stopped when it was time to bake one of the first 4 recipes. I started with Ken’s “overnight white bread” recipe. I was nervous because I have never baked in a Dutch oven or measured my ingredients by weight. He recommends a 4 quart ditch oven. I found a 3.5 and a 5 quart. I went with the 3.5 quart Dutch oven and it was perfect for me. The bread came out just perfect the first time. Crunchy on the outside and soft and moist on the inside. The texture was perfect and the bread was flavorful. Now I need to finish this book and move onto the more advanced recipes. Thanks Ken Forkish for teaching me the what when why of baking bread.

I thought I was just buying this for the recipes. Ken Forkish wrote an awesome book here. I have read the book from cover to cover, which is unusual for a "recipe" book. The recipes and process, if you follow them, produce amazing results and it is my go to for anything bread! Forkish's writing is very honest and relatable. If you are interested in home bread or pizza dough making, THIS is THE book to buy!

I have baked bread for years and have generally been happy with the results... I mean, homemade bread..... What's not to love? But this book takes it over the top! EXTREMELY thorough, great pics, thoughtful explanations for us "science/process geeks". My first loaves of Saturday Bread were amazing! BUT.... A note. I followed the recipe exactly. And there were a few steps that gave results that puzzled me a bit. First. The 70% dough looked very dry to me. Keep going. The 5+ Hours of pre-ferment did NOT appear to give me a dough that was triple the volume. ( a bit hard to tell in such a large mixing tub). Keep going. ( although I was tempted to throw the whole mess away!). Ran out of time, so I formed the balls, placed in the proofing baskets and threw them in the refrigerator overnight ( in plastic bags as directed). The dough looked a bit slack, but in the morning, I gave them about a 1 hour proof with a cup of steaming water in my closed microwave while the Dutch oven pre-heated. Went ahead and baked the loaves as directed and HOLY MOLY.... SUCCESS! Looks and taste that's extraordinary! Can't wait to try the other recipes in the book! Again, BRAVO!

I can make some damn good pizzas with handmade dough on the grill before ever touching this book. I'm good at following recipes and I do some improvisations here and there but I'm nothing special when it comes to skills. This book took me step by step and helped me to understand the process and now people rave about my bread that they say I should sell because it's better than any bakery. Great book with great recipes.

This is a fundamental instruction book, if you're just starting out and want to make two round loaves of bread either white or wheat this is for you. But if you're want to make baguettes, batards, etc., get the Bread Bakers Apprentice book by Peter Reinhart. A couple of things to take into consideration. 1. Do not buy a 12 qt (3 gallon), container to mix the dough, cut the measurements in half and use a 6 qt container, then you only have one loaf of bread to deal with. Also, if you decide you don't want to hand mix your dough per his method (see below) you can use the 6 qt container to store about 6 lbs of flour. 2. It's okay to use a stand mixer to mix the ingredients, I'm sure Mr Forkish isn't making hundreds of pounds of dough by hand in a 3 gallon container for his bakery.

If I had to choose only 3 cookbooks to take with me to a new home, this would be my bread book. A close runner up would be Chad Robertson's

Overview I had been trying to make good artisan bread on my own by scouring blogs and websites for techniques and recipes, but nothing I found yielded the thick, crunchy, crusts and light, spongy crumbs that I was seeking to produce...that is until I found this book. I decided that combing through endless articles and the blog posts of amateurs and hobbyists was not going to cut it. So, I jumped on the Kindle store and began my search for the book that would give me the skills and knowledge I needed to bake the bread I dreamed about. I looked at various titles written by Peter Reinhart, but none of them stood out as a book just about the fundamentals. I thumbed through a few more titles, before I found Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza. There it is...fundamentals right in the title...perfect! Organization This book is broken up into several sections. In the first chapters the author briefly goes over his transition from working in Silicon Valley, through his education in baking, to eventually opening his own bakery in Portland, OR. He had the privilege of learning the craft from several world renowned bakers and humorously tells the story of the hurdles he had to overcome to get to where he is today. One review on here called the author out for including the introduction, accusing him of being an egotistical narcissist. I don't know the author, therefore I cannot speak to his personal character, however, I found the introduction to be informative and fun to read. I for one thought it gave the reader a bit of insight into the author, who for the duration of the book becomes your mentor and guide. Chapter 3 covers the basic equipment you will need to get started. I had most everything in my kitchen already, except a 4qt dutch oven and proofing baskets, both of which I found readily available here on Amazon. Chapter 4 goes over basic techniques that will help you learn the proper methods of shaping, folding, and mixing doughs by hand. These techniques take time to get the hang of and I still am nowhere near mastering them, however, the author had provided multiple pictures in the book to help you get a visual reference of how things are supposed to look after each step. He has also posted a few videos on this bakery's website, kensartisan.com, that will help you if you need further guidance. The next chapters are organized into dough categories: Straight Doughs, Doughs with Preferments, Hybrid Levain Doughs, and Pure Levain Doughs. When you get to the chapter dealing with levain, the author educates you on what exactly a levain is and how to start and maintain your own levain. The last chapters deal with focaccia and pizza. The section on pizza includes recipes for sauces and even gives a crash course on shaping pizza dough. Scattered through the book are four essays the author has included spanning several related topics, such as the origin of the flour used at his bakery and the daily schedule of the professional baker. These essays round out the book and give additional insight into the world of baking. Recipes The recipes in this book are easy to follow and simply lay out the ingredients and the procedure for creating each bread. The author recommends measuring your ingredients by weight instead of by volume, however he also includes the approximate measurements in cups, tbs, tsps, etc. Each recipe is unique and will require different time commitments, so plan ahead to make sure your schedule can accommodate the recipe you want to try. Results I have tried almost half of the recipes in this book and most (despite my still raw technique) have looked and tasted amazing. No store-bought bread in our home anymore with these boules around. I take these artisan loaves to family parties and never have any to take home. I made several loaves for a bake sale recently and they lasted about 30 seconds before each was purchased. I got brave and tried one of the pizza recipes out on my aunt who is a self professed "foodie" and she claimed it was the best pizza she has ever had, even better than the pizza she had in Italy (she seemed sincere, however she has a talent for exaggeration). Conclusion After spending some time with this book and some time in the kitchen I am finally baking the bread that I've been wanting. I can say with out hesitation that if you're looking for a book to get you started baking superb breads and pizza...get this one. Is it the definitive book on the subject? No, but it covers the basics and from here you can go anywhere. If I can do it, you can too

Woot! My first successful artisan loaf! I bought this kindle format book because my previous attempts at other "no fail" artisan bread recipes kept failing. This book gives you lots of helpful info for creating perfect loaves. On the downside, the book only has a four ingredient recipe variations, and no other recipe types. It's also very wordy, and suggests that you buy equipment that totals about $100 to get started. I admit that I was discouraged by the equipment list and long chapters, so I put the book down for a month or two before I even tried the first recipe. But in the end, " the proof is in the pudding" figuratively speaking - and I've finally made a beautiful loaf!

Amazing, inspiring, words and images by a man who gave up a career in Silicon Valley high tech to become an Artisan Baker. The photos are gorgeous. The concepts are well explained and there are YouTube videos to help. Forklish approaches this like a scientist and an enthusiast. My first attempt was as good as the bread in all but the very best restaurants. No bread machine can do this. You will be shocked how amazing your bread is. This is one of the best cook books I have ever read.

I bought a bread machine a few years ago and I really wanted to love the bread I made with it...but I didn't. It was edible, and that's the only good thing I can say about it. I gave up on bread after that experience. A few weeks ago a friend introduced me to this book, and I couldn't be more pleased. I've only made 2 of the recipes so far: the overnight white and the white bread with poolish. I chose those because they seemed pretty straightforward and fit my schedule. I did use the option of dividing the overnight white bread in the morning, proofing in the fridge, and cooking after work....which really worked for my schedule. I definitely recommend watching his youtube videos before getting started if you are new to baking bread. I am currently working on starting my levain. Like other reviewers have mentioned, he recommends you use a lot of flour to start the levain. After a lot of googling, I wish I had tried to start it with just 1/4 the amounts he recommends. Oh well...I've got it going now but will likely pare it down soon. I'm excited to see how it turns out and start baking with it. My other comment is, I don't use the containers he recommends. I'm trying to get rid of most of the plastic in my house, so I have just been using a 4 qt glass bowl (when I halved the recipe) or large stainless steel pot (when making the full recipe). I'm not sure if there's any problem with using glass/stainless steel, but it seems to be working for me. If anyone knows if that is not advised, please let me know! I did notice that the poolish fermentation seemed to take longer than it should have (and I have a warm kitchen- 74ish)- perhaps this had to do with the way stainless steel keeps the temp compared to plastic...I really don't know. It would be really nice if someone made a container like the one he recommends out of glass not plastic. I have searched the internet high and low for such a thing, but to no avail. Again, if anyone knows of one- let me know!! Or what a great business opportunity for someone...so many people are trying to stop using plastic. So make one, and then send one to me for free for giving you such a great idea :) Long story short- life changing book (that may be a tad extreme but I do kind of currently feel that way)! Highly recommend. Thanks Ken Forkish!

I love this book so much. It provides a wonderful background and story to how and why he took the steps he did. The descriptions are detailed but also precise. He gives you permission to not be perfect in your baking, what stage you're comfortable with starting at, and also very encouraging. The chapters are divided with common sense and he takes his own trails into account to help guide you on the bread baking journey. I think this is a fantastic book for the person who wants to learn at home baking or even who might be interested in following a bread baking dream as he did.

The incredible detail in this book has completely changed bread-making for me (water temperatures!!! so important!). The results are beautiful, and the bread tastes like you are a skilled, experienced breadmaker. This sounds like a brag for me, but it's ONLY a credit to the book - there are only a couple of bakeries in Chicago where I think the bread is close to what I'm making at home with these recipes. And I promise, that is not my personal skill set at work. Forkish truly shares all of his experience and then describes what he's done to make it accessible to the home cook.

The book has recipes for two 1-1/2 pound loaves baked in 4 Qt dutch ovens. I modified the recipes to 75% and baked a single 2-1/4 pound loaf in a 6 Qt dutch oven. I started simple with a straight yeast bread, then did a pre-ferment loaf. Above you can see my third loaf, a country brown levain (sourdough). The recipes are clear, easy to follow and they work. My bread rivals the local artisan bakery (my wife says mine is better). The book adds the ingredient of time to achieve a more wholesome tasting loaf of bread. I can't imagine a better book for bread baking.

This book is amazing, especially since I already had the many various dutch ovens to make the bread in. The author even allows a cheat sheet in the form of cups for ingredients instead of weight, because I dont have a scale, this was nice so I didn't become discouraged. I like that he really gets into the science behind beautiful bread. Although it's not for bread lovers who dont like a crisp crust. If you like soft bread in and out, this book is not for you.

This is not a beginner cookbook, but I’m a beginner BREAD baker and it is AWESOME. I think if you’re new to cooking in general that it might be tough to follow. There’s a learning curve even for those of us who know our way around the kitchen, but sections of it read like a novel which I really enjoyed. I have loved every recipe and make bread every week now. Plus, can we talk about Ken’s pizza recipe?! Omg. Love, love, LOVE this cookbook.

I bought this book two years ago with very little knowledge of anything about bread baking except for the simplest loaf of white bread. There are simple same day recipes and recipes that take a couple of days. So no matter your skill level you can jump right in. To do everything in the book all you need is one or two inexpensive dutch ovens, a large bin with a lid for the dough and a couple round baskets for the final rise, but plain bowls work too. I now bake bread that is just as beautiful and tasty as the expensive bakery breads.

This book has changed things for me. I now make incredible bread every weekend. I don’t buy bread anymore, this stuff is so much better than anything you can buy at the supermarket. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. I buy this for all my friends and family now. Fun anecdote: I was just at a 4th of July BBQ and brought a loaf of the 80% biga with 20% whole wheat. This person from Australia started rounding up all their friends and shouting “this is the best bread I’ve had in the US!”. It really draws attention!

Me and my wife use the 'Same Day Straight Pizza Dough' recipe. I searched forever to find a dough recipe that created the artisan like chewy dough with all the many holes throughout, the perfect pizza dough, and this is it. We even tried the 12 hour rise pizza dough, and still prefer the 6 hr dough's flavor and texture. The book is extremely well written, not complicated, and will teach you all those things you were trying to figure out. We bake our dough on a 10" cast iron skillet. We don't have a peel yet to use our stone, but we will. We live in a tiny apartment with a tiny apartment kitchen and no counter space, you can still do it. This is the pizza dough you are looking for! Other breads are quite good too. And wow, my review sounds like an advertisement... but I stand by every word.

Ken’s restaurant is local - this is how he does it. I suggest you might need to be a bit of a cooking nerd to like all his detail, but it is worth it. If you are not interested in the why, and taking the time, neither this nor King Arthur would please you, but if so - go for it. PS be sure you have a kitchen scale and a good thermometer such as ThermoPen.

I've been increasingly interested in home bread baking and pizza making over the last 5 or so years, and have slowly worked my way through many of the more popular books (Reinhart, Lahey, etc). An acquaintence who is also a home baker strongly recommended I try Forkish' approach, and brought me a loaf to try. Needless to say, I was impressed and immediately ordered the book. This weekend, I had my first free day to try a loaf. The results ? Not only the best loaf I personally have ever made, but (amazingly) one of the best breads I've ever had - period. Forkish's methods are certainly not what I would call simple, but certainly can be learned quickly. I found myself relying on the very helpful videos posted on his website to illustrate the techniques in the book and to make sure I understood his method of mixing, folding and shaping. Luckily I already had most of the equipment he recommends (I used a 6qt dutch oven which was fine, and had a relatively small 7" Brotoform - both worked out fine). Based on the fantastic results of my somewhat confused first attempt, I'll be running out this week to pick up a 12 QT tub and another Brotoform for rising so I can make a few loaves to bring to Easter dinner this week. If you're interested at all in making homemad bread in the style of rustic European loaves, I highly recommend this book. I can't wait to try some of the more complex recipes, but the good news is that even if you just make the basic "Saturday" bread (ready on the same day), you'll have fantastic results.

Trying to learn how to make bread, bought this on recommendation. It's much more involved than what I was looking for. I'm glad I only got the Kindle version so I'm only out a few dollars.

This is way more than just a cookbook. To the novice baker, this is a detailed encyclopedia! It’s full of theory on baking and thoroughly explains the “why” and “how” of working with various dough. Something as simple as water and flour temperature and the impact it has on the bread being baked, is thoroughly explained. I’ve learned a LOT just in the few chapters I’ve read.

This is one of the most comprehensive in-depth read books I have ever read. It is more like a textbook than an instructional guide. If you are serious about upping your sourdough bread game, this is the book for you If you are serious about upping your sourdough bread game, this is the book for you.

I gave it to my daughter who has a love for cooking that goes beyond liking to cook. I have been cooking for 50 years and it has terms in it that I have never heard of. My daughter studied culinary so I believe it is better suited to her. The pictures are beautiful and I imagine if you can cook bread like this you will really make an impression.

Excellent book. We started out with Jim Lahey's book but find Ken Forkish's to contain far more detail and better recipes and directions. Definitely spring for the cast iron kettles, banneton baskets, and plastic bins he suggests. Also, do not hesitate to try the levain even though it takes a lot of flour in the beginning. Sure, you can look at YouTube or use a 5-minute artisan bread recipe, but you won't get the great loaves of bread that are possible with this book. When I think of all the YEARS we spent eating so-so loaves of bread!

I own 3-4 artisan bread books, but this is the one I use again and again when I want to have great homemade bread in a reasonable amount of time. He obviously spent a lot of time developing the right techniques for the home baker -- I can't speak highly enough about the book. In terms of equipment, the only things I'd say are really important are the huge canister for mixing the dough and (even more importantly) the right-sized cast iron Dutch oven. This Amazon page has a link to it. All the recipes are designed for that pot, so when the bread comes out of the oven, it looks absolutely perfect. I've made dozens of loaves without the proofing basket (I let it rise on a flour bag towel). I'm finally going to pull the trigger on the bowls just because it'll be easier, but again, they are not critical to the process. When I say the recipes are forgiving, they really are. Sometimes my dough is a bit too wet -- I bake it for an extra 5-7 minutes and it's perfect. Sometimes the dough sticks to the towel I mentioned above and it deflates a bit as I am pulling it off the towel. It still turns out great, every time. The timing with my oven is different than what he suggests. I keep it covered for around 40 minutes and then uncovered for only about 5 minutes. Otherwise, the top gets too brown. These are little things you'll figure out for yourself. It's fun. If I want bread early in the day, I make the Overnight version. If I want it later in the day, I make the Saturday version. It's so easy -- and if you have guests, they are hugely impressed! No need for anyone to know how little active time you had to spend :)

I would recommend this book to anyone just getting started in baking bread. I've never had a "failure" from any recipe from this book, they've all been fantastic. The photography is beautiful and very good at communicating the processes described. Additionally, the autobiographical story telling at the beginning about learning to bake, opening his first bakery, etc. is well written and very interesting. The pizza recipes are a nice bonus as well! I would not recommend this book to someone who already understands the basics of bread, though. You'll find many more advanced and varied recipes in other books. However, advanced bakers will still appreciate the writing and theories, so it may be worth it just to get his "angle" on bread. All in all, this is one of my favorites, and I still refer to it at least once a week.

If you really want hands on knowledge about bread, this is a great hands-on book. In addition, his method of one-pot bread making is really handy minimizing the mess. Makes it very easy. But best of all, I've developed a good hands on knowledge of the dough and how it feels and reacts. Starting to branch out but I'd suggest working through this book as is to develop the touch.

Really wasteful starter recipe and bad descriptions of technique - literally just looked everything up on the internet and had way better results.

I have been baking standard "sandwich"-type bread for many years and always wanted to know how to make the crusty, airy, delectable bread I find in small local bakeries. This book has taught me how to do it. I've made several of the recipes multiple times, and all have been successful--great taste and texture, hard crust, soft center, good rise. My breads look like the pictures in the book! Forkish provides an excellent introduction, explaining the techniques, equipment, and ingredients he uses and why the work. This is extremely important and should be read first before trying the recipes. To get good results using Forkish's techniques, be prepared to purchase a dutch oven (if you don't already have one). I purchased one of the brands he recommended and it was well worth the investment. Once you get an understanding of the techniques and how you might need to vary them based on your own environmental conditions (mainly house temperature), the process is not difficult. Honestly, this came as a very pleasant surprise. It just takes time (mostly waiting for the yeast to do the work for you), at the very least several hours, but for most of the non-levain breads, it's a two day process. Thanks to this book, I can now plan to have delicious artisan bread at home any time I want it.

The bread outlined in this book is amazing. This is the book needed for the person who wants to make good bread. Once you get past the story involved and just get to the meat of the methods it will catapult you ahead in your bread baking endeavors. Ken did write a good story and I am sure some people want/need that for a book on bread to keep around. I just wanted the technical content and it is here.

I’ve had a lot of time at home these last two months and I’ve made it my mission to work through this book. I’ve never made bread before but so far I’ve made my own starter from scratch and have made four or five of the breads in this book including the Saturday white, overnight 40 whole wheat, pain de campagne, walnut levain and overnight brown. All have been very easy to understand. Ken Forkish has a way of writing and explaining that makes me feel I can do it. I can honestly say that this book has changed the way I view baking in general and I’ve learned a new skills that will last a lifetime.

I am a career server who cooks about 3 times a week and dabbles with baking a few times a month. An intermediate in the kitchen at best. 3-4 weeks ago I decided to try my hand at breadmaking for the first time ever. I found a 5 minute, no knead recipe on line - baked it up and was really satisfied that my first attempt had gone so well. I found a second, slightly more involved, rustic bread recipe that required a "sponge" done the night before (didn't know what that word meant at the time). It came out even better. So i called up a friend of mine to brag a little only to find out that he had just bought FWSY a few weeks prior and had also just started making bread.. he invited me over to talk shop, and check out his bread. Flipping through Ken's book was so refreshing. The clear instruction, the step by step processes, measurements by weight for precision, the pictures, and the wonderful back story of his quitting his corporate job to embark upon being a professional bread maker made for a really enjoyable book.... MUCH more importantly, my friend's bread was amazing. A completely different level - as in local baker worthy. I bought the book and the necessary equipment the next day (will set you back about $75), and baked my first loaf a few days later. I have baked about 14 loaves in all in the last few weeks. Each and every loaf has been AMAZING. I could retype that last sentence a few times and it wouldn't feel an exaggeration. I consider myself to be a disgruntled perfectionist when it comes to my cooking and baking endeavors. I critique the food that I eat and bread is no exception.. My wife and I will think, " this bread is good, but the crust is too hard, or it was good the first day ,but bread shouldn't be stale by the second day, etc. I have followed Ken's recipes exactly- and the results have been extraordinary. We are ruined. I would hold the bread I am producing up to any local bakery in a big city and they would be at least on par. Parting thoughts: The equipment he recommends is necessary : a couple cambros, a gram scale, an instant read thermometer. These can't be skimped on. That said, even his most difficult breads are not hard as long as you are the type of person who can follow step by step instructions. The bread comes out extremely consistent. I have not had a single "what the heck happened this time?" scenario. I couldn't be more pleased with this purchase and the lifetime knowledge I now have. Hope you make the plunge. (also, I have no affiliations nor receive any benefits for this review)

Overall, this is an excellent resource - I am new to baking bread and had no desire to work with bread machines and softer loaves. The first pair of loaves I tried came out of the oven looking like beginner's work but tasting (and with a crumb) like something served at a nice restaurant. I am a decent cook but have never hit something so well on the first try, and feel like I owe it to this book's detailed but straightforward instructions. The book walks you through increasingly complex doughs and preparation methods, and the chapter on levain doughs is something of a level of enlightenment (and the breads taste wonderful). I do wish he'd share more advice about the fickleness of levain doughs and how these need much more intuition (and thus a mastery of the earlier recipes) than a precise reading of instructions. I live in a climate with long, humid summers and I've found that the levain doughs are very wet and almost consistently over-rise during bulk fermentation following the schedules suggested in the recipes. I've overcome this through trial and error-- a testament to the good explanation of fundamentals earlier in the book, but kind of a disappointment when the dry-yeast breads felt so effortless. Nonetheless, everyone has enjoyed the breads I've made from this book and I will continue using it as my go-to. I'd recommend without hesitation.

I've learned more from this book than any other bread book I've owned. I am a much better baker after having read through the first chapter. And I often go back to the first chapter to freshen up. I also love the approach of doing everything in a large round food storage bin. It seriously cuts down on the mess and dirty dishes.

This would be an excellent book for a good cook and bread baker who wants to be challenged. I bought this for my partner, a beginning bread baker, and he found it too complicated, too detailed, and too wordy. He just wants to bake bread and have it come out as a good crusty loaf. The advice on how to use a cast iron Dutch oven as a bread pan is helpful and produced great results.

Have now made 2 loaves, one with leavin only, one hybrid. Both great. I am an intermediate sourdough baker. I struggle at times to fit sourdough baking into an otherwise busy schedule. This book has a number of recipes that one can adapt to a busy schedule and the hybrid recipes with sourdough and a little bit of yeast worked extremely well. I got the wonderful flavor of natural leavening at the reliability with some yeast added. Beautiful loaves, easy to understand instructions and reliable results, at least after my first two breads. great book for beginners and intermediate bakers .

From what I can tell, the content is great. Reading this book on kindle feels kind of tragic, though. It's difficult to follow and keep track of because there is so little text on one page that I'm constantly flipping and getting lost. I've purchased other books where this was not the case. But, in the time of social distancing, I thought it would be best to purchase it as a download. I wish I'd have waited for the real thing.

I look for artisan bakeries as the first step in finding out what is good about any city I am visiting if only for a day or two. I found Ken Forkish's Ken's Artisan Bakery in Portland many years ago and have obtained his bread since then through the kindness of anyone I know who was traveling to or through that city, since he steadfastly refused to sell through the mail. I have been baking with leavening made from the yeasts and bacteria in the air we breathe for 40 years and never achieved quite the results I wanted until I received my copy of Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast. Not Robertson, Silverton,nor any other authors in the shelves full of bread baking books were able to give me quite the techniques nor comprehension needed to achieve what I am finally able to produce. My so very patient SO finally said, without prompting, that she is totally spoiled and all other breads available here are simply not worth eating. Mr. Forkish deserves my great admiration for the story he tells and the results I have finally produced thanks to him. I have sent copies to all my home baking friends and they have all expressed their thanks for this wonderful teacher's book.

This book has lots of colored photos that visually explain a technique. I love this easy to understand book. The recipes are yummy! The author presents excellent definitions of terms, equipment, and ingredients, and, why they are necessary. I think this book has textbook quality with creative visual appeal.

A friend recommended this, and I've really enjoyed it. There is quite a bit of information in the first part of the book, but it was well written, and I really enjoyed reading it (#breadnerd). It is currently my go-to book for breadmaking. I've modified some to my own liking, but he encourages this. I'm especially a fan of his pizza dough and recipes. It's now become a fun family tradition.

As others have said, this is not the book for those who want recipes to use in a bread machine. It is also not the book for you if you don't have, and don't want to get, a big round cast iron pot with a lid, or don't want to use a scale and a thermometer. But if you want to learn how to get close to the quality of good artisan bakery bread with minimal mess and fuss, don't hesitate. I have a large collection of good cookbooks, and this one is up there with the best. It has precise and easy to follow recipes that work perfectly, but since it also explains the reasons for the methods advocated, and demonstrates the various general techniques necessary to get good results, it also provides the foundation for you to experiment, and to tune your results to your own taste, if you are so inclined. I am really happy I bought this book, and am very grateful to the author for showing how to make bread this good at home with so little effort.

This book is great at explaining all the different concepts of bread making as well as teaching you how to adjust the recipes to change the taste or fit your schedule. My only complaint is that every recipe is made using a Dutch oven. He does this because the Dutch oven traps enough moisture to emulate a baker’s oven and makes a great crust but the downside is you never get to make breads like baguettes or croissants that don’t use a Dutch oven. Still worth the money though. I’ve learned enough so I feel comfortable trying breads like baguettes without an explicit recipe.

Love the book so far. Encouraging and set up for baking success. Only downside is that the packaging (bubble envelope) allowed for corner of book to be crunched. Happy bread baking

We all want to bake sour dough bread but if you are new to baking bread this book is too advanced. Overly complex. If you are an experienced baker, this book is for you. I am sure those bakers would appreciate the minutiae. Recipes call for large quantities of flour so for a family of 2 that’s too much.

I was looking for good a good guide and education into my first steps toward learning this craft. I have discovered more through the authors passion and sharing in his craft and great history in this area. Great illustrations and breakdown of the key steps to making great bread. I have enjoyed the practicing I have done with this book and even when I don't get the same results in the pictures it tastes amazing. I have enjoyed every aspect of this craft with the greater appreciation and understanding this book has provided.

I'm making some excellent bread using this book. I like the fact that some of the recipes use a starter plus a little bit of yeast and some are just pure starter. (levain) The instructions are very detailed - read them! How you handle and shape the dough makes a huge difference in your finished product.

I have baked maybe one or two loaves of bread before I got this book. Both were acceptable only because they were homemade; they were dense, dry, and generally unspectacular. The loaves from this book have all been great so far. I have made one or two loaves each weekend and each has looked just like the bread on the cover. The taste of each has been just as surprising. Ken provides the recipe, explanation, and even a schedule for baking each type of bread. It is handy to get an idea how to schedule your time so that your bread can be rising or proofing over night. Although I bought the book only for the bread recipes, I found in the back there are pizza and focaccia recipes as well. I didn't really care much about making them at first but with an extra dough ball it was easy to press it out, blend up some tomato sauce (recipe included), and make a really, really good pizza. With that said, this book means business. You are not going to be able to mix up some dough and have a loaf of bread in a few hours. Most recipes are overnight or take over 9 hours. Another consideration is that you *will need* some equipment for these breads. At a minimum you will need a dutch oven, XL mixing bowl (12 qt), a kitchen scale, and some quality yeast (Ken suggests "

Other than a cute cover to display in my kitchen this book was worthless. I was expecting to bake some bread...instead it was page after page after page about yeast and how to grow it and make it. And like 4 recipes for bread. I am being a bit dramatic but I was so disappointed. Nothing like Salt Fat Acid Heat of bread. Returned.

Not just great recipes but also a great read. The author is very knowledgeable. It's rare to find a recipe book that one looks forward to picking it up again to continue to read it. This book not only teaches recipes, facts about various types of breads but also techniques. Besides breads, you'll also learn to make pizza dough.

Very nice scientific book on making bread. Explains why you do each step and gives good pictures to explain the techniques. First bake turned out just like the cover! Only caveat is that you do need a dutch oven or tagine to make these breads. There is some additional equipment (explained in the book) that you need to make breads this way.

This book provides all the information necessary to get started baking artisan bread in systematic way: 1. Measurements are given in metric units for precision (volume measures are provided, too) plus there are bakers' percentages for easy conversion; 2. The necessity of accounting for temperature is thoroughly explained -- temperature of water, flour, room, etc. -- in order to get consistent results; 3. Methods of varying hydration, yeast amount, proofing time, temperature, etc. are provided to help understand how to get the results you want; 4. Basic equipment and supplies are clearly described and pictured. In addition to the science behind baking delicious artisan bread, there is an intriguing backstory of the author's struggles and successes in building what has become a landmark here in Portland, Ken's Artisan Bakery. One word of warning: don't expect to flip open the book and find quick recipes -- this is more about method than fixed recipes. Just like making good bread, reading and understanding this book takes patience, thought and love for tradition, slow cooking and real food.

This book is excessively long and quite repetitive. And so far the recipes form it have failed for me. I think he tries to make it far more complicated than needed.

Bought this for my partner and she hasn't stopped baking bread since. I'm not kidding. I've had fresh bread in my house for well over a month now, and she's showing no signs of slowing the pace. As I type this, smells from the oven are hanging over my dining room. Not only was this a gift to her, but it has - clearly - become a gift to me. So far, the recipes in book have been nothing but excellent, and I'm very excited to have this quality of bread in the house without the massive expense.

This book has joined my shelf of books that include Paul Prudhomme, America's Test Kitchen, and a cache of family recipes. It reveals bread making as both art and science. And the recipes work. Forkish is a passionate baker and a precise writer. His recipes did not confuse or disappoint. One of the best books I've ever read on baking.