Wild Yeast

Notes from my kitchen, in which I bake bread and raise a few other matters

Bread Baking: An Artisan’s Perspective Giveaway

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What burning bread questions are on your mind ? How do you know how long a dough should ferment? What is the ideal baking temperature? What is an Auvergnat and how do you shape it? In his book Bread Baking: An Artisan’s Perspective, Daniel DiMuzio lets us in on all of it.

This is a textbook, aimed at baking students. It is not a cookbook, although there are a few formulas. But if you’re a bread geek like me (come on, you can admit it), you will find plenty here to interest and inform. It is technical stuff, presented very clearly so even those of us who are not pros can make sense of it.

Chapter by chapter, DiMuzio, a baker and baking instructor, takes us through each step of the bread baking process: ingredient selection, mixing, fermentation (what is that yeast really up to in there?), shaping, proofing, and baking. He explains not only what to do, but why to do it. There is also a chapter about rich and laminated doughs, and one on how to create your own dough formula.

Courtesy of Dan and of publisher Wiley, I have a copy of this great book to give away. All you have to do is leave a comment here by 11:59 PM PST on Monday, April 13 for a chance in the random drawing. International entries are welcome in this one. Remember, you cannot win if you do not play!

CommentsLeave a comment

  1. I am a bread geek for sure. 🙂 I’ve been following your blog for a month or so now and love it.
    Would love the book. :o)
    Susie in northern NY

  2. I’m just starting to bake breads – and I’m doing good, wich *really* makes me happy, cause I was very scared of yeast. And I mean, very! 😀

    I would love to learn all the ins and outs of bread bakings – I like to understand everything I do!

    Thanks for this opportunity.

  3. I just left some pizza dough rising in the kitchen, then I come here and read about a book about making bread!
    I was actually planning on making some raisin bread later, as well.
    That book would be awesome to have.

  4. Oh my, another giveaway! Don’t know where I would put that book as my shelves are brimming with books, but…

  6. A better understanding of the way the “mysterious” ways bread dough works would be great!

    Thanks for this website!
    Ulli

  8. I am a novice bread baker and the going has been good so far. This book would definitely be a great addition to any bread lover’s bookshelf.

  9. I found you and your blog only recently, but I follow in love with all this bread (and your recipes). I’m a novice in bread making, but I love so much know what my family and I eat every single day…so the knowledge is welcome! Thanks for the opportunity and for your awesome blog. Martina

  10. This sounds like a great book. The main probem I have with recipes in general is the lack of the “why”. Although Richard Bertinet’s books have been a huge help. But this one sounds like a must have!

    And thank you for a very inspiring blog!

  15. I’d love to win! I love baking bread and it would be great to get this kind of book.

  16. I’m pretty casual and imprecise when it comes to yeast breads. I probably could use a book to make more more careful and precise (although your blog does a good job of it as well).

  18. I barely even bake right now! I mostly make quick breads (my beer bread is awesomest) but I did make naan the other day, and it turned out ok. But man, I am a nerd for cooking science. This book looks sweet.

  19. I have just moved to Netherlands from Canada and currently have lots of time on my hands to indulge in my 2 food passions – baking and indian food – and my newest hobby, browsing through the amazing food blogs that are available.
    Wild Yeast is my weekly treat on a Friday morning – thank you for sharing with us all!

  20. This book sounds really interesting. I have been looking for something like this, thank you for giving such a great book away!

  22. Ohhh, I’ve only recently discovered this website and I’m loving it already. Being Irish I loved the recent guiness and Rye Bread. I’d love to understand the whole process more so I could know why things go wrong sometimes, or how to adjust recipes to suit what I’m looking for.

  23. This book sounds interesting- I’ll ask my library to get a copy. Hopefully I can win a copy too!

  24. I have fallen in love with the home breadmaking and enjoy your website’s perspective, commentary, and recipes. I enjoy learning about the “whys” as well as the “hows,” so I would definately enjoy a copy of this book.

  26. I love books that get all scientific and techie but remain accessible. That’s such a skill in an author. And the man can bake bread too!

    Please include me in your draw 🙂

  27. I have just found my love of making yeast breads. In the past I would knead the dough and my wrists would suffer. For some reason (thankfully!) my wrists are cooperative now. I love the zoning in on the dough and staying there for ten minutes. It’s relaxing!

  28. Oh! I have been wanting to get my hands on this book! I have heard great things about it. Thanks for offering it to us:)

  29. If only there were more books available to general bakers that gave this kind of information. First of all, so many of my acquaintances and some family members say with pride that they never cook. One person even built a house without a kitchen. But if people only knew why certain proportions are important or certain ingredients affect “chewiness”, etc., I think they would be more excited about cooking.
    Maybe not, maybe they just don’t care but it’s been one of my main interests since I watched my grandmother create magic in the kitchen. I won’t get my hopes up of winning to book because I hate disappointment but I sure would LOVE it !

  30. I am loving that all these great artisan bread baking books are coming out now. Now if only I had more time to bake everything. (I’d love to win a copy too!)

  32. obsessed…yes! i’ve been following the blog for a while and have heard wonderful things about this book. thanks for making it available to us!

  33. This looks like just the sort of ‘cookbook’ I would like! I always want to really understand what’s going on in a recipe, rather than just blindly following instructions. Something that explains the concepts behind the process is much more interesting to me.

  34. How exciting. Bread baking is what keeps me occupied in the winter when I can’t garden. So I’m naturally into the “science” of it.

  36. I just started getting into baking with wild sourdough starter, and would love to learn more about the technical aspects of baking bread. I would love a copy of this book.

  38. This sounds like an awesome book! One of the problems I have with making bread is that I don’t know *why* things go into the recipe so I feel uncomfortable changing them, even when they don’t work. This sounds right up my alley!

  39. I love learning why things work the way they do (it’s the scientist in me). This book looks really interesting, and I’d love a copy!

  40. Oh my goodness, another book to love. Pick me, pick me!

    Breadbaking is the most peaceful respite I know. Receiving this book would make it that much more of a delight.

  42. Will I be lucky this time? I hope so, the stone I have done myself, but the book….

  44. i am still in the early beginning stages but i am hooked and this book would sure help to deepen my understanding.

  45. I would love LOVE to have this book to cherish forever and use to improve my technical baking skills!!!!!!!

  48. I’ve been making bread for years but still don’t know why it works, just glad that it does most of the time. I’m clearing out a space on my bookshelf as we speak. Great blog Susan – just love it!

  49. Looks like a lovely, very helpful book. I am still going strong with my New Year’s resolution to not buy and sliced bread at all this year. So far I have made every loaf my boyfriend and I have eaten! However I’m still terrified of sourdough. As soon as I can buy myself a kitchen scale I plan on trying your recipe Susan.

  50. hi!
    i started to work with sourdough few months ago and i felled in love, but like love i dont truly and fully undersatnd it.
    also im serving in the Israeli army now, so i could use this book to learn good things instead of the bad things that surround me all the time.

    thanks alot.
    Tal

  52. I just took my first lean dough breadmaking class. This book would be a great addition to my instruction! Thanks for the opportunity!

  54. I’m a mechanical engineering graduate student studying fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and protein transport. I also teach undergraduate courses in many related fields. One of my favorite things to do is to give “experiments” that the students can try at home, and cooking is one of the best (especially since it is relatively gender-neutral for the current generation).

    With that background, I flipped through this book at a bookstore in Portland and saw many things that I wanted to talk about in classes. The science isn’t in-depth compared to a research journal, of course, but there is plenty of description, allowing me to have concrete examples of principles and to speculate on things I can’t authoritatively explain.

  55. It’s amazing how easy it is to geek out on bread. I’m about to get started in home brewing, and I think I may geek out on that as well. Oh well, life could be a lot worse.

  56. For me there is almost no limit to how much information you can use especially when presented understandably. Thanks for the notice of a good reference.

  57. This is right my husband’s and my alley. We don’t just love to cook/bake, we like to know how it all works! This book sounds like it would be good for learning some of the science behind the art.

  58. This book speaks to the inner geek in me who really wants to know the how and why of bread.

  59. I just dimpled my cooked polenta-based biga-raised pizza dough with olive oil and bruschetta herbs… I do want to know what the heck the -wild- yeast is doing in there!
    (and because I finally ordered books from the US and forgot to include Maggies Artisan Baking… yes my eyes are still red)

  60. Hey! I’m 16 from San Diego and I stumbled on your blog after yet another baking mishap involving capturing wild yeast for a sourdough starter . . . . what I captured instead was a layer of blue fuzz all over my starter. After a look around your page though I just felt that I had to bookmark it.

    Baking bread is just one of those things for me. I come from a family of bread aficionados and prolific bakers but somehow the genes just didn’t get passed to me, because I am a scourge upon bakeries. It’s just so frustrating to lump all these ingredients together, throw them in an oven and cross my fingers, hope everything goes okay just to take out a dense, misshapen brick of cooked dough.

    What does yeast even DO?? Hopefully I’ll get the hang of this baking thing. Something about putting dough in a dark oven and closing the door just seems so daunting. Everything else in cooking just makes so much sense, but the science behind baking just seems to elude me so.

    Maybe this book will help make a bread baker out of me! That’ll show all of my cousins!
    Thanks for the opportunity 🙂

    -Ian

  61. i would like to win a copy so i can become a better bread “geek” 🙂 and because i do like to understand how/why things work – not just how to follow a formula/recipe.

    thanks for doing the give away.
    jacquie

  62. I believe I’d love this book for I’m sure it cuts to the heart of the baker’s battle between science and art – Is this conflict not tantamount to that between good and evil? OK, maybe not as dramatic, but still there are some analogies!

    Thanks much for making us aware of it.

  63. Oooo… Coming from a family of cooks/bakers who read cookbooks like novels, this sounds like a great book. Thanks for the opportunity!

  65. I guess I could be called a bread geek, there is nothing really wrong with that.

  66. As a newly-avid breadmaker how could I resist this invitation?? Have just found your blog and am anxious to delve into all your learned advice – the good, the bad, and the ugly! Thanks for the chance to get really geeky with you!

  69. Yes, please. My sourdough has taken on oh so many exciting shapes (flat! saucer! round!) and it would be great to understand why…

  71. Well, I admit it. I am a bread geek! I would love to have this book. Thanks for sharing.

  72. Oh, wow. This would be -perfect-! I just wasted about $3 worth of hard-to-find coarse-ground rye flour and rye berries making a Bavarian rye from Reinhart’s book that just flopped 🙁

  73. I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeed that book!!!!! Thank you so much for the opportunity and for having this drawing!

    Am in a tight situation and can’t afford it!

    Good luck to all,

    Lisa

  76. Happy to hear this one includes us Canucks! Loving your blog–thanks so much for sharing your wit and bread adventures. Lisa

  79. I would love to have this book! I am still learning and experimenting with baking, but I am fascinated by how it all works.

    Your blog is such an inspiration — keep up the good work!

  81. I have recently fallen in love once again with bread baking- it has been many years since I have baked yeast breads. Your blog has been very inspiring, and I now have my own sourdough starter. I would love to learn more from this book.

  82. ‘Bread geek’ may describe me to a T, I’m an engineer by training and a computer consultant by trade.

  84. I really enjoy your website and visit quite often! Thanks for the opportunity to win such a cool book.

  88. As someone who enjoys baking bread, mostly sourdough or reading on how to improve that art… I would like to be included in your giveaway.

  89. Judging by the preview it’s a nice book although probably not something I’d spend my money on. But a freebee? I am in!

  92. I looked at the first chapter on Amazon.com – it looks like a good companion for my other bread books.

  94. I would love to have this book. I am currently a line cook in Napa, but would love to move into bread baking. Would really like to attend the San Francisco bread school.

  97. thanks for doing this!

    are you planning on reviewing the book at some point? i was wondering how you liked it, compared to, say, “advanced bread and pastry”?

  98. I’ve been slowly learning some of the art of baking bread, but I have yet to have enough $$$ to splurge on a good artisan bread book.

    Thanks for these opportunities to get lucky instead!

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