Title:	Complete Starter Guide to Making Bread: From Buns to Baguettes, Essential Recipes for All Bakers
	Author:	Kathryn Hawkins
	Published:	November 5, 2024, IMM Lifestyle
	No. of Pages:	166
	Cover Price:	$16.51 Paperback, $9.99 Kindle

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Making bread at home is a valuable skill, and there are dozens of books out there that help wannabe bakers. Some of these are good, and of course, some aren’t so good. One of the good ones is Complete Starter Guide to Making Bread: From Buns to Baguettes, Essential Recipes for All Bakers, by Kathryn Hawkins, experienced food writer, food stylist, and home economist, as well as a prolific cookbook author. Her experience shows through in this excellent cookbook.

This book begins with an interesting chapter on the history of bread baking, and covers important aspects of bread baking: ingredients, equipment, and basic techniques, including sourdough. She also includes a troubleshooting guide.

The best part of the cookbook, of course, is the recipes. There are recipes for all the regular types of bread, as well as some unique and mouthwatering breads that most bakers will want to try. Each recipe is written in the traditional manner with the ingredients listed first, followed by step-by-step instructions which make it easy to make successful loaves and individual breads, rolls, bagels, etc. Regular flour and bread flour are listed in the recipes, as well as alternative flours (and fats for vegans and dairy free bakers) so the recipes are suitable for everyone – even those on special diets.

Another plus to this cookbook is that there are beautiful, professional photographs of the finished products, and they will inspire everyone to make a long list of “must make soon” breads. All told, this is an excellent cookbook, not only for beginners, but also for experienced bakers. It was easy to adapt the recipes to make the dough in an automatic bread machine, and that is a real plus.
Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.