All You Knead is Bread by Jane Mason

My rating: 3 of 5 spoons
ggg

I love bread. So many people are addicted to sweets, chocolate (ok, I do love chocolate), etc, but give me a nice, crusty loaf of bread and I am one happy lady!! I think the favorite meal I've ever had was the first evening of my first trip to Sicily when I was given a couple of thick slices of good Italian bread, three kinds of cheese and a big glass of ice water. I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven! My love for bread actually borders on addiction, so I couldn't WAIT to dive into this cookbook. I've been making bread for years, so I'm no novice, but I wouldn't necessarily call myself an expert, either.

I started with the Olive Oil Rolls. I love, love, LOVE Italian breads, so this was an easy choice. Oh, my! These were so easy to make, and a huge hit with my family. Next I went for the Bridge Rolls. Eh. Not so great. They were okay, but definitely not on my "Make these again!" list. I just made the Biovette. Yes, back to Italian breads. Unfortunately, they were another "Eh". I thought I might have made a mistake with the Bridge Rolls and accidentally added too much salt, but these were too salty as well. I did NOT like the method of looking at the dough like a clock and pulling pieces out until they were thin and gently lay them back on the main portion of dough. It seemed more work than necessary, and I didn't like they way the Biovette turned out doing that (I didn't bother with it on the first two breads). I've never heard of doing the dough that way, and don't plan on doing it that way ever again as I certainly didn't like the results.

I love the information given in the first part of the book; really breaking down all the ingredients and aspects of bread making. Unfortunately two of the first three recipes I made, I really wasn't impressed with the results. That coupled with so many of the breads needing special ingredients dropped my rating for it. This is not a book to go on my favorites shelf.

I received a copy of this book from Ryland Peters for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.