Make Ahead Bread by Donna Currie

Make Ahead Bread
100 Recipes for Melt-in-Your-Mouth Fresh Bread Every Day
Donna Currie
The Taunton Press, Inc.
ISBN: 9781627103954
Paperback: 208 pages

About the Book:

Two Steps to Breaking Bread. Make Ahead Bread de-mystifies the bread-baking process with simple recipes and easy-to-follow steps for fresh-from-the-oven bread. Plus there's an entire chapter devoted to baking ingredients and equipment. Follow home baker Donna Currie's simple two-step process to baking delicious, fresh, yeast breads:

Step One – mix and knead the dough, then let it rest for 1-2 days while you enjoy life Step Two – bake.

Yes, it's that simple.

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Breads. Your home will smell amazing while you bake any of the 100 recipes in Make Ahead Bread, including all of these:

Loaf Breads – Bacon, Tomato and Cheddar Loaf; Maple Sugar and Walnut Loaf Buns, Rolls, Breadsticks – Slider Buns; Cheesy Breadstick Twists Flatbreads – Chicago-style Pan Pizza; Semolina Focaccia Pastries – Breakfast Sausage Danish; Traditional Croissants, and more. Now, you're never too busy to bake bread! Yeast bread isn't complicated to make, but because it needs time to rise, it’s not always easy to fit it into time available - that’s until now. Make Ahead Bread gives inexperienced bakers and busy home cooks the information you need to make flavorful, freshly baked bread on a schedule that works for you.

Leftovers? Just in case you have any leftovers, this book also features many recipes for your extra bread like Almond Butter Bread Pudding; Artichoke, Olive and Tomato Strata; and Overnight French Toast. Plus recipes for scrumptious butters and spreads are included, such as: Chunky Apple and Cinnamon Spread and Chocolate Butter to name a few.

My Thoughts:

Refrigerating bread dough to allow for a slow rise is nothing new. It has been done for years - my mother did it and so did my grandmother.

I was excited to get a copy of this to review. I have tried this technique when I've been in a time crunch or when I want a nice delicate loaf. When I tried some of the recipes from this book, I was surprised to find they didn't always turn out the way I wanted. I had problems with the second rise, so sometimes I would just skip the first rise, knead the dough, form it and then put it in the fridge to have a slow rise. I did have success that way.

The recipes are yummy - but you may need to experiment on how to get these to raise the way you want them to.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley courtesy of the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review, but instead, one that gives my honest opinion.