Cookbook Review: The River Cottage Bread Handbook

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a force of nature.  He's a TV chef (in the UK), but unlike so many of our TV chefs, he's a thoughtful, inspiring intellectual, whose monumental culinary knowledge is matched only by his absolute lack of pretension.  It's no understatement to say that I'm a bit of a fan.  I first became aware of him when I read his brilliant book The River Cottage Meat Book, which is one of the books I consider required reading for any serious chef.  It is a massive compendium, one of the best I've seen to tackle the topic.  That's his major work, and you should go on Amazon and order one right now.

His handbooks are more of a side hustle.  Small (~200 pages), single-topic books covering such diverse topics as preserves, fermenting, fishing, fruit, booze, and, in this case, bread.  They can seem a little expensive for what they are, but if you keep an eye on eBay or Amazon, you can get them for less than $15, which is a great price.

The Concept:  In this book, Whittingstall and the author, Daniel Stevens, take on the subject of bread.  The recipe starts with the basics, yeast-risen wheat dough formed into simple loaves.  Rather than list off 1000 different recipes, they present bread as a fomula, and give the reader the tools to customize their own dough, which is a refreshing and innovative take.  After this, the book takes the reader through sections covering specialty breads (sweet and savory), quick breads, and a terrific section on things to do with left-over bread.  Last, their is a short chapter containing detailed instructions on how to make a clay oven for outdoor baking.  I don't have a yard, but it's still a nice touch.

The Specs: 223 pages, 50-odd recipes (although that is a soft figure, given that the first recipe, 'basic bread,' is presented with about a dozen variations, combined with enough options as to make the potential range of varieties virtually inexhaustible.

What's Good: Everything.  Almost.  Nearly everything.  This is a fantastic book to learn to bake out of.  Rather than trying to teach the reader individual recipes, Stevens and Whittingstall teach the reader how to bake bread.  It's less about recipe and more about process.  When there are recipes, they work, and are easy to follow.  The best part of the book is its emphasis on troubleshooting.  The authors plainly state that your first couple of batches aren't going to be perfect.  However, they provide the reader with ample resources to figure out what's gone wrong.  This is an astounding innovation for a book for the home cook.  Every book should embrace this technique.  That would be a genuine game-changer.

What Stinks:  Nothing serious.  The only issue at hand is that the book is very, very British, meaning that occasionally, they reference a product that isn't commercially available in the States (for instance, malted grain flour, sold in the UK under the 'Granary' brand), and sticking to Celsius for temperatures.  Given that we all have powerful computers in our pockets, this isn't a huge issue, but it's a little unwieldy.  Still, not a big problem.

Recipes Tested:

Basic Bread: 4 ingredients: bread flour, salt, yeast, water.  I made 2 attempts, and didn't achieve perfection, but I did achieve marked improvement from the first batch to the second.  The first bread's crust was too pale, and its texture was dense and cakey.  After consulting the troubleshooting chart, I found that my initial high-temp bake was insufficient, and I didn't prove long enough.  I corrected, and the second batch had a really nice crust, and an improved texture.  Yeah, I've got a few more reps to get in before I can call my bread a real success, but I'm going the right direction.  The book gives fantastic guidance.

Crumpets: I know you've all asked yourselves, at some point, exactly what the hell a crumpet is.  I had no idea.  It's funny, I am familiar with such esoteric dishes as rabbit liver mousse, Hmong raw beef salad, blood sausage, horse tartare, and raw sea urchin gonads, but until reading this book, I had no idea what a crumpet was.  American restaurants just don't serve them.  The answer, in case you're wondering, is they are little yeasted pancakes cooked in a griddle in steel rings.  Imagine an English muffin with a little more of a crepe-y consistency.  The bubbles create lots of little holes, designed to soak butter into.  They are delicious, although I'm not sure I will make them often, since I don't really do tea.  (Although they would be a nice accompaniment to a foie gras pate, that could be pretty hip...  Maybe...)

Scones: Astute readers will remember these as the basis of the rhubarb shortcake I wrote about in December.  This is a great little scone recipe.  Buttery little sweet, biscuit-like bites of rich, delicious dough.  Super easy and quick to make, too, so if you want to impress someone with a hot breakfast, this would be a nice little trick to pull out.  My only issue with the recipe was that it yielded far less than it said it would, which is a pet peeve of mine.  (Imagine cooking for a group and only getting 5 scones, when the recipe promised 8.  I hate that.  But it seems to be an isolated incident.)  Also, it's not the prettiest picture, but this is what scones look like when topped with Bon Maman raspberry preserves and gigantic amounts of expensive European butter:

Summer Pudding: Yeah, yeah, I made a 'summer' pudding in December.  Whatever, dude, those Mexican greenhouse raspberries are awesome.  This is from the chapter of recipes to use up leftover bread.  Essentially, this dish is nothing more than macerated berries, poured into a pudding basin (or in my case, a steel mixing bowl) lined with slices of old bread.  Then, you press it overnight, and the whole thing comes together into a sliceable cake (?).  Not 100% sure what to call it, but it worked out great.  I don't love the photo.  I feel like it would have looked nicer if the juice had saturated every part of the bread, and I am willing to bet that the reason it didn't is that I was using my first attempt, the bread that was too dense.  However, I stand by the photo, because making something out of the substandard bread was very much in the spirit of the book.  Also, the pudding looked a lot better on a plate with some ice cream and macerated berry juice.

The Verdict: Amazing book.  Well-written, ample photos, innovative approach to teaching, and it was under $20.  4.5/5, definitely recommend.  (I reserve 5/5 for required reading.  I'll let you know when I find it.)