Amy's Bread, Revised and Updated: Artisan-style breads, sandwiches, pizzas, and more from New York City's favorite bakery

I think it is almost impossible to page through the 2010 edition of "Amy's Bread", by Amy Scherber and Toy Kim Dupree, without wanting to head straight for the kitchen to start baking. Between the book's covers there is something for everybody, and for most bakers, everything they find will be appealing. There are yeasted breads and sourdough breads. There are whole grain breads and brioches. There are breads made with wheat flour, others using rye flour, and beautiful breads made with semolina - a coarsely ground relative of wheat that is more often associated with pastas than with breads. From cover to cover, photographs by Aimee Herring capture the beauty of the breads described in the book's pages. I have little doubt that both the serious home baker and the seasoned professional will both find much of interest in this work.What sets this book apart from most of the 100 or so books on my shelf that are written for the home baker, and a lesser number that are written for the professional, is the authors' focus on their bakery's employees. Photographs of workers, and vignettes that might describe one's sense of humor, or another's background in a field unrelated to baking, are unusual in a text such as this. Their very deliberate inclusion, I believe, is reflective of the authors' certainty that by helping others succeed, the authors will have themselves been successful.Clearly, the passion that the authors bring to their breads and their bakery goes far beyond simply producing recipes and bakery items for sale. First and foremost, they have created a family atmosphere for their employees. You can tell that when you read their book. You can see it in the faces of their employees. You learn about some of the personalities that are behind each loaf of bread that appears at Amy's Bread's various New York locations. Those many people, who come to Amy's Bread and find a life's fulfillment in their work there, create the culinary excellence that the pages of the book portray.I am inspired each time I pick up "Amy's Bread". At one level the inspiration comes from the clarity of the authors' communication, because through that clarity I know that I can produce a reasonable facsimile of the breads they have created and described. I think, however, that the inspiration their book produces has much deeper roots. An enormous labor that went into creating the 2010 edition of Amy's Bread. I have little doubt that the energy that sustained the authors' work on the text springs from the same source as that which fuels the consistent excellence of their bakery - their passion for helping others develop and demonstrate, through baking, an excellence that comes from within.

I have made several recipes from this book and so far been very pleased. The two recipes offered as part of the book description, for example, are both excellent. But that said, the recipes are not that user friendly. Almost an extreme over reaction to the "5 minute a day" approach.But there are a couple of things worth mentioning that make the book a little difficult.1. Most of the recipes in this book involve a lot of water, a stunning amount. For example, one whole wheat recipe that Harold McGee covered in the New York Times uses 18 oz of water to 19.5 oz of flour. That is a 92% water to flour ratio, a stunningly high amount and well over the ranges provided by virtually every other reputable bread book. I have made this recipe from the book. It is a boule and with so much water plus whole wheat, it is difficult for the bread to rise much.The white bread recipe in the Amazon description has an 85% water/flour ratio. But it is white flour and a pan loaf and I can say it tastes extraordinary. It has a great crust and crumb.2. Long, very long total rising time. Most of us are used to a couple of rises, perhaps a sponge or other preferment, etc. This book uses lots of rising cycles. Again, the white bread in the description is typical. It requires 3 separate 1 to 1.5 hour rising cycles before baking. I suggest you carefully read through the recipe times before diving in. The book doesn't give a total start to finish time for its recipes and given the many risings required, it can be quite an investment of time.3. Hand mixing. It is odd to me that given the emphasis on very wet doughs, that the book recommends hand mixing. I enjoy bread making but I am not going to waste time hand kneading a dough with a consistency of thick batter. Use your mixer and save yourself the frustration and mess.In summary. I like the book. The recipes have so far been good. But be cautious of the extremely high level of water. They make an extremely wet dough that is very hard to work with. Use your mixer and plan out a long day for making any of the breads.Enjoy.

Amy's Bread turned up when I was searching for recipes for sourdough. My first batch just came out of the oven, and it is heavenly. I made the Tangy 24-Hour Sourdough because of a sourdough craving I've been having. Note that this is clearly indicated to be one of the more invovled recipes and not for beginners. It is a long process, especially the first time when you have to make the starter. Ignoring Amy's suggestions that beginners start with easier recipes, I decided to dive right in and make the sourdough. The instructions are excellent, and my loaves of sourdough came out golden brown, crispy on the outside and soft as can be on the inside. They are even better than I imagined, especially for my first time baking bread.I recommend getting a sourdough starter (like King Arthur Flour's) and then building up Amy's White Sourdough Starter, Rye Sourdough Starter, and Rye Salt Sour Starter from there. You'll need to get a good stock of ingredients that you may not have, as Amy recommends organic flours, such as organic rye, that you may not be able to find in your local grocery. I also needed to purchase some crocks to store the starters in the refrigerator.My Tangy 24-Hour Sourdough process actually took about a week from when I received a sourdough starter from KAF. The time was needed to build up the proper starters, and then to feed them and make sure they were active before baking. I was skeptical and didn't think bread I made at home would satisfy my craving for San Francisco sourdough, but I have been totally floored by the bread I just tasted.

Ich war vergangenes Jahr in New York und wohnte unweit einer Amy's Bread Filiale im Stadtteil Hells Kitchen.Die Schlange, wartender Kunden reichte aus dem Geschäft raus bis vor das Schaufenster.Der Grund wurde mir schnell klar als ich mich endlich vor die erste Produktauswahl schieben konnte.Eine Bäckerei mit angeschlossenem, kleinen Café ist jetzt zwar nicht die neueste Entdeckung aber die Auswahl an Broten, Brötchen und überhaupt die Zusammenstellung der Back- und auch der Süßwaren ist das Markenzeichen dieser (wie ich kurze Zeit später herausfand) überaus erfolgreichen Bäckerei Kette. Inhaber geführt, liefert Amy's Bread Brot- und Süßwaren in viele New Yorker Cafés und Restaurants.Das Buch wurde auch Vorort angeboten. Aber ich kam erst darauf es zu kaufen als ich schon wieder Zuhause war.Nachdem ich es bei Amazon fand, habe ich es mir sofort bestellt und legte auch gleich (als praktisch vollkommen unerfahrener Bäcker) losgelegt. Man sollte schon grundlegende Englisch Kenntnisse besitzen um die Anleitungen sinnvoll interpretieren zu können. Aber die Beschreibung ist durchaus leicht verständlich und nachvollziehbar. Auch die Masseinheiten sind korrekt umgerechnet. Amy hat wohl darauf bestanden neben den Volumen und Messbecherangaben auch Gramm als Maßeinheit aufzuführen.Kurzum; wer das New Yorker Backfeeling in der heimischen Küche aufleben lassen möchte, wird hiermit viel Freude haben.

Interestin book, I love she tells you where you can buy all the staff you will need to bake bread, it is soo important, and I love the recipes and the photos, I leared with it. congratulations Amy!!!