Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I began baking bread about 7 years ago. The books that made the biggest influence on me on this journey have been "Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day" and "Bread Baker's Apprentice" and finally this book. "5 Minutes" turned out to not lead to the most satisfying of breads, just too many shortcuts were taken. But, "Apprentice" could sometimes just take too long, you had to spend practically all day with careful attention, but the results were incredible! I tried to find a middle ground using techniques from both, and developed my own style that could produce good results, but reduced the amount of labor since I have a day job after all. Particularly the recipes for ciabatta and pain l'ancienne were excellent in "Apprentice". Then I found this book. Ken confirms many of the techniques that I'd already been using, and then added a whole slew more that I could utilize. Note, this book focuses on baking one particular style of bread: the slack-dough (high hydration) country rustic boule. But, it does this very, very well. Also, after years of baking, this is the type of bread that I found to be the easiest, most flexible, and often the most rewarding to bake. It is also pleases everyone, bread aficionados and those who have never tasted artisan bread before. The real beauty lies in that you can use Forkish's techniques to bake bread regularly with very little work and get absolutely stunning, flavorful, and healthy results. Highly recommend his techniques for whole wheat breads, the 40 and 50% varieties are very healthy and so flavorful you would think you are eating a decadent white french bread. So, in short, if you want to bake incredibly delicious rustic breads regularly without much effort, this is the book to buy. But, if you have the time on your hands, and want to bake many other styles and types of breads, may want to also look up Reinheart's Bread Baker's Apprentice. But, I'll say this, after years of baking from "Apprentice", I hardly ever crack it open anymore now that I found this book unless I want to bake a specific type of bread like challah or need help with shaping for baguettes.