True artisans of bread making continue to inspire novices to learn the craft, and they inspire pros to explore new breads for themselves and bread-making techniques to offer the public.
An artisan bread maker is a person who is skilled in traditional or authentic methods, resulting in excellent-tasting, high-quality bread.
The most popular bread-making gurus are listed here—they are current top-selling authors, authors of timeless classics, and the first authors of artisan books.
Among the very best bread-making gurus who brought use the first artisan books are:
1. Edward Espe Brown,
The Tassajara Bread Book, (1970, latest revision 2009). Yeast and non-yeast breads, pastries, sourdough, and other things to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
2. Joe Ortiz,
The Village Baker: Classic Regional Breads from Europe and America, (1983). A compilation of the best classic breads from France, Germany, Italy, and America.
These books are classics, according to Floyd Mann of The Fresh Loaf website:
3. Peter Reinhart,
Brother Juniper’s Bread Book, (2005). Thirty recipes from seed bread to sticky buns.
4. Daniel Leader,
Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe’s Best Artisan Bakers, (2007). A wide range of European breads made with various European techniques.
5. Jim Lahey,
My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method, (2009). Italian-inspired bread recipes that employ a no-knead technique using a Dutch oven.
6. Jeffrey Hamelman,
Bread: A Bakers Book of Techniques and Recipes, (2013). An advanced bakers’ book that received the Julia Child Award for best First Book.
The top four best-selling bread books on Amazon’s list as of Nov. 5, 2013, are:
7. Julie Hatfield,
Top 50 Most Delicious Homemade Bread Recipes, (2013). This compilation of popular breads was created from the results of an Internet poll.
8. Peter Reinhart and Ron Manville,
The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread, (2001). Discussion and recipes on a variety of classic breads.
9. Zoe Francois,
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking, (2007). Easy and simple bread making.
10. Beth Hensperger,
The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook: A Master Baker’s 300 Favorite Recipes for Perfect-Every-Time Bread—From Every Kind of Machine, (2000). Recipes for bread machines by a James Beard Award-winning author.