The Breads of France and How to Bake Them in Your Own Kitchen

by Bernard Clayton Jr.

These recipes, collected while the author was touring, range from classic French breads and regional breads to croissants and brioches, and were repeatedly tested for compatibility with American ingredients

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Canon

285 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Bernard Clayton Jr., a newspaper reporter whose love for fresh bread inspired him to master the art of baking and write several classic cookbooks on bread and pastry, died on March 28 in Bloomington, Ind. He was 94.

Reviews

[Heidi]

Half cookbook; half culinary adventures. I enjoyed the brief histories of the various breads and the tweaks that different people made to the same recipes. I planned to cook my way through this but with rampant obesity in the US and all I decided to cook a few. Trying to master the croissant from this book was fun, sad and just plain delicious. If you like breads of all kinds this is a good one for the moderate baker.

[Sara]

A wonderful exploration of the breads of France, like a cooking tour for those of us at home. Clayton includes all the information one would need to start an adventure in bread making. Not for the beginning bread maker, though the recipes include plenty of instructions for those who take the time.

[Kirk Dobihal]

Not an easy to do bake book on bread. Measurements not by mass, more by volume. Have made two breads both Pain de Compagne and they turned out remarkable.