Beth HenspergerReseñas

This book really is a bible. I made a few breads out of it and hope I can get a hard cover copy for my bday. There are a ton more I'd love to try out. I highly suggest getting this book if you are a baker and have a bread machine.

Every recipe I've tried in this cookbook has been a winner.

Learned to make bread with this one.

I've read the book but haven't tried any of the recipes yet so I'm going to hold off rating until I have some practical experience with the recipes under my belt. I like what I've seen, though!

Got it from the library and was so impressed I went out and bought it. Not giving it a five star review only because I haven't tested the recipes myself yet... They LOOK great and I'm looking forward to trying many of them. Saw a review that gave the book one star because the whole wheat bread recipes use bread flour in addition to whole wheat flour. Goodness, I can only assume that judgmental reviewer has never actually baked with only whole wheat flour! There are reasons why whole wheat baked goods are "lightened" with a mix of other flours...flours are not interchangeable, and whole wheat-only baked goods can easily turn out unpleasantly dense, heavy, crumbly, and downright inedible. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-makes-whole-grain-bread-so-hard-...

This is a pretty good starter book for bread machine baking. Eventually, you get a little tired of the author's seemingly indiscriminate use of Vital Wheat Gluten and the unindexed portions of the text. This is an easy book to start with and an easy book to grow out of.

This is a pretty good starter book for bread machine baking. Eventually, you get a little tired of the author's seemingly indiscriminate use of Vital Wheat Gluten and the unindexed portions of the text. This is an easy book to start with and an easy book to grow out of.

Not impressed. Had to fix every recipe I tried.

I received this book from the publisher via Netgalley.

I've owned and loved a Zojirushi rice cooker for years and rely on it almost weekly to make batches of sushi or brown rice, and I've made quinoa in it, too. I've heard rice cookers are capable of doing more, but wasn't sure how. This book outlines innovative new recipes in good detail, with some caveats: all cookers are different, and the book recommends manufacturer guidelines and tools (like the special rice measuring cup) be relied on foremost. I have never used the porridge setting on my cooker, and I was surprised to find that it can even make grits and beans. I'm very curious to try things like saffron risotto and forbidden rice in my cooker now, too.

The major fault I found in the book was that it lacked adequate pictures. Sure, photographs of plain white rice may not add a lot, but some how-to illustrations would be useful at points. There are more photographs near the end of the book as more elaborate recipes are presented, but it still didn't feel like quite enough.

I look forward to using this book to experiment with my cooker in the coming months.

Great recipes!
I love slow cooker recipes being a working mom.

I owned this cookbook on an ebook. It’s all about muffins!

I owned this cookbook on an ebook. It’s all about bread!

Lots of good tips at the beginning and throughout, with the occasional small line drawing illustration. The recipes for rye and pumpernickel breads looked tempting, but there is a long ingredient list for each. I tried the whole wheat (not a huge success) and the potato bread (a lot of work, but it makes two loaves - I did one in a tin and one as a boule - and was fabulous).

so far quite tasty & worth gleaning thru

A master baker's 300 favorite recipes for perfect every time bread from every kind of machine

Very good. Specialty book for special purpose device.
The rice cooker cooks rice perfectly. The cycles, whether or not the device has a sensor, are excellently engineered. If you can plan ahead and use the timer, or start the cooker and prepare the rest of the meal while the rice cooks, it is an invaluable device.
It steams vegetables, on their own or while the rice cooks - this depends on what you use. It also does oatmeal, barley and other grain.
This book explained the peculiarities of the device incuding the rice cooker cup - an non-standard measurement device. Most recipes are standard cups.
The device will cook paella and risotto, but these dishes may work better in a saucepan on the stove. These dishes involve heating oil or butter, and cooking onions and garllic and blooming spices. A rice cooker does this. The rest of the cooking cycle is just cooking the rice. The more complicated recipes that involve heating an oil to coating the rice in the cooker and resettiing to a normal cycle may not work as written. The sensor will lock out and not accept a cooking schedule if the cooker is used for this first. For a sensor machine it makes sense to saute the aromatics in a skillet and pour into the cooker, add fluid and set to cook. But for this effort, a saucepan may just be more efficient.

I realize bread machines are a little out-of-fashion, and I do have non-machine bread baking experience -- I really enjoy it, but almost never do it because I don't feel like I have the time / don't want to heat up the kitchen / don't think about it. I also am not totally satisfied with the browning capabilities of my current oven -- it just doesn't do bread that well. My lovely bread machine though, is so easy! I get the feeling of accomplishment from making a homemade loaf of bread without getting myself and the kitchen totally covered with flour, and the enclosed little oven doesn't heat up the kitchen and browns the bread just the way I ask it to. This book is an exhaustive look at all the things you can do in your bread machine and includes recipes for pretty much every kind of bread or roll or pastry or dough that I've ever heard of. Hensperger is an accomplished and enthusiastic baker (both with and without the machine) and her notes on ingredients, baking processes, baking science, and the history of different kinds of bread are fascinating. I actually read the whole cookbook!

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-bread-lovers-bread-machine-cookbook.ht... ]

Pumpernickel Raisin Bread, p.84; pretty good; probably better if I'd made sure I had the correct ingredients.

I love my rice cooker and really had hoped that this would be something I could use frequently. I bought this right after I got the rice cooker and just really didn't think that it gave the basics well. I also didn't find that the recipes were well-suited to my family's tastes.

I love my rice cooker and really had hoped that this would be something I could use frequently. I bought this right after I got the rice cooker and just really didn't think that it gave the basics well. I also didn't find that the recipes were well-suited to my family's tastes.

AMAZING. Everything I've made out of here has turned out awesome. I love it!

I've had a lot of fun with this cookbook. All the ingredients are simple and pure, and the outcome always gets rave reviews. Highly recommended.

Am using the basic white recipe in here as my trial recipe until I actually get my bread to look like a loaf and not some mutant. More than just recipes, Hensperger gives tips and details about breads, baking, ingredients, etc.

Also, I love the layout of the recipes. The ingredients are boxed off to the side or below while the instructions are numbered and the main part of the page.

I would put this on my cookbook shelf as a permanent resident.

Didn't get a chance to make too much from this. My one quibble just from skimming recipes is that most of them fall into 6 hours or so (many quite a bit less) of cooking, which doesn't work for me on weekdays. That, and if I'm using the slow cooker, it means I'm feeling LAZY (and/or are trying to cook before work), so I can't handle a whole lot of pre-prep.

All that said, I made chili, and it was DELICIOUS. Also appreciated the tip of "poaching" frozen chicken for use later. (Would cook a little less time (was almost overdone at 6 hours), maybe add some Johnny's Seasoning Salt to the broth.)

Definitely want to get my own copy to try out more recipes.

Best Little Bread making book for organic, non gluten & alternative flours