Friday, June 11, 2010

Book Review & Giveaway: "52 Loaves: One Man’s Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning and a Perfect Crust."

What constitutes the perfect loaf of bread? It takes author, William Alexander, approximately 52 loaves to figure out that bread making is an art form and everyone has their own methods and ideas of what the perfect bread actually is. Through this book you follow William on his quest for finding the perfect loaf. He travels to Canada and France and makes visits to both a yeast factory and wheat mill The book keeps you engaged until the very end with the last loaf of bread being baked.

Just to be clear this is not a bread baking manual; but rather it provides you with the history of the bread making process and helps you make sense of what happens during this process. William’s journey takes the reader through a multitude of bread baking techniques; explaining the pros and cons of each. He builds a brick oven, grows his own wheat, even gives lessons to monks. If you’ve ever tried making bread at home you will appreciate Williams efforts and will realize that you are not alone on the quest for the “perfect loaf”

And now for the Giveaway.  One lucky reader will be randomly selected to receive a copy of "52 Loaves"
Just leave a comment below by midnight on June 16th.   You'll get etra entrees if you tweet this contest...just make sure to also let me know that in your comment. 

Good Luck!

10 comments:

  1. What an interesting book! Being a new bread baker myself, I think it would be such a good read. thanks for reviewing it and for holding this giveaway!

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  2. This sounds like a really interesting book. I have made homemade bread but I am far from perfecting it. Have a nice weekend!

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  3. I heard of this book before...sounds like a great read!

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  4. I hadn't heard of this one, but it does sound interesting.

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  5. I love reading about bread...almost as much as I like eating it! I read a book previously about the history of pizza dough...I believe the author's name was Peter, but I can't think of his last name. Very good book. Bread is much more complex than we realize. A lot of science goes on inside that little loaf.

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  6. Wow! That's a lot of bread! I've been on a sweet and sour kick and have been making a ton of sweet and sour recipes, I'll be blogging that soon. A couple of years back, I was on a quest for making the perfect white sauce for pizza. Thanks for finding my blog, I hope you enjoy the recipes!

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  7. I love this! I have just begun seriously baking bread over the last year, and this book seems right up my alley. I'm so glad I found your site...you are doing great things!

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  8. This is really interesting! Sounds like just the book for any bread aficionados out there.

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  9. WIth all the bread baking foodies, this sounds like a great book. I think it should be on my to buy list.

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