Bread and baking books

My picks of the best bread / baking cookbooks and November's theme for The Kitchen Bookshelf cookbook club

November’s theme for our cookbook club here is going to be bread and baking books. And my how this has turned out to be quite the packed cookbook genre! There are a lot of bread / baking books around - and indeed, more on my own shelves than I expected. Once I set about pulling some faves out that very soon built up into quite the pile - and I’m not even that much of a baker….

What I am, though, is a lover of cookbooks that stretch beyond ‘just’ recipes. I like a book that gives some deep-dive nerdy insight; or casts a light on historical / regional cooking; or is a properly empowering ‘how-to’. Also ones those ones that don’t wait for you to cook from them to make you happy - just picking them up brings a smile

My picks below are the bread / baking books that for me hit at least one of those angles squarely and brilliantly. I’d love to know your thoughts and favourites so please do feel free to join in the discussion in the comments here:

Angela x

(scroll down to the end for the info about this month’s book pick and meet-up)

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English Bread and Yeast Cookery by Elizabeth David (1977)

Sift - The Elements of Great Baking by

Nicola Lamb

(2024)

Across these two books you will find the answers to I think any question about how breads and bakes happen. Pretty much the first half of both books is taken up with discussion, insight, and a good smattering of science before letting the reader anywhere near a recipe. Elizabeth David and Nicola Lamb share a desire to empower us with knowledge and skill first. They do it rather differently from each other, of course - as you’d expect with a good 47 years of distance between the books.

I find English Bread and Yeast Cookery to be Elizabeth David’s most useful, most interesting book. She is fascinating about different grains, yeasts, ovens, bread shapes, regional bakes and so much more. And what really strikes me is just how much of what she is saying in 1977 still resonates today. A fab book.

As is Nicola Lamb’s Sift. Ever wondered about the different ratios of making ganache depending on its use / cocoa solids? Curious about the fat percentages of different nut types? Keen to know just how cakes rise or how to substitute different types of sugar in a bake? Nicola has answers to it all. Along with recipes to delight.

These books are, I think, kitchen bookshelf essentials for anyone with even a passing thought of getting stuck into breads and bakes and wanting to know more about the technicalities.

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Lateral Cooking by Niki Segnit (2018)

The A-Z of Eating by Felicity Cloake (2016)