Bernard Clayton Bread Book Thread

[BakerAunt]

Bernard Clayton book

In a used bookstore I came across Bernard Clayton's "new complete book of Breads". published in 1973 . This is such a lovely book, complete with a description of each bread's Origin in the recipe. I don't know why I never heard of it before! It is well worth the 2dollars I paid for it.
posted by: horses272 on January 30, 2014 at 4:25 pm in General discussions

reply by: frick on January 30, 2014 at 5:26 pm
I have heard of that book and must have seen it somewhere. I almost think I must have had a copy but can find no trace of it. I just looked on Amazon and it can be bought for only $1.57 + shipping. I did the "search inside" and found out that 1) he says a cup of flour weighs 4 1/4 ounces; 2) there are detailed diagrams and directions for building your own outdoor oven from cinderblocks. $1.57 sounds like a deal to me.

reply by: ncgnet on January 30, 2014 at 6:05 pm
I bought this years ago, probably from a used book store, and like it very much. One feature is that he describes how to make a recipe by hand or mixer, and sometimes food processor. It is nice to accommodate different techniques. He also wrote a book on pastry, and another on soups and stews.

reply by: Mike Nolan on January 30, 2014 at 10:26 pm
I've got his pastry book, I've made several recipes out of it.

reply by: bakeraunt on January 31, 2014 at 12:39 am
I think this was the first bread book that I ever bought. (I had joined the Book of the Month club in order to get an Oxford English Dictionary at a discount rate, and I had to buy four more books. All four turned out to be cookbooks.) I have both the first and the second edition. The first edition has a salt free bread that I made a few times for a friend's mother who has Meniers' (spelling?) disease (affects balance) and had a highly salt restricted diet. I have the pastry book, and it is the source of my crumb topped apple pie and my pecan pie. I also have the soup and stew cookbook; I cannot recall if I made any of those recipes. Last but not least, he also has a book on "little breads." I need to pull these out and bake from them.

reply by: ncgnet on January 31, 2014 at 10:07 am
I didn't know about the small breads book. Sounds interesting. Since our used bookstore went out of business years ago I'm off to Amazon to get a copy. Glad you mentioned it!

reply by: KAF_MaryJane on February 03, 2014 at 10:35 am
I actually own two copies of this book, I love and use it so much. I always recommend it for new bread bakers, it is packed full of information.
Be sure to check out http://www.abebooks.com for used copies. It's totally worth the search and the $$.

reply by: Mezzoma on February 03, 2014 at 12:32 pm
This is a classic ~ comprehensive and well-tested. I have a bias for no froo-froo (eg "food porn" photos), so I love its straightforward design. My first copy was inadvertently doused with maple syrup in a moving box during a cross-country move. It was years before I decided it was ok to replace it with a new copy (yes, it was tiresome to pull apart pages every time I wanted to try a new recipe...). If anyone reading this doesn't have Clayton's bread book in his/her collection ~ this is the "desert island" bread cookbook. Get it!

And make my personal favorite: Orange Cinnamon Swirl Bread! I've sold it in silent auctions for as much as $35. That's dough! 😉

reply by: frick on February 03, 2014 at 12:45 pm
Wow! That's IS dough. I have a LOT of bread books but maybe I'll bite.

reply by: horses272 on February 04, 2014 at 11:52 am
I have ordered a used copy of his small breads cookbook from Amazon.

reply by: cakestand on February 13, 2014 at 4:55 pm
I bought this book at a used bookstore a few years ago. I must try that orange cinnamon swirl bread. Thanks for the idea. Oh, and I paid $9 for the book.

reply by: bakeraunt on February 27, 2014 at 12:04 am
Ever since the Orange-Cinnamon Swirl Bread was mentioned, I have been wanting to bake it. I looked at both the first edition and the revised edition and decided to use the revised one. I noted that he put twice as much yeast in the revised recipe (4 1/2 tsp.), but I decided to use the SAF gold, since the recipe has half a cup of sugar, and I settled on 3 tsp. I also used half white whole wheat flour and half King Arthur all purpose. I did have to add an additional 3 Tbs. more white whole wheat flour, and the dough was slightly sticky. It might have needed just a bit more flour. Right now the loaves are baking in the oven; the aroma is lovely. I will cool the two loaves overnight and frost them in the morning. I will report back on taste and texture--not to mention the family's verdict.

reply by: bakeraunt on February 28, 2014 at 5:32 pm
The Orange-Cinnamon Swirl Bread, with the changes I noted above, came out very well. I did have to bake it for an additional 5 minutes to get it to 190F. I liked the idea of sprinkling the cinnamon-sugar mixture onto the bread, then spritzing it with water before rolling it up. (Actually, he said sprinkle with a tsp. of water, but I like my spray bottle.) It does not have much orange flavor. That could be because I used Minute Maid orange juice from the carton. I also did not put orange zest in the frosting. I frosted one loaf, which we are eating for breakfast. I froze the other one unfrosted. I would bake this bread again.
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I note that his recipes seem to use a lot of yeast. When I try another one from this book, I may decrease the yeast as I did here.

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