The Tassajara Bread Book

Edward Espe Brown

This is the quintessential bible of bread baking. In the 1970’s every hippy that liked to bake had this cookbook. Well, guess who STILL has her 1970 edition priced at $3.50? This cookbook is published by the first Zen Monastery in the Americas, which is located in Monterey County, California. The directions are easy to follow and the illustrations really help to walk you through the recipes. This is bread making made easy with the knowledge that it’s tough to make a bad loaf of bread. I have successfully adapted some of the recipes for my bread maker, but there really is something to say for making bread the "old fashioned way," with loving hands. (If you are in San Francisco they serve bread made by the monastery in the Greens Restaurant at Fort Mason Center–one of the most famous vegetarian Restaurants in America. They also have a cookbook called The Greens Cookbook, which is good, but not one of my favorites. However, we’ll order it for you!)

Review by Dena Oppenheim