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Baking bread can be an intimidating and tricky process, especially if you’ve never given it a try before. There are many steps and techniques involved in creating the perfect bread, so a cookbook or app that has step-by-step instructions plus tutorials on specific techniques is a must have for bread newbies and even seasoned bakers trying out a new recipe.
Bread Baking the Artisan Way delivers the perfect combination of simple-to-use instructions and in-depth videos that give tips on how to bake 25 different breads, from simple pretzels, pizza dough, and sandwich bread to more complicated recipes like panettone, challah, and brioche.
All of the recipes begin with an overview on flavor profiles, information about the bread, and tips on other ways to use the dough. For example, the white bread recipe specifies that it has a wheat flavor and can be used to make sliced bread, baguettes, breadsticks, rolls, and buns. Many of the recipes have several ways that they can be used, and others can be slightly modified for a different result. The overview page also gives information on the yield, prep time, and baking time.
The next page is the prep, which is selected by tapping one of the three buttons at the top of the navigation bar. The preparation page displays the steps for prep, ingredient mixing, development, fermentation, shaping, and proofing. Many of these sections include fairly complicated techniques, so the directions are heavily supplemented with videos.
Techniques in the videos are clearly demonstrated, with easy-to-understand narration and simple directions. I found it easy to emulate what Chef Michael was doing in each video. The preparation section also includes a list of necessary ingredients and equipment, so you can have everything ready beforehand.
Finally, there’s an additional section that provides chef notes. You will probably want to read these beforehand, as there are some important tips. There is a section for nutritional information and related recipes, but it is currently blank. For an app that costs $9.99, I expect more.
Along the menu bar, you will find buttons that allow you to email recipes and shopping lists; access all videos available in the app; get information about measurement equivalents, definitions, substitutions, and temperature; access a shopping list; and change options such as font size.
While I didn’t like the layout of this app or the missing components, I did enjoy the videos, which turned out to be informative and easy to use. The instructional videos make this app a worthwhile purchase, despite its shortcomings.
What I liked: Many of the videos are downloaded on demand, which is nice because it keeps the initial download size small. I like that I only have to download the videos that I need, while skipping everything extraneous. I also liked that the videos were straight to the point with no banter and excess information.
What I didn’t like: The layout of this app had me a bit baffled. The baking instructions are in a windowed box forcing me to continually scroll down with messy, doughy hands, while the initial ingredients are displayed full screen and available at all times. I didn’t feel like I needed to see the list of ingredients at all times, and I would have preferred another tab at the top that gave each section its own space. In landscape mode, the app does not expand to be full screen.
To buy or not to buy: As someone relatively new to baking bread, this app was intimidating. However, the videos were informative and helped me along the way, so I would say this app is suitable for both new learners and more seasoned bakers looking to add some professional techniques to their arsenal. If you want to learn to bake bread, this is a good app to try.
via : padgadget

• App Name: Bread Baking the Artisan Way
• Version Reviewed: 1.0.0
• Category: Lifestyle
• Developer: TheDataManager
• Price: $9.99
• Score: