July 21, 2010 - 6:18pm
The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread
I just picked this book (as well as her first edition Amy's Bread) and I love it, but... I do have a question about accuracy of recipes. I made the Banana Blueberry quickbread and noticed it took a LOT of kosher salt - like over a tablespoon for two loaves. I was looking to see about buying it, and on Amazon the reviews are great, but someone mentioned this particular recipe and questioned the salt content - and said it tasted too salty to them too.
Anyone else have experience with this book and a feel for if the recipes are sound? I LOVE her approach to baking, so I want to get these books for myself... probably will be my favorites if they are accurate enough.
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Her website lists her contact as: amysbread@aol.com
I find that all of her recipes are spot on. Don't forget that she's specifying kosher salt, which, volume-wise, is twice the volume of regular salt. I prefer to use the weight measures, although for some reason not for all recipes do they have weights for the salt.
All of the recipes are fantastic, and I've tried many. Admittedly, I have not tried the banana bread, but the recipes are really great. I especially recommend the biscotti recipes. The chocolate biscotti are fabulous.
To summarize, get the book (as well as the reprint of Amy's Bread. Another great book).
As bshuval says, kosher salt has a courser grind compared to table salt. One tablespoon of Kosher salt weighs 9.1 grams, whereas table salt with its finer grind weights 18.3 grams (USDA reference weights). Finer = denser= heavier.
Perhaps this can be a possibility?
That might be it. I was thumbing through more recipes and on all her quickbreads it's this same tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon (or maybe it's teaspoon). Weighing 12.x grams. Most of her recipes don't have weight measurements for salt (as most people don't/can't weigh such small amounts).
I did use kosher salt and it seemed to taste fine, but... wanted to check.
Instead of getting her old book, I'll get her new one. She admits in her old book that she makes it drier than her bakery makes bread, but in her new book she uses the same hydrations and has modernized recipes.
I really, really love her book - very down to earth and easy to understand and follow.
I, too, love many of Amy's recipes, and today I borrowed the "Sweeter Side..." from the Library to try some of those recipes as well. I was thinking of making the banana muffins, but when I saw that the recipe seemed to have about double the amount of butter than most recipes for 12 muffins, I am not sure I will want to make them. She touts them as healthy, since they have a fair amount of wheat bran in them, but with that amount of butter, I would question that.
Have any of you tried that recipe? If they are really that good, they might be worth a try.