cover image Fast Breads!

Fast Breads!

Howard Early. Crossing Press, $8.95 (151pp) ISBN 978-0-89594-205-0

With its large type, one-recipe-per-page design and complete but terse instructions, this book is as basic and simple as good bread. A boon to busy cooks, most of the breads can be ready for the oven in 10 to 15 minutes, even less if ingredients are assembled ahead of time. Early (author and cooking instructor) and Morris (The Different Bread Book explain the chemistry of quick breads and the role each ingredient plays in a bread's composition, allowing creative cooks to substitute and experiment with varieties of flours, sweeteners, liquids and fats. Most of the recipes are for dinner breads, but muffins, scones and crackers are included. There are several international breads (Finnish, Irish, Indian) and chapters on variations of basic white and whole-grain breads (coffee oat, potato rye and bran fig) nut and seed breads, chocolate and carob breads (with the cake-like cherry-chocolate bread), vegetable breads and a large collection of unusual fruit breads. Illustrations not seen by PW. Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book Club and BOMC selections. (November 1)