Let's Make Bread, by Ken Forkish and Sarah Becan

Bread-baking instruction, in comic-book form (and a giveaway)

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Let’s Make Bread is the latest title from Ken Forkish, former owner of Ken’s Artisan Pizza and Bread, in Portland, OR, and the author of Flour, Water, Salt, and Yeast, The Elements of Pizza, and Evolutions in Bread, all of which are excellent guides to baking bread and pizza at home. This time around he’s teamed up with illustrator Sarah Becan, who has illustrated several other “Let’s Make” books, including Let’s Make Ramen and Let’s Make Dumplings (both of which are also wonderful). The result is a book that makes the art and science of bread baking straightforward and accessible to all, and easy to fall in love with.

The contents of LMB might be a little basic for advanced bakers—it only contains 20 relatively simple recipes or so—but the presentation is so dynamic and delightful, and the technique on such solid ground, that nearly everyone will find it useful and enjoyable.

And it might be the perfect book for someone just starting out with their bread journey, or who has resisted taking the leap. I gave a copy to a friend—an excellent cook and a solid baker—who has been wary of making the move from yeasted breads to sourdoughs, and she immediately asked for some of my starter, knowing this would be the book to allay her fears of killing it (again, since this would be the second blob I’d given her), or failing to make it work.

There are loads of bread books out there, many of them great, but none is quite like Let’s Make Bread, and I couldn’t be more excited for this addition to the list of them. You should definitely check it out, or sign up as a Wordloaf paid subscriber, to get in on the copy I will give away—along with a copy of Elements of Bread as well—a week from today (7/19/24).

—Andrew