Here's the new bread book Josey Baker Bread: Get Baking - Make Awesome Bread - Share the Loaves, from San Francisco baker/king of fancy toast Josey Baker. (Yes, for the last time, that is his real name.) While the book doesn't elaborate on Baker's infamous toast topping combinations, it is an incredibly thorough primer on learning to bake bread by heart, without recipes, for very beginners.

Are you scared of learning to bake bread? Like you maybe thought about buying Chad Robertson's Tartine Bread but were intimidated by the intensity of the bread making technique? Josey Baker Bread is for very beginners. As in, people who are maybe terrified of making bread. "Don't be a weenie," admonishes the first recipe. The first few chapters are actually riffs on the same recipe that gradually increase the complexity of the technique; there are also instructions for more advanced breads, as well as pizzas and cookies.

If you can get over the incredibly conversational, neo-California-hippie tone — recipes are written in second person, there is much use of words like "heck" and "awesome" — I have no doubt there is a lot to be learned from Josey Baker Bread. The technique seems solid and if the bread doesn't turn out to your liking, there is enough information here to guide you in tweaking the recipes until you're happy.

Josey Baker Bread is out April 15 from Chronicle (pre-order on Amazon). You can watch a preview video of the book here. Take a look:

· Josey Baker Bread [Amazon]

· All Josey Baker Coverage on Eater [-E-]

· All Cookbook Coverage on Eater [-E-]