Ok, I must be getting hooked. I've been making quite a few breads, lately, but all I've done is follow the directions of recipes I've downloaded from the internet. Ok way to cook up a loaf of bread, but I wasn't learning anything. I've tried making hamburger buns (crash city), pizza dough (tasted great but a little too fluffy) and foccacia (great, but I didn't learn to create my own).
So, I was in Barnes & Noble recently and started looking at their cooking section. Only two or three "how-to" books on bread, the rest being just recipe books. One I really liked is The Bread Baker's Apprentice - Mastering the art of extraordinary bread by Peter Reinhart. A lot of pictures to demonstrate techniques but not too many to take away from the instructional text. He also talks a lot about his personal experiences visiting specialty bread making shops. Most of these happen to be in Europe. Those people take the quality of their food seriously. We only take the price and quantity of our food seriously.
I've only just begun reading the book, but already I've learned a lot about what makes up different types of bread. And I'm picking up tips on the importance of weighing instead of measuring ingredients. Also, using steam during baking to make a better bread.
Great book and I hope it'll make me a better baker!
