Regarding books, I don't own very many (in fact, only one I think to be
good) though I've looked at quite a few over the (nearly 30) years I've
been baking bread at home.
The one I have that I use far beyond any other is now old (and coming apart
at the seams), it is "The Complete Book of Breads" by Bernard Clayton Jr.
This is the FIRST EDITION, vintage circa 1976. There was, some years back,
a second edition which I saw and thought it also looked good. Now there is
one called (if my memory serves me) "The New Complete Book of Breads",
which I glanced through in a bookstore a while back, and didn't think it
looked like nearly so useful a book as the one I have. It had lots of color
photos and seemed to have a lot less "lore", all based on a cursory
examination.
The old edition gives not only hundreds of recipes for breads of nearly
every type (multiples of most types so there's a lot of choice), but also
lots of information about the recipes, about breads, about making breads,
about flours, techniques, etc. I've actually sat down with it and just read
through the whole thing, more than once, because it's so entertainingly
written and full of useful tidbits.
That's my $0.02.
Fred
--
---- Fred Smith -- fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us ----------------------------
"For him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his
glorious presence without fault and with great joy--to the only God our
Savior
be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before
all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."
----------------------------- Jude 1:24,25 (niv) -----------------------------