Title: The Bread Baker's Apprentice
Author: Peter Reinhart
Published: 2001 by Ten Speed Press
ISBN: 1-58008-268-8

This book was recommended to me by a friend, so I was pretty sure it would be a good one. And luckily enough it lived up to my expectations. If you like bread I wholeheartedly suggest you read this book.

The first chapter, What is it about bread?, had me a little worried. He drones on and on about why bread is yummy, how many bread contests he's won, and how many languages Enoch Powell can speak. 20 pages of that!

He completely redeems himself in the second chapter, Deconstructing bread: a tutorial. There follows some 75 pages of exquisite detail of how to make bread. He breaks down bread baking into 12 steps and explains why they are important. That includes kneading, fermentation, degassing, shaping, proofing, baking, cooling and eating.

Here are his recommendations for storing bread:

• Lean, crusty breads are stored differently than soft enriched breads
• Soft, enriched breads, such as sandwich bread, is always best stored in plastic
• If you have a frozen unsliced loaf and want to thaw it, pull it from the freezer at least 2 hours before you need it
• Don't store bread in the refrigerator
• Don't store crusty breads in plastic bags or in plastic wrap
• Don't store soft, enriched breads in paper bags
• Don't store any bread that you intend to dry for crumbs in plastic bags or plastic wrap.
• Don't store warm bread in plastic bags or plastic wrap

I haven't been able to try all the recipes, or even most of them. I have a job, you know. I've made the Ciabatta and Focaccia. Both were delicious but the Focaccia especially so. That's one I'll be writing down for sure, and it really wasn't too difficult.

The Focaccia recipe is a few pages long, so I can't really include it here. You'll just have to get the book. But here's the ingredients list so you can get an idea of the makeup. Maybe you can be a little adventurous and try to recreate the steps.

• 3 cups (22.5 ounces) bread flour
• 2 tsp (.5 ounce) salt
• 2 tsp (.22 ounce) instant yeast
• 6 tsp (3 ounces) olive oil
• 2 cups (16 ounces) water at room temperature
• 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup herb oil

Makes my mouth water just to think about it. See some pictures.