Dough: Simple Contemporary Bread by Richard Bertinet
Rather than kneading with one's palms, Bertinet teaches bakers to stretch and the fold the dough. Also, his bread recipe uses 4 (four!) ingredients. No milk, no butter, just salt, water, yeast, and "strong" flour (bread flour). With these 4 ingredients, he gives over 30 recipes.
I just made my standby bread recipe (Rustic Italian Bread) using Bertinet's kneading method. This bread was so much more airy and light then the 10 other times I've made it. I'm sold! (Below is the bread before and after baking: normally, it's about half that size.)
Also...(but less for victories and more for commiseration)
How to be a Dometic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking by Nigella Lawson.
Why? Because of lines like this: "The good thing is, we don't have to get ourselves up in Little Lady drag and we don't have to renouonce the world and enter into a life of domestic drudgery. But we can bake a little--and a cake is just a cake...This isn't a dream; what's more, it isn't even a nightmare."
With her by your side, blunt and truthful, what ever about the day that didn't work--it doesn't matter anymore. My mind is forced to move on to the challenging but fundamental task of baking.
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