So a few off the top of my head:

1. The Professional Chef. Geared towards professional chefs but a great resource.
   
   
2. On Food and Cooking. A classic. Not really a 'cookbook' per se but rather a book that discusses history and food science.
   
   
3. The now out-of-print Williams and Sonoma Mastering Series. Specifically, their book on sauces - the others are solid but not quite as good. Those books were how I personally learned to cook. (still can find used)
   
   
4. The Flavor Bible. Obligatory. Eventually you grow out of it a bit, but it's still a great resource to have around.
   
   
5. Flour Water Salt Yeast. I just got this book recently this last Christmas, and I've been enjoying it quite a bit.

I mean, honestly it's hard to take your question seriously. You very clearly simply haven't looked at what's available, but still wanna come here to laugh at the stupid americans that don't know bread.

You're just wrong. Crusty bread is everywhere in the US.

Walmart sells rye flour: https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=rye%20flour&cat_id=976759&typeahead=rye%20fl and spelt flour: https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=spelt%20flour&cat_id=976759&typeahead=spelt

They also sell baguettes and some other rustic style loafs, though in general for more artisan style bread you'd be better going off going to someplace other than walmart. Walmart is all about cheap and high volume stuff.

This is one of the most popular bread cookbooks in the US: https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

I've been to Ken's bakery many times, and can assure you they have nice very crusty bread: https://kensartisan.com/bakery

Here's another regional chain that's popular up here: https://www.instagram.com/grandcentralbakery/

As you can see, plenty of crusty breads of all styles.

You'll be able to find similar bakeries in any city larger than about 50k people, and pretty often even in smaller towns.

Sliced sandwich bread exists for that exact purpose: it's easy to toast, and is a great for making some styles of sandwiches. Crusty rustic loaves are not somehow universally better, that's just *your* preference.

Check out this book, it will completely change your mind!

You don't need a bread machine you have an oven. Bread has 4 ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast. The variety of breads you can make by varying the ratios of these ingredients, the length of the ferment, and cook time is staggering.

Highly recoomend: Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza [A Cookbook] https://www.amazon.com/dp/160774273X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_YlgXDbTMY87DP

It's a little daunting at first but there are lots of very helpful resources out there so you can jump right in! I just started my own starter this week and I've been following this guide: here.

​

But you don't need a sourdough starter to start with bread. If you have a dutch oven then you can start with straight doughs and learn proper folding and shaping while you wait for your starter to grow!

​

There are a few books that are highly recommended by this sub the most popular seems to be Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza (FWSY as you will see it mentioned as here) by Ken Forkish which he shares his own starter recipe and lots of fantastic straight and sourdough breads.

​

If you're not ready to take that big of a dive in yet online there is Jim Laheys No Knead Bread recipe which is a straight dough, super simple, and really quite delicious. I did this one and it was my gateway bread which quickly sent me head first into FWSY and starters.

​

Most importantly, don't be disheartened if things don't turn out, just share it with us, do some research, make some changes and try again.

Name: Paul

Age: 25

Location: Minneapolis

Pics (of you, pets, whatever etc.,) http://i.imgur.com/yi0rf7P.jpg (It was for grindr and my only recent pic, please don't judge!)

Instagram/snapchat/other social media: https://www.instagram.com/morelikebrocialism/


What are your plans for Valentine's day?

• No idea, probably game with another single friend
  
  Is there anything you're looking forward to this month?
  
  
• Not quite in this month but the release of the Nintendo Switch and Breath of the Wild!
  
  What TV shows are you looking forward to having come back on for the spring?
  
  
• Very much looking forward to Legion, it seems like there are a ton of great shows coming out soon though
  
  What's one good recipe you would like to share?
  
  
• Not a recipe but a book. If you like baking artisan bread check out this book, it's incredibly well written and helpful: https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X
  
  What are you currently listening to/watching/reading?
  
  
• Just started reading Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher and it is very insightful and provocative http://www.zero-books.net/books/capitalist-realism
  
  In your opinion, what is the superior pet?
  
  
• Dogs, obviously
  
  What is one subreddit you think everyone should check out?
  
  
• I will revisit this one later

Recipe and techniques taken directly from the ever-popular FWSY by Ken Forkish. This was my first attempt at the Overnight Country Blonde, and I was really happy with how this loaf turned out!

Nice loaf! People are also often referencing the Ken Forkish book called “Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast.” 🍞🥖

Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza [A Cookbook] https://www.amazon.com/dp/160774273X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Hn7IDbF2MEGRN

Edit: it mostly focuses on bread

It looks awesome, not sure why you say it needs work. It looks like the cover of Flour, Water, Yeast, Salt.

Flour Water Salt Yeast. I just received my copy this afternoon!

Using the Overnight White recipe from Flour Water salt Yeast.

The cookbook is called "Good and Cheap" - it's available as a free ebook or PDF. The author, Leanne Brown, also has a website with those recipes and more (I see I'm not the only person to link it). There are really good recipes!

My wife and I use them a lot. Last week I made her chana masala recipe for my lunches, cost $6 total for all 5 lunches. I admit it got old by the end of the week, but for the first couple days it was really tasty!

Another good resource is budgetbytes (I see someone else also linked that one).

A couple broader "principles" (you may already know them, though):

• Prepared foods are often expensive. Making from scratch is good. But sometimes you don't want to cook and emergency mac'n'cheese is always okay. Add some frozen peas to make it seem healthy
  
• Meat is also often expensive. Tofu and beans (especially dry beans, if you have time to cook them) can be cheaper. Rice and beans is a super filling meal, and you can dress it up with cumin and onions, then garnish with cilantro and sour cream (look up recipes for Dominican rice and beans - "la bandera" - or Costa Rican rice and beans - "gallo pinto")
  
• If this is a temporary situation (some number of months) then you can probably cut a few corners on nutrition and lean heavily on rice, pasta, and other cheap carbs to do the super basic job of being filling. If there's an Asian grocery nearby you can often get a 50 lb. bag of rice for $30-$40 (my wife and I go through one every 8-10 months); Amazon may also help. If your financial situation will last longer (a year or more) then that's a worse solution. But short term, rice'n'spice with a couple fried eggs can go a long way
  
• Do you eat a lot of bread? Bread is not a super expensive item, but you can still save money by baking it yourself. A lot of people rave about Flour, Water, Salt, and Yeast for "artisanal" baking but those are mostly crusty, hearty loaves more than sandwich bread. If you want to go the homemade bread route and mostly need sandwiches, a bread machine might be worth it.
  
  But a lot of these depend on how much time you can commit to food prep. If you're limited on time then your strategy will change a bit.

You'll wanna go ahead and buy this book: FWSY

Nu am vreo rețetă, per se, fiecare pâine e diferită, recomand o carte gen: Flour Water Salt Yeast. Dar ca idee:

Faină albă (12% proteine) + făină integrală + secară în diverse proporții, de obicei 20% albă, 70% integrală, 10% secară, dar mereu schimb.
Apă 65%-75% în funcție de făina folosită.
Sare 2%.

Preferment făcut cu 2 zile înainte, între 50%-80% din aluatul total. 65%-100% apă în funcție de faină. 0.02% drojdie uscată. Dospit 12-14 ore.

Aluat făcut cu 1 zi înainte, 0.2% drojdie uscată, dospit ~6 ore. Sare 2%. Îi fac folds la 20 de min în primele 2 ore, din ce în ce mai gentil.

Proofed în frigider pentru încă 12 ore.

245°C+225°C 30min (abur) +25min (uscat).

Alternativ dacă fac pâine într-o singură zi fac o autoliză de 2-3 ore.

Alternativ pot să fermentez în frigider și să proof afară din frigider.

It's from this book. I just got a copy and have only made one recipe so far, but it turned out great. I'd recommend it.

Highly recommend the book Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. It's my favorite and I've gotten a ton of compliments on the breads :)

FWSY:
https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

A lot of people here will recommend "Flour Water Salt Yeast" by Ken Forkish:
https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X
I bought the book and it's helping me change my understanding of time, hydration, temperature, etc. It's taken about a dozen loaves, but mine are starting to look like his loaves he has in his book.

Yep! It's really great, and way easier than you'd expect. I don't make my every day bread, but anytime I'm having people over for dinner or making something special I bake bread. And sometimes I do it just because! I'd recommend checking out Flour Water Yeast if you're definitely interested, or check out some of the beginner bread recipes on the King Arthur Flour site. There is probably a bread subreddit too... Actually, not sure why I never looked.

Bonus: bread from scratch is a gateway to making pizza from scratch, so you can't go wrong!

Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast. A very pretty bread cookbook. :)

Got myself the book "Flour Water Salt Yeast" the other day. Been making bread when time allows. In his book, Ken Forkish explains how he uses the Finger Dent method to determine when a dough is at its optimal proofing stage.

Check out the video and pick up his book. I highly recommend it.

Happy baking!

Moorhead has a community education program including an Artisan Bread Class

My advice would be to buy a copy of Flour Water Salt Yeast and make every loaf in the book.

"Flour Water Salt Yeast" by Ken Forkish (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/160774273X/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_aJ1sybPYAT05H) gets consistently good reports here.

I'd also recommend "Dough" by Richard Bertinet (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1856267628/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_AH1sybKH7YCJG)

and Paul Hollywood's "Bread" (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408840693/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_-F1syb7TKQJWA)

Modified Ken Forkish's pure sourdough recipe from his book Flour Water Salt Yeast taking inspiration for quantities from this recipe and this recipe. Needs more and smaller choc chips but otherwise I deem this experiment a winner winner chicken dinner!!

The two main books seem to be Tartine and Flour Water Salt Yeast. I have FWSY and think it's a great resource. I still will do other kinds of bread and don't only stick to this.

To get that nice crust you're looking at a dutch oven, just keep your eyes out for a sale on them. Beyond that a scale, a bowl, and an oven.

/u/p3n9uins's video is pretty nice shows everything for free. :D

I did the "Overnight White Bread" recipe in FWSY. /r/Breadit turned me on to the book, and its worth checking out if you're into longer ferment times. Several great recipes and lots of insight.

The general recipe is:

• 1000g white flour
  
• 780g warm (90-95 F) water
  
• 22g salt
  
• 0.8g instant dry yeast
  
  Bulk fermentation is 12 - 14 hrs, or until nearly tripled. (Fold 2-3 times in the first hour or two.)
  Divide in half, shape and proof (about 1hr.)
  Preheat oven with dutch ovens to 475F.
  When proofed, flip dough into hot dutch ovens and bake with lids on at 475F for 30 mins.
  Uncover and continue baking for an additional 15 - 30 mins to desired color.
  Turn out onto racks and let cool.
  
  Edit: formatting

If you want to learn bread (trust me, you do), Flour Water Salt Yeast is amazing. Very in depth of why each specific reaction occurs, what will happen if you do x instead of y, etc. Also, the ebook is only like $3.

Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza https://www.amazon.com/dp/160774273X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_H8zKzbEDERZ01

I wouldn't say it's an exaggeration to call it life changing. Has completely ruined me on store bought bread, and it's changed the way I eat, and spend my time, and probably has helped with mental health too (it can be really meditative)

These are the two books that got me going.

https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0811870413/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480822865&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=tartine+bread

Try some of the recipes on the left sidebar here: http://www.breadtopia.com/ As already suggested, the ATK (cooks illustrated) one is great.
I also got a lot of great recipes to try from the book that I checked out from the library: http://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

and I just use regular gold medal or king arthur unbleached flour.

If you want a good book on the subject, you need "Flour Water Salt Yeast".

Got me making bread I was very proud of in a very short amount of time.

Vakar baigiau Mąstymas, greitas ir lėtas. Labai rekomenduoju kam įdomu kokiu būdų veikia mūsų pačių mąstymas.

Sekanti eilėje Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza

I posted a few more pictures on my page here. I should have taken more pictures of the dough making itself. You can get the book from Amazon here or PM me for snap shots of the recipe from the book.

Update: okay, I finally got the recipe loaded to imgur.

Keep away from the commercial yeast. Your starter is probably not active enough, and your gluten not strong enough.

A lot of people, including myself, had success using the recipes and techniques in Flour Water Salt Yeast. You’ll see many posts talking about “FWSY” — it’s this book. Give it a try!

Sure! That's the final product. Recipe follows:

I followed the Saturday White Bread in this book.

1000 grams of flour

780 grams of lukewarm water

4 grams of instant yeast

22 grams of sea salt.

Combine the water and flour loosely. Let sit for half an hour.
Then sprinkle the yeast and salt over it. Fold it gently three or four times.

Then let it rise for 5 hours, folding two more times during that time. Just make sure to not fold the last hour.

Then take the dough out. Divide and shape into two loaves. Throw those in proofing baskets. Let them proof for an hour and 15 minutes.

20 mins prior, preheat the oven to 475 with the dutch ovens in.

Once its ready, place the loafs into a dutch oven each. Bake for 30 minutes lid on, then 20 minutes lid off. Done!

EDIT: For those who are thinking of getting the book, be warned: it's not really for beginners. Which I am. So there were a lot of really frustrating loaves before I got the hang of it.

It’s a recipes book called Flour Water Salt Yeast. It comes in pretty highly recommended by r/Breadit

I really like Water Flour Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish: http://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0owQi_U44c

If you have done any lurking on Breadit, you'll notice that the community is a big fan of Flour Water Salt Yeast (FWSY), and the Kindle edition is only 2.99. He does a great job explaining the keeping and care of sourdough starter, as well as different flour combinations that make for a tasty starter. It's also nice because he gives examples of how to play with recipes and starter to really make it your own, as well as explaining (with pictures) about folding, and mixing.

His book is also great because it gives you some a variety of recipes that include all sorts of fermentation, so you can practice with something that is a little easier and work your way up to a full sourdough style bread. I'm also pretty new to sourdough bread and it's been a very helpful piece of literature as I've been experimenting with my bakes.

Because I dislike seeing food w/o a recipe: Crust is from Ken Forkish's FWSY, allowed to age/ferment overnight in the fridge, and sauce is my own version of Serious Eat's New York Style pizza sauce. A little olive oil in the bottom the pan and the crust is perfectly cripsy.

I'm definitely no pro, but I make a few loaves every month (and use a ton of the dough I make for pizzas). I swear by This book. Everything I've made from it has been great, and it has good sections on basic techniques.

Otherwise, follow this no-knead recipe.It really doesn't get any easier than that, and the bread that comes out is fantastic.

/u/buddyguything knows what’s up. My starter did this once and I started a new one simultaneously with only dark rye flour. I slowly blended the two together when the rye starter was about 7 days old because I didn’t want to loose that unique tang my original girl had. It worked far better than I had hoped and she bounced back like crazy. I now use a 50/50 mix of dark rye and unbleached white flour (just for taste preference) with dechlorinated water to feed my girl. I like the flavour the dark rye gives the loaves and because of its lower gluten content I find it’s much easier to mix up. Check out The Perfect Loaf. His method is what I used and he has a great section on how to start and maintain a wicked starter. Or better yet borrow or get yourself a copy of FWSY if you don’t have it already. Combining the methods those two bakers use has really upped my starter and sourdough game. Let us know how it worked out!

Check out this book. You'll need a dutch oven (I've also used a pizza stone and upside down pot), kitchen scale (absolutely necessary for bread making) and some mixing bowls.

The recipes in the book will make two boules each, You can scale to one or three or however many you want. I make two, once they're cool cut each in half and freeze what I won't eat. I find the bread will last about a week on the counter either in a plastic bag or wrapped in a towel. I toast it though so if you're looking for fluffy soft bread maybe this isn't your thing.

Honestly, I think most foreign students will be all right; college campuses are their own unique environment, and in most major cities (which is where I'm sure you'd probably want to study), foreign students are pretty common so there'd be nothing to really worry about. I could see Arab students having some worries, but even then I think it would be a bit of a stretch in most parts of the country.

----
Favorite cookbooks:

• The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
  
• How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
  
• Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish
  
  Those are the three I use pretty regularly. I have a few more but I use them for specific dishes or as reference for flavors (Ratio being a fine example of this).
  
  Favorite dishes (I'm restricting this to ones I can cook myself):
  
  
• Spinach ricotta gnocchi with pesto
  
• Tomato-sauce poached cod with roasted green beans
  
• Pulled pork shoulder
  
• Roasted chicken with rice and toum
  
• Acorn squash soup
  
• Arancini
  
• Shepherd's Pie
  
• Mussels with garlic and white wine

Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish has given us the best pizza we've ever made. The dough is so effing good. Highly, highly recommend this book.

Could just be that he made it on Saturday, but might be Ken Forkish's recipe "The Saturday White Bread" from Flour Water Salt Yeast

Hey,

My girlfriend and I usually just kind of wing it and approximate the ratios. There's a lot of great recipes online, or you could check out places like r/breadit & this book http://www.amazon.com/dp/160774273X

For this bread specifically we replaced the water with half water and half tomato sauce.

Amazon is probably the cheapest option for all the equipment you need.

Here's a bunch of equipment you'll want to grab:


Winco Winware Stainless Steel Dough Scraper with Wood Handle https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0017HUR9E/

10" Round Banneton Brotform https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MQA0BMT/

Mercer Culinary Offset Serated Bread Knife https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01F35UGWS

Flour Water Salt Yeast: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/160774273X

You'll also want to grab a clear round plastic storage container for your starter. Amazon doesn't have any good deals on them but it seems like Walmart/Home Depot/Gourmet Warehouse may have some. FWSY has a recommendation on a size, can't remember off the top of my head.

Once Flourist opens up it'll be the place to grab your flour from.

salt is critical. Just as important as yeast.

buy and read this book.

baking is a science. You are like god creating a world for your yeast to live in... then you cook their entire world and eat it!

yea i was kidding about faygo. Beer is indeed the best combo for pizza. I prefer newcastle with a double cheese, red pepper, and sausage pizza.

NYT no knead bread - best if you have a Dutch oven (you can get one amazon for like 30 bucks)

Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls - best cinnamon rolls ever, I usually half the recipe. For frosting, hers is a bit too extravagant. I just use powered sugar, melted butter and water/milk til you get the consistency you like

Sourdough Starter Recipe - it cuts out buying yeast and the need to prove it. This will also serve as a catalyst for other types of bread in the future.

FWSY - the Holy Grail of bread cooking books

And as someone already pointed out r/breadit

Also, not sure what country you're in, but try catching the Great British Baking Show on Netflix (streams in US). I've been watching it recently and it's definitely inspired me to bake all sorts of goodies.

Good luck!

It is pretty much how flamingbabyjesus said. It is more of a process than a recipe. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/ this is a very good resource. I have Flour Water Salt Yeast wich explains all the steps, and ive heard that Tartine is also a very good book.
p.s A skale is very importaint.

What is missing with the bread you are making? What makes it not 'sourdough'? Taste? texture? etc? Do you have any pictures that we could work from?

What's your starter feeding schedule? How long do you feed it before you make bread with it. You shouldn't make bread immediately after feeding it, I have found about a day after feeding it is a good time. Also, how old is your starter, older starters have better flavor (no real hard line, I have a 25+year old starter that always delivers)

How long do you let it proof? Good sourdough needs to proof 8+ hours, Going faster and using instant yeast with the starter will make it a more mild flavor.

I highly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

The levain section covers everything about working with starters.

First I will point you to The Fresh Loaf, as I once was, if you aren't already familiar with it. There is a lot of information on there, as well as beautiful breads that are posted daily to serve as inspiration.

As for books, what got me started was Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. I knew not a thing about bread making before buying this book, and I can assure you that it is very user friendly. It is very descriptive and easy to follow, and you will yield amazing results by simply following close instruction.

Once I was comfortable enough to expand my repertoire, I picked up Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day. He's regarded as one of the best authors for bread making books and for good reason. You can tell the guy knows what he's talking about as he provides you with an easy breakdown of what and why you will be doing something with simple steps. This one covers a broader range of baked goods (baguettes, cinnamon rolls, crumb cake and more) so you can have fun experimenting.

Happy baking!

FWSE. Worth every penny.

So most of my cookbooks are either text dense reference manuals or obnoxiously difficult like The French Laundry Cookbook, but here's a few that are relatively simple with excellent photography:

La Cocina - Cookbook from an organization in San Francisco that teaches low income people to successfully grow food businesses. Photos are incredible.

-

The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook - Excellent photos with a lot of obscure produce.

-

Ad Hoc at Home - Thomas Keller's family style recipes with wonderful photography.

-

Flour Water Salt Yeast - Focused on baking bread and making pizza, but a lot of step by step photos and some awesome pictures of the final product.

Not OP, but bread in general with a Dutch oven is super easy. All you need is time (8-18 hour to proof) and 4 ingredients—water, salt, yeast and flour. This is my go to easy no knead dutch oven bread recipe. Note, it is not sourdough. I’ve found that water temp at 113.5F seems to work the best and I substitute APF for bread flour at a 1:1 ratio.

You can then get fancy with a proofing bowl like OP used to get the geocentric circles and also start playing around with different starters/flours. You can use whole wheat flour in the above recipe but remember you can’t substitute whole wheat flour 1:1, the max you can do is 50% whole wheat flour so use 1.5 cups whole wheat flour and 1.5 cups APF/bread flour and increase the water to 1 3/4 cups of water. Check your local grocery store, they may have sourdough starters you can buy.

Experiment and have fun with it. I make bread probably 3-4 times per month. The hardest part is just planning out the time to proof the dough. If you really get into it, you’ll probably like this book Flour Water Salt Yeast.

Most breads don't need eggs or butter. Flour, salt, water and yeast is all you need. There's even a cookbook called "Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast"

> flour, water, salt, yeast

If anybody is interested in trying to make their own

Making bread is ridiculously easy when you get the right recipe.

Check out Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish.

Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish

Excuse the basil! I put it below the meats on the second pizza. Used the same day pizza dough recipe from Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast and pizza sauce recipe from Serious Eats.

Dough senses fear. Keep trying! I did, and now my bread is 50% better than it once was. Onward!
Also this book is awesome:
http://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

This book helped me tremendously with my bread baking. The best advice I got out of it was to bake the bread really dark to get more nutty flavors out of the crust and hydration.

http://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1381862858&sr=8-5&keywords=bread+book

It's actually from the book Flour Water Salt Yeast. The methods the author uses makes it really easy to bake loaves like the one those slices came from.

Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast is a wonderful, easy yet super solid, bread book that makes 4qt batches. You could use those recipes and either make half batches (divide everything by 2), or make a full batch, bake half and freeze half. I have never once been sad having extra dough on hand.

The other option is learn about baker's formulas. Professional and advanced amateur baking recipes don't rely on measurements, but rather weighing ingredients in ratios. Most respected bread books (ie. Peter Reinhart, Jim Lahey, and Ken Forkish all have no-knead books) rely on these formulas. They can easily be scaled; up in the case of commercial bakeries, or down in your case.

That said, any recipe that requires kneading can be adapted to "no-knead". The popular concept is to mix the dough and park it in the fridge for anywhere between several hours to a few days. The yeast activity causes gluten to develop over time, with the added advantage of extra flavor development. Reinhart and Lahey prefer this approach.

Additionally, look up the 'stretch and fold' technique. This develops gluten by mixing the dough then mildly manipulating the dough every 15mins over the course of an hour. Forkish seems to prefer stretch and fold, as do I (mostly).

I have a cookbook obsession, I have roughly 500 that are somewhat organized so I feel like I can be of great use here. I will break it down by type to make it easier.

Bibles

• Baking Bible
  
• Cake Bible
  
• The Pie and Pastry Bible
  
  Bread
  
  
• Beard on Bread
  
• Bread
  
• Bread Baker's Apprentice
  
• Flour Water Salt Yeast
  
• Josey Baker Bread (I just genuinely like this guy tho lol)
  
• All of the Tartine books (just get all of them, Chad is the man when it comes to bread)
  
  Caramels/Candys/Ice Cream
  
  
• Ample hills creamery
  
• Artisan caramels
  
• Chocolates & Confections
  
• The Sweet Book of Candy Making
  
• Sweet Cream And Sugar Cones
  
  Jack of all trades
  
  
• Baked Occasions
  
• Baker's four seasons
  
• Flour
  
• Flour Too
  
• Model Bakery Cookbook
  
• Momofuku Milk Bar
  
• Ovenly
  
  Pastry/Pies
  
  
• The Art of French Pastry (this is one of my all time favorites)
  
• Creative Eclairs (whole set is great for beginners to intermediates)
  
• First Prize Pies
  
  Textbooks
  
  
• Baking and pastry
  
• On Baking
  
  
  I'm sure I am leaving out a bunch of great ones but if I had to suggest just 1 to anyone it would DEFINITELY be The Art of French Pastry. Best for somebody who has done basics already and looking to try a little more. Even as a professional baker I find myself coming back and just reading the little spots like how he burned himself on his caramel. Great, great book!

Get a copy of FWSE. Read the entire thing. Pick a recipe you feel comfortable with. I suggest diving right in there and making one of the overnight with poolish recipes. Maybe start with pizza dough.

Honestly, its worth the money to just buy FWSY. It has a lot of bread recipes and gives very detailed instructions on how to do everything. (You will need a dutch oven though)

I've been making bread for a couple of years now. It's a mixture of trial and error, improvising and measuring. It's part art and part science. The Bread Bakers Apprentice is a good starting book as well as Flour Water Salt Yeast.

As some people mentioned, the sourdough that Pollan makes in the show is pretty difficult (in my opinion). I would suggest trying some store bought yeast bread first so you get a sense of the different steps and processes required to make bread. Once you have that down, you can start growing your sourdough starter.

Nonetheless, if you want to go ahead and start with sourdough, as people said, its not really as straight forward as just putting water in flour. You'll need a scale and be sure to weight out all your bread making ingredients, including what you're feeding the starter. Different bakers have different opinions on the ratio of flour to water, what type of flour, what temperature the water is, etc. Changes in these parameters will also change the taste of your sourdough (or even if it grows or not!).

What helped me the most actually was buying a book and reading through it. I think information on the internet is a little too scattered and tend to contradict one another, and it never turns out very well when I mix and match ideas from different websites. I recommend what a lot of people on this subreddit read: Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish.

Another good resource is the King Arthur site.

Once again though, I think it helped me a lot to make a lot of store-bought yeast bread first before trying sourdough. I've found making sourdough extremely fickle and prone to failure, and I can't imagine trying it without having had some experience making my earlier loaves. You're experience might be different than mine though! Good luck!

Hi! I also recently started baking as a new hobby. I’m very much still a novice and still find it quite intimidating, but I’ve found quite a few decent vids and books that have helped me to get started...

Bake with Jack - really excellent channel filled with 4 min videos talking about terminology, equipment and technique:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTVR5DSxWPpAVI8TzaaXRqQ

Richard Bertinet’s Waitrose video. A bit basic but I find Bertinet’s mannerisms inspiring and the instructions are very useful. Different kneading technique too:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTVR5DSxWPpAVI8TzaaXRqQ

BBC Good Food basic bread recipe. There is probably a better basic recipe, such as the King Arthur one, but this is the first one I used. I halved the salt on this and it’s given me really nice bread every time:

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2060/easy-white-bread

Brilliant Bread by James Morton. Only just digging into this book but it really is great. Lots of recipes and kneading advice etc. I’d recommend it to anyone:

https://www.amazon.com/Brilliant-Bread-James-Morton/dp/0091955602

Flour Water Salt Yeast. I’ve not really delved into this much yet as I’m still getting used to the basics, but everyone on here seems to love it and it seems very well written (note:you’ll need a Dutch oven for this):

https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

If you’re going no-knead/Dutch oven, I’d say it’s worth giving this a watch too, but I’d check the comments as well as a lot of people seem to be tweaking the recipe. A seemingly infamous video/recipe from NY Times:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread

Dough by Richard Bertinet. Another ace book filled with simple easy to follow recipes. Also comes with a short DVD, although I don’t know what’s on it as I’m yet to watch:

https://www.amazon.com/Dough-Simple-Contemporary-Richard-Bertinet/dp/1909487538

River Cottage basic white bread. Not the best instructions but I still found it a useful watch when very first starting out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTVWuw_SBSo

Not sure if these are 100% the best places to start but they’ve definitely helped me. I tend to google pretty much everything, which will lead you to a lot of useful sites too.

I hope these help, even if only a little. Im sure others will make some good suggestions here.

Happy baking!

Awesome! Sourdough is a tough thing that can be really fun. I'm a chef on the savory side of things--thiugh running the whole restaurant I so have to do my fair share of pastry stuff. I have in the last year or so gotten really in to homemade breads. Check out this book, if you like making bread it'll change your life!

Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza https://www.amazon.com/dp/160774273X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_JqVZBbZZ5XZDZ

http://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

This book by Ken Forkish, a local Portland bread legend does a great job of laying it all out.

Flour Water Salt Yeast by Forkish

https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517714847&sr=8-1&keywords=flour+water+salt+yeast

It is super interesting to read parts of it as well.

You might benefit from the direct, thought over style of a book then. I found Ken Forkish' [FWSY](http://www.Flour.com/ Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza https://www.amazon.com/dp/160774273X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_5E6ZAb6E7J4NC) to be a much better use of my time and energy than trying to piece together the knowledge from a bunch of different sources on the internet.

I'd ignore that ding-dong and mix-up what you want. It's people like them that hamper home baking. They read FWSY and think they know everything about bread.

FWSYis on sale on Amazon still, I just bought the Kindle version for $4 yesterday.

I'm about to check out this: Flour Water Salt Yeast

I'm hoping it will be like the Jim Lahey, Sullivan St Bakery recipe which I've made many times. It's time consuming but is the best bread recipe, hands down!

Yeah that's pretty normal I think, a lot of recipes say to punch the dough down and then form it into a ball, then let it rise for a second time just before baking. I'm still somewhat of a novice, I just started using FSWY (http://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X) has been a very interesting read for me and would probably be good for you if you want a really in depth explanation. ^^^I ^^^can ^^^also ^^^share ^^^an ^^^ebook ^^^version ^^^if ^^^you ^^^can't ^^^afford ^^^it ^^^right ^^^now

bread flavor is mostly a function of time and temperature, at least for yeasted breads. as yeasts ferment in dough and consume sugars, they produce a variety of flavor compounds.

this is a good book if you want to explore the topic.

edit: here is an infographic from a yeast manufacturer. note "fermentation" has the strongest effect on flavor.

I've been following a bunch of instructions and recipes in this book to no avail. :(

Maybe should try more olive oil...

For bread/yeasty stuff specifically, Flour Yeast Salt Water. It gives some informative advice for making things like bread and pizza dough, and has recipes to go with it.

Husband and I made Pizza dough straight from this book and the resulting pizza was delicious.

Flour Water Salt Yeast

absolutely. try this one

i use a variation of it that is an overnight bulk ferment, but the results are still good using the same day recipe. your results will vary depending on your pizza stone/steel, how your oven/broiler behaves, and of course a ton of other things, but it's a good place to start!

if you're really keen on going further, i HIGHLY recommend buying the book Flour Water Salt Yeast. its my bread and pizza bible.

I'd recommend (if you're a cookbook fan) Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast by Ken Forkish. The bread in here takes some time (the shortest takes all day, but a lot of that time is sitting around and waiting). The link is here, and I cannot get enough of this bread =)

https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

Here is the mobile version of your link

This was the first recipe I tried from FWSY, as requested by the kids. The recipe was done yesterday during a freakish March snow storm where I was working from home and kids, wife, and dog were bored out of their minds. This is the one day pizza dough recipe, I started at around 9 AM, by 6 PM we had dinner.

I made six personal pies, two thin crust (200g), the rest regular (340g). Two of the pizzas had no toppings and my beloved wife dressed them up with a green salad, some cheese and balsamic vinegar. One I made with stuffed curst on request. The rest had tomato sauce, mushrooms and onions (obligatory cross cut pic.

So what did I learn?

• I finally “get” what you all were saying about time and temperature being ingredients.
  
  
• We like thin crust pizza.
  
  
• Making the pizzas a circle takes effort, but they taste just a delicious otherwise and frankly, no one cared as the kids were salivating by the stove anyway and the pizzas never actually made it to the table.
  
  
• I used the back of a cookie sheet, well-floured, as a pizza peel. After the first disaster I only put the sauce on the pizza and the toppings after the pie was on the pizza stone which takes 5-10 seconds if you plan it right.
  
  
• Next time I’m going to put the pizzas on my silicon BBQ grill mats, that way I can just put them on the stone without the mass – anyone tried that?
  

The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart is my number one recommendation for bread. Im also a big fan of Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. His first book, Tartine is also great btw. I would skip out on Tartine Book No.3 though which seems to have too many errors for my liking. Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish is also one of the better bread baking books out there.

For general baking, im a big fan of Bouchon Bakery. And one book that will surely help you improve as a baker and I highly recommend you cook through is The Art of French Pastry by Jacquy Pfeiffer. Its like a pastry arts class in a book. I am actually cooking my way through this. If you have a serious sweet tooth, Momofoku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi will probably be what you're looking for. And as someone else recommended, the Baked books are all great.

For cakes, it has to be The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Bernanbaum. This is probably the best cake book of all time. I would supplement this with Toba Garrett's Professional Cake Decorating book.

For pies, my favorites are Four and Twenty Blackbirds and Hoosier Mama. One that I haven't tried but am planning to buy is First Prize Pies. If the book lives up to their reputation, it should be an excellent book.

For plated, more ambitious desserts, I like Payard Desserts. I refer to this when I want to impress company.

Baking is a learning process. I’ve selected a list of a good references:


Getting started

https://www.instructables.com/class/Bread-Class/

My favorite books


https://www.amazon.com/Passion-Bread-Lessons-Master-Baker/dp/031620062X

https://www.amazon.com/Tartine-Bread-Chad-Robertson/dp/0811870413/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=D3W0A522YN0Z49Y37CR2

https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2/132-2200314-5814741?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=160774273X&pd_rd_r=d2b81337-6b5d-11e9-9f49-5707d913d0fd&pd_rd_w=aXXDJ&pd_rd_wg=GprXQ&pf_rd_p=a2006322-0bc0-4db9-a08e-d168c18ce6f0&pf_rd_r=AKFEA35FM58RZV98V93X&psc=1&refRID=AKFEA35FM58RZV98V93X


Good and reliable websites


https://blog.kingarthurflour.com/

https://www.theperfectloaf.com/

Enjoy!

r/sourdough has resources in their FAQ about culturing a starter. Also this book helped me get the basics down. King Arthur has a break down on their website as well as the option to just purchase an already cultured starter that they will mail to you and then you can start feeding and using it right away.

Crumb pic here! - for some reason IMGUR tagged this pic as erotic/NSFW. I agree.

Followed the FWSY Saturday White Bread recipe - book here! (not an affiliate or anything)

As I said, it's the sourdough rye sandwich bread from Peter-Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day.

In Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, Ken Forkish calls such doughs, "Hybrid Leavening Doughs" and devotes Chapter 9 to them.

I followed the recipe exactly for this first time. I really like the bread it makes. Now I'm going to play with it and see if I can get it working in my bread machine.

Sorry, yes. I should have been more clear. Thank you.

Here is the Amazon link for those interested. It seems it's currently 45% off:

Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza https://www.amazon.com/dp/160774273X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_4AtYzbWA2Q3G2

It's a book: Flour Water Salt Yeast. I haven't read it, don't know what the dough they suggest would be.

I would think using a biga would help improve chewiness as it tends to strengthen the gluten.

Reading: Pratchett's Witches Abroad and Carlyle's Latter-Day Pamphlets

Watching: Nothing but the odd Youtube video here and there. I've recently discovered Murdoch Murdoch.

Doing: Getting shit fixed around the house.

Cooking: No time for that really, just whatever's easy. But I've recently started making a killer homemade pizza, dough, sauce and all (OK well I don't make my own cheese). Fingers crossed I'll get Flour Water Salt Yeast for Christmas.

Playing: I aven't played any new video games since Minecraft. Every once in a while I'll bust out the old Final Fantasy games and play 1 through 6 in a marathon.

Or you could join /r/breadit and learn to bake your own bread at home. You just need flour, water, salt, yeast.

Flour Water Salt Yeast, by Ken Forkish. Very popular on here and one of the best starter books on baking good bread at home. His overnight white and wheat doughs are very approachable and teach you a lot about the process. I dig them because of the usage of store bought yeast, it’s just easier and less hassle for me. I’ve tried the sourdough starter thing too many times!


Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza [A Cookbook] https://www.amazon.com/dp/160774273X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_-QIRDbE23VF14

I love baking bread and to be honest some of the /r/breadit suggestions are spot on, even for British bakers.

The one I love the most is Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast by Ken Forkish. The measurements are all in metric, as most bread recipes are even stateside. I was initially a bit skeptical about no-knead but I'm a complete convert now.

If you want a specifically British book, and one that starts off with more basic recipes, try Brilliant Bread by James Morton. He was on GBBO a few years ago.

This is the basic Country Loaf recipe from the Tartine Bread book, my second dutch oven bake and my first Tartine bread (the other was from Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast).

This is a 75% hydration dough so it is pretty soft. I used my sourdough starter which I've had for many years.

The basic formula is 900g white flour (I used bread flour), 100g whole wheat, 750g water, 200g starter (100% hydration), 20g salt.

The dough got a full 40 minute autolyse; I really liked the feel of this dough, although being so slack it was a bit tricky to shape without over handling. I did a final proof for 12 hours in the fridge. Baked each loaf separately as I don't yet have two dutch ovens.

They're still cooling so I don't have a crumb shot yet. I'll try and add one as soon as I slice into them.

EDIT: Crumb shot now added.

I recommend Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast by Ken Forkish and Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. Both books have good info into bread science and have good (but large) recipes.

I never tried baking bread before I bought Flour Water Salt Yeast and now I've managed to make some pretty delicious loaves. If you take your time and read the technique sections, you'll start to get a good understanding of bread baking.

You should buy this book then, it's fantastic. I'm working my way through it, they have a huge chapter on just sourdoughs.

here you go

No you don't. I just started learning to bake using this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

All you need is flour, water, salt, and yeast.

Using the /r/pizza subreddit got my pizza making to stellar levels. I only get pizza out when I am lazy. Here is what I learned.

Dough: Get this book http://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X and follow the technique sections to the letter. Get rid of the sugar and rise for longer, like 12 hours longer, the dough is much better without it.

Sauce: Get a can of CENTO san marzano whole peeled tomatos, put in strainer and rise all the "tomato water" off. Put in blender for 20 seconds dump in large frying pan, add salt and pepper, heat for 10 mins. That's it.

Cheese: Always grate your own, period. I prefer whole milk, low mosture.

Pan: If you don't have a stone or steel I like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Oneida-Commercial-Inch-Pizza-Pan/dp/B000P9TQEM/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&qid=1459369211&sr=8-32&keywords=pizza+pan

Temperature: I use 500 degrees for 13 minutes and it works like a champ.

That's it. Go be a pizza God!

Portland has some unbelievable pizza, My two favorites are Ken's Artisan Pizza (304 SE 28th Ave) and Apizza Scholls (4741 SE Hawthorne Blvd).

Take a look at the pizza map in the sidebar for more locations -- but as far as I'm concerned, these are the best.

Ken Forkish is a dough legend and the author of Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza.

Flour Water Salt Yeast is a baking book by Ken Forkish.

Flour Water Salt Yeast on Amazon

Basically gonna echo most of the answers already posted, but just to pile on:

• 8" chef's knife. 10" is longer than may be comfortable and 12" is longer than necessary, but 7" may start to feel a little short if she's ever slicing large melon or squash. I'm a casual knife nerd and I have knives by Wusthof, Victorinox, Shun and Mac. My favorite.
  
  
• This Dutch oven. Enameled and cast iron just like the Le Creuset that a few other comments have mentioned, but much, much cheaper. I own two and they're both great. I also have the non-enameled version for baking bread, but I don't recommend it for general use unless you're a Boy Scout. Here's an entertaingly-written blog post comparing the Lodge vs. Le Creuset in a short rib cookoff.
  
  
• This cutting board and this cutting board conditioner. The importance of an easy and pleasant to use prep surface can't be overstated. I'm listing this third on purpose; this is one of the most important things your kitchen can have. A recipe that calls for a lot of chopping is no fun when you're fighting for counter space to do the chopping, or doing it on a shitty plastic board.
  
  
• A cheap scale and a cheap thermometer. Seriously, these are as important as the cutting board.
  
  
• Just gonna crib this one right off /u/Pobe420 and say cheapo 8–10" (I recommend 10–12" but that's my preference) nonstick skillet. One note I'd add is that pans with oven-safe handles are a bit more dual-purpose than pans with plastic or rubberized handles. You can't finish a pork chop in the oven in a skillet with a rubberized handle. But one could say you shouldn't be cooking a pork chop on a nonstick pan to begin with. The important thing is to keep this one cheap: you're going to be replacing it every couple of years, there's no getting around that. For my money $30 or less, and $30 is pretty expensive for these things.
  
  
  

• Cookbooks
  

  Nothing inspires cooking like a good cookbook collection. The great news about cookbooks is that they're often bought as gifts or souvenirs and they make their way onto the used market cheap and in great condition. Here are my suggestions for a great starter shelf:
  
  

1. The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt. I kind of hate that this is my number one recommendation, but I don't know your wife and I do know J. Kenji López-Alt. This one is brand new so you're unlikely to find it used and cheap, but as a catch-all recommendation it has to take first place. Moving on to the cheap stuff:
   
   
2. Regional French Cooking by Paul Bocuse. This is possibly the friendliest authoritative book on French food out there, and a hell of a lot easier to just dive into than Julia Child (Julia is the expert, and her book is an encyclopedia). Bocuse is the undisputed king of nouvelle cuisine and people like Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain (so maybe a generation ahead of you and I) came from him. Paul Bocuse is French food as we know it, and yet this book—an approachable, coffee-table sized thing—still has a recipe for fucking mac and cheese. It's outstanding.
   
   
3. Theory & Practice / The New James Beard by James Beard. These will completely cover your entire library of American cooking. Nothing else needed until you get region-specific. When you do, go for something like this.
   
   
4. Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. When she died, the NYT ran a second obituary that was just her recipe for bolognese.
   
   
5. Christ, top five. Who gets 5th? I'm going with From Curries To Kebabs by Madhur Jaffrey. Don't get bamboozled into buying "Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Bible" which is the same book, repackaged and priced higher. You want the one with the hot pink dust jacket, it's unmistakeable. This is one of those end-all books that you could cook out of for the rest of your life. It covers almost every diet and almost every country that Beard and Bocuse don't.
   
   
6. Honorable mentions: Here come the downvotes. Pok Pok by Andy Ricker. If you're American and you want to cook Thai, this is the one. Ten Speed Press can go home now. The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Rosen (so close to making the list). I shouldn't need to say much about this; it's the book of diasporic Jewish food, which means it covers a lot of time and almost every possible country. It's a no-brainer. Thai Food by David Thompson (a perfect oral history of Thai food for English speakers, only it doesn't include Pok Pok's precise measurements, which in practice I've found important). Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. Not for someone who just wants to become a baker, this book is for someone who wants to make Ken Forkish's bread. And for a casual bread baker I can't imagine a better introduction. Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table by Mai Pham. Andrea Nguyen is out there and Andrea Nguyen is awesome, but I really like Mai Pham's book. It's accessible, reliable and regional. You don't get the dissertation-level breakdown on the origins of chicken pho that you get from Andrea, but the recipe's there, among many others, and it's fucking outstanding. Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. This vegan cookbook is dope as hell and will really expand your imagination when it comes to vegetables. This could actually have been number five.

https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X/ref=sr_1_1

http://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462929725&sr=8-1&keywords=flour+water+salt+yeast

It's from this book. Check it out it's fantastic.

Yeah! It's from Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. Great book, highly recommend. http://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

Totally related! The best advice I have is to start simple. This book by Bonnie Ohara is a really great primer that walks you through bread science and gaining bread confidence. I wish I had it when I started baking!

I also love this book by Ken Forkish. It’s very specifically for those crusty artisan breads that are trendy right now.

Other than that, start out with good recipes. The King Arthur Flour No Knead is a fantastic simple starting point. Whenever you make a new kind of bread, start with a recipe that’s gone through rigorous testing instead of one on some random blog. Good spots to look are Cook’s Illustrated, Bon Appetit, and King Arthur. There’s a bigger chance of success that way. Once you’ve gotten a little more of a feel for what dough should be like for specific breads at certain stages, you can start experimenting and coming up with your own recipes and ratios! There are also a lot of really awesome bakers at r/breadit, r/baking, and r/sourdough who also love to help troubleshoot.

The only other advice I have is to invest in a kitchen scale, a dutch oven, and a bunch of bench scrapers!

Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish

Wow. You're super insecure about this, aren't you? I can't think of any other reason you would be so condescending when someone disagrees with you.

Of course there are many different types of bread, but to say that bread usually has dairy in it is just factually incorrect. Bread cooked with just flour, water, salt and yeast is absolutely delicious. It is the epitome of European bread (or, as we in the west self-centredly call it, bread). Maybe you enjoy it more with extra ingredients, and I'm not going to say you're wrong for doing so. I'm not going to call your bread "taste-less".

What you're doing is pretending that the culinary history of bread doesn't exist, because you're trying to prove someone wrong. Acting as if the bread you learned to cook is the only way that professionals cook is, frankly, astonishing.

Here's a book written by a professional: Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast. I'm sure you can guess why it's called that.

Here's a book by the French Culinary Institute: The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Bread Baking. Here's one of the reviews that they list under praise:

> "To make a perfect loaf of bread, the baker needs just five essential ingredients: flour, water, salt, yeast—and this indispensable book!”

>—Iacopo Falai, Owner of Falai, Caffe Falai, and Falai Panetteria"

Of course, these people must be amateurs compared to your experience of:

> hundreds of loaves of bread

I call out shit when I see it. This sub seems to be all about gold stars and telling everyone they did a good job. It's ok to tell someone they failed and they need to try again. The mediocrity in this sub is too much.

You obviously needs to improve. You need to start with the basics: watch videos and read books. I'd recommend two good starting places:

• Richard Bertinet's White Bread Masterclass
  
  
• Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza
  
  I'd recommend starting with bread pans. You can focus more on technique and take shaping out of the equation for now. Also, don't start with sourdough; start instead with store bought yeast. The concepts are the same, but you need to understand the basics before you add to it.
  
  Your first recipe should use a bread pan, package of yeast, white flour, and salt. Don't try anything fancy. You need a digital scale and oven thermometer. Multiple flours, shaping, and starters come later.