I think the very first bread book I ever acquired was Ultimate Bread by Eric Treuille & Ursula Ferrigno.* At that point in time I had no interest whatsoever in making yeast breads, but there were lots of shiny, gorgeous pictures, so I bought it anyway. I figured if nothing else, it would be nice to flip through once and then add to the cookbook shelf. As I paged through, however, I became intrigued. This book is filled with tons of information, describing a wide variety of processes and techniques, and the accompanying pictures show what things should look like at different stages of the recipes. Very cool, but it was still relegated to the shelf for several years. Yeast bread is scary, am I right???
I finally picked it back up when I was frustrated at work one day and needed something outside of my comfort zone to distract me. Turns out, yeast breads aren’t so terrifying after all. They require a little more attention, but the payoff is totally worth it. Working with the dough satisfied something inside me. The texture, feel, and smell of first the dough and then the completed loaf soothed the savage beast, so to speak. And for major bonus points, I discovered that kneading the dough was a great way to relax, pull some of the stress out of my shoulders, and it even seemed to help with some repetitive stress pain I’d been experiencing in my wrist. These days I mostly use the mixer to knead, but every once in a while I’ll still work the dough by hand.
loveysoven 