Amy's Bread - revised and updated
The first "real" bread book I ever read was Amy's Bread, borrowed from the library. I copied out some of the recipes and over the years looked for it again in different libraries with no luck. There were copies on Amazon but they were out of my price range, so I was thrilled to find the new version. I haven't read every page yet but one item caught my eye - they have increased the hydration in most of the recipes "because we believe that today's home bakers are more sophisticated and are ready to work with bread dough that is exactly as we make it in the bakery." Hooray for us, TFL members! The book has good clear directions and ingredients are listed in grams, ounces and volume. I especially like the biographies of some of the bakers, most of whom have been with Amy for many years. In fact my only disappointment with the book is that they no longer give directions for shaping the cute little teddy bears although they include the recipe which uses a Rye Salt Sour Starter. Two dough whisks up! A.