Books for Handmade Bread

Probably any of Richard Bertinet's books (I have "Crust", but I assume the others focus on hand techniques too). Also Emmanuel Hadjiandreou's "How to Make Sourdough".

most any bread can be mixed by hand, with few exceptions.  If you wish to own a book for that specific purpose, that is fine.  But many of us here mix by hand.  And some mix almost exclusively by hand, including myself.  There are some on TFL with physical limitations who cannot adequately mix manually.  But that doesn't sound like you.  Don't let the lack of a mechanical mixer get in the way of your formula/recipe decision making.

because that's what got me started but he wastes tons of flour when feeding his starter so be aware of that and his timings are off for most people unless you have the same kitchen temperature that Forkish has. Go by his descriptions instead of the times. 

This site is about 20 to 50 times better than any bread book ever written or one that will be written.

Happy baking

... and can attest to the fact that the information on this site (especially the blogs and forum answers from the five who posted above me, as well as the other active community members - they are incredibly helpful) can get a total non-baker to be able to produce beautiful and delicious hand-made loaves.  Don't forget to check out the LESSONS and HANDBOOK on the site for step-by-step instructions and videos on various methods and techniques so that you can find one that will work the best for you.

I also recommend checking out a couple of other websites by some members here, such as  http://www.breadwerx.com/ by forum member Trevor J Wilson, https://www.theperfectloaf.com/home/, and (if you're a wee bit fanatical about rye breads like I am) then http://theryebaker.com/ by forum member Stanley Ginsberg. 

I'm more of a visual learner, so being able to watch the videos has been far more useful to me than a book might be, and the incredible breads and formula blogged about here are an incredible source of inspiration.

By all means enjoy the various books, but don't feel that you need to wait until they arrive --- all of the information (first hand, from the folks doing it in their own homes and bakeries) is all right here already.

Have fun!

I can vouch for Chad Robertson's 'Tartine Bread' is excellent. He is an excellent communicator of his method and four years later you can find many disciples of his recipes on youtube who have done excellent jobs in their own right recreating their versions of his great breads! 

Enjoy!

I'd love to buy some of Richard Bertinet's books in the future, but this site has been all I've needed as a beginner. It's incredibly more helpful!!

I went through several books, before I found my 'in' to artisan loafs with FWYS. It pushed the mess to decent bread ratio in the right direction with a considered approach to getting optimal fermentation. However, it sounds like you are already there with Dan Leopard's books. 

Hamelman is good, but very technical. So perhaps a natural next step?

Bertinet,I have a copy of Dough in French. I don't rate it at all. It is more a less a direct translation of the English copy (whichever he wrote first), and he doesn't cover enough of the technical details for getting the results that readers desire, for example, the flour differences between countries (pretty fundamental). Perhaps his later books are better. Even the quality of the bread in the photos doesn't look that good. There are far better breads posted here.

Tartine, I hear that there is not much difference between FWYS and Tartine, but I would be interested in hearing what other people say