Bread by Eric Treuille & Ursula Ferrigno

I love making bread and this is my favourite bread making book. However, when I examine the book further I actually only make a couple of their breads. My favourite is the Pain Ordinare on Page 72 which always turns out beautifully as demonstrated by the picture below. The baguette on Page 79 also works well but you have to be really organised to get it in time for tea as it takes nearly 4 hours or rising and proving before it goes into the oven. Mike thinks that this extra time rising makes it taste a bit yeasty so I don't make it very often.

I always found the hardest thing for me when making bread was kneading. I am not very patient and it was clear that I never kneaded my bread for long enough and although the bread tasted ok its consistency was average. It was whilst watching the Fabulous Baker Brothers on TV I discovered a fantastic tip as they desribed how to stretch a piece of your dough until it formed a window. If it did so it was done, if it tore before it reached that stage then it kneaded (couldn't help the pun!) more time. This was invaluable advice but didn't help my lack of patience. However, the purchase of a beautiful green Kitchen Aid is the secret to my success. This beautiful machine graces my work top and encourages me to want to play with it. The dough turns out beautifully time after time and it is easy to keep clean. Baking has never been so much fun especially if you are like me, impatient to get the bread in the oven so you can eat it on it's own with a thick smearing of butter. Yummy.