The Bread Baker's Apprentice

Want to bake bread? This is the one book you need. Period.

(Okay. That's really all I want to tell you. But if you really want to know more, let me tell you that there is information here about the various types of bread—stiff, standard, rustic, lean, enriched, rich, flat, direct, indirect, yeasted, leavened, mixed method, and chemical—as well as the twelve stages of making bread, along with detailed recipes for every sort of bread you will ever need or want to make. Period.)