Making bread

Have you ever heard of the book "The Bread Bakers Apprentice"? It is a visually pleasing manual on the science of bread making by someone who bakes and teaches for a living. This might seem like a poor description and I can tell you why. I love to bake but have never made it very far into this book. It is so incredibly dense! There are 100 pages of how-to before any recipes (which are called formulas and are presented in percentages as well as standard American measurements) show up. Ian calls it a text book and I don't think he's far off. This may not be the perfect cook book for me but it looks really good sitting in my cooking collection. Of course I feel a bit deficient/lazy. Don't some people pursue their passions with vigor and commitment? Apparently, I am not that vigorous or committed to bread making.

Do I let this stop me? No! I am going to try and read the first 100 pages of valuable information some day. In the mean time I will just wing it and bake on the fly, without the right equipment or background and with small changes to the "formulas". Are the informed changes? No!

I tried to use my hand like a bread hook earlier.


And it just got gooey. Do I let this stop me? No!