I just got Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads out of the library last week. Being a slight “bread head” myself, I have been studiously reading through the introductory chapters which explain Reinhart’s bread journey and the successes and failures and discoveries he’s made along the way. What I love about the author is that he seems to understand, not only the techniques and practices of breadbaking, but the underlying appeal: bread is mysterious and magical, ordinary, yet inexplicable. He ends chapter one saying:
“That bread can be simultaneously so simple and yet so complex and fraught with the potential for maddening, powerful, stop-you-in-your-tracks questions and puzzles, sending you on endless searches for new ways to evoke its fullest potential, is reason enough why bread baking is now and will always remain such a compelling, fascinating metaphoric mystery. I said it before and will continually declare: ‘Bread has been around for over six thousand years, and it is not going away.’ ”
Yes! Exactly! I can’t wait to get back to baking in the fall!