Do you love the smell of fresh-baked bread? Have you ever tried making your bread at home? If not, you definitely should! It’s definitely not as you think! And there are some amazing cookbooks out there that can help you master the art of making bread. Here are a few of the more popular ones available.

• Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza: 
  • There are few things more satisfying than biting into a freshly made, crispy-on-the-outside, soft-and-supple-on-the-inside slice of perfectly baked bread. For Portland-based baker Ken Forkish, well-made bread is more than just a pleasure—it is a passion that has led him to create some of the best and most critically lauded breads and pizzas in the country.
  • In Flour Water Salt Yeast, Forkish translates his obsessively honed craft into scores of recipes for rustic boules and Neapolitan-style pizzas, all suited for the home baker. Forkish developed and tested all of the recipes in his home oven, and his impeccable formulas and clear instructions result in top-quality artisan breads and pizzas that stand up against those sold in the best bakeries anywhere.
  • Whether you’re a total beginner or a serious baker, Flour Water Salt Yeast has a recipe that suits your skill level and time constraints: Start with a straight dough and have fresh bread ready by supper time, or explore pre-ferments with a bread that uses biga or poolish. If you’re ready to take your baking to the next level, follow Forkish’s step-by-step guide to making a levain starter with only flour and water, and be amazed by the delicious complexity of your naturally leavened bread. Pizza lovers can experiment with a variety of doughs and sauces to create the perfect pie using either a pizza stone or a cast-iron skillet.
  • Flour Water Salt Yeast is more than just a collection of recipes for amazing bread and pizza—it offers a complete baking education, with a thorough yet accessible explanation of the tools and techniques that set artisan bread apart. Featuring a tutorial on baker’s percentages, advice for manipulating ingredients ratios to create custom doughs, tips for adapting bread baking schedules to fit your day-to-day life, and an entire chapter that demystifies the levain-making process, Flour Water Salt Yeast is an indispensable resource for bakers who want to make their daily bread exceptional bread.
• Bread Baking for Beginners: The Essential Guide to Baking Kneaded Breads, and Enriched Breads: 
  • Discover how anyone can combine flour, yeast, water, and salt to create hot and delicious bread in the comfort of your own kitchen. Filled with straightforward guidance, Bread Baking for Beginners is the ideal bread cookbook for new bakers.
  • Complete with step-by-step photographs and instructions, this beautiful bread baking guide offers a tasty collection of recipes for kneaded, no-knead, and enriched breads. In addition to important info on everything from prep and proof times to key terminology and kitchen essentials, you’ll also get must-have tips for troubleshooting bread baking issues.
  • From total scratch to your very first batch, this bread cookbook includes:
    • Knead to know―Discover the science behind the bread baking process, popular techniques, and the tools needed to bake fluffy, flavorful loaves.
    • Stepping scones―Level up your bread baking skills with recipes that progress from a beginner’s, easy-to-master recipe into dozens of intermediate and advanced sweet and savory breads.
    • From ‘d’oh!’ to dough―Troubleshoot bread baking issues with FAQs that address everything from burnt brioche to deflated baguettes.
  • This bread cookbook will help you master the craft of bread making so you can share homemade loaves with the people you love.
• Bread on the Table: Recipes for Making and Enjoying Europe’s Most Beloved Breads:
  • In this highly anticipated cookbook, culinary instructor and baker David Norman explores the European breadmaking traditions that inspire him most–from the rye breads of France to the saltless ciabattas of Italy to the traditional Christmas loaves of Scandinavia. Norman also offers recipes for traditional foods to accompany these regional specialties, so home bakers can showcase their freshly made breads alongside a traditional Swedish breakfast spread, oysters with mignonette, or country pâté, to name a few examples. With rigorous, detailed instructions plus showstopping photography, this book will surprise and delight bakers of all stripes.
• Bread Illustrated: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Bakery-Quality Results at Home:
  • Many home cooks find bread baking rewarding but intimidating. In Bread Illustrated, America’s Test Kitchen shows bakers of all levels how to make foolproof breads, rolls, flatbreads, and more at home. Each master recipe is presented as a hands-on and reassuring tutorial illustrated with six to 16 full-color step-by-step photos. Organized by level of difficulty to make bread baking less daunting, the book progresses from the simplest recipes for the novice baker to artisan-style loaves, breads that use starters, and more complex project recipes. The recipes cover a wide and exciting range of breads from basics and classics like Easy Sandwich Bread and Fluffy Dinner Rolls to interesting breads from around the world including Lahmacun, Panettone, and Fig and Fennel Bread.

If you want to learn to make delicious dinner rolls, crusty ciabatta, or the perfect sandwich bread, these cookbooks can help. Just make sure you make some extra – because your neighbors are going to want a taste when they smell the yummy aroma of fresh-baked bread coming from your kitchen.

***All book descriptions courtesy of Amazon