Artisan Breads Every Day - final review

I'm done! Thanks for traveling with me through this journey through Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day. I'm sure I've bored you to death, but I've made every recipe in this book. I have not tried every variation, for example, I made croissants but not chocolate croissants or danish that use the same dough. There are enough variations on many of the recipes to keep me busy for another year! But I promise I won't bore you with any more recipe reviews.

I learned so much through this book. Peter is a gifted teacher, and like his other books, it is impossible to make his recipes without improving your baking skills.
Most of these recipes are refrigerated overnight to improve flavor. At first I wasn't sure I liked this technique as it meant I had to think ahead, something I'm not always good at! But by now I'm sold! Often I would spend an hour mixing up two or three different batches of dough. The dough would all go in the fridge to be baked at leisure in the next several days. Splitting up the mixing from the baking seemed to fit a busy mom's schedule.

This method especially worked well if we were having guests. With the dough in the fridge, I could concentrate on cleaning up the house or other meal prep and still enjoy freshly baked bread with our friends.
But the best part of this book was that time and time again I was simply astounded with the results. The flavor of these breads were simply wonderful. I could bake breads before, but with this book, true artisan quality bread is within grasp.