Best Cookbooks for Bread and a Secret

So I have been making my own bread for quite some time now. I have been blessed with some great cookbooks with great bread recipes! Today I just wanted to share my 2 favorite cookbooks for bread - I am sure their other recipes are great as well. If the other recipes are anywhere as good as the bread recipes - the other recipes are awesome!!! 

This is the Herb & Garlic Bread this was my first time trying this recipe. It was very good. I will be making it again! :0) 

This cookbook has the recipe for the Banana Breakfast bread, Raisin Nut Bread, and Rosemary Olive Bread! I love all of these bread recipes as well. 

No - I did not forget that I was going to share a secret today. 

The way that Bountiful Health Cookbook says to make the bread is that you add ingredients in order- and yeast is towards the bottom of the list - just above the addition of the main about of flour. Well I have been making this bread like that but I have not always been happy with the outcome - not the flavor but the look of the loaves. They were delicious. I mean really, really good!! It was just the look of the loaf that I was disappointed. See how beautiful the loaf above looks? This is what I wanted my bread to look like. Well the way the Country Life Cookbook says to make the bread is different and I believe the secret to better looking bread. 

So Country Life Cookbook says to mix your warm water, yeast and sweetner and let it set for 10 minutes I believe. Well what I did was I poured the very warm water into the bowl then added the honey and stirred it around. Then I added the yeast and stirred it and let it set. And I could tell that the yeast was good because it foamed up good. Then I added the rest of the ingredients. So I really think that this is the secret to the much better looking bread. The great thing about this secret is once you understand the best way to go about making bread you can adapt any recipe. I am hoping to make on of the recipes from the Bountiful Health using this formula and I expect much better results. Now there may be something that I was just doing wrong when making the bread way that the Bountiful Health recipes says to but I had not figured out what I was doing wrong. Now I know a better way to do it. Yes, the way that the Country Life Cookbook says to do it will take a bit longer because you wait 10 minutes but I think that the results are well worth the little bit of extra time!! 

I hope that this secret helps you make better bread as well. I am sure many of you already understood and practiced this secret. But I am hoping that maybe someone reading will find help with this secret.