Four Ingredient Living: baking bread, the old fashioned way

I've always been a little hesitant with baking. I'm not the most patient cook, and if I can't see, smell, or hear progress in what I'm working on, it makes me a little nervous. Baking bread generally requires the patience of a saint, and wrists of steel; I have neither. Thankfully, what I do have are The Bread Baker's Apprentice and a dough hook attachment for my mixer. I was recently able to quell my dough-based fears with a little encouragement (thanks to my grandmother and C) and instruction via this beautiful and thorough book.

After making batch after delicious batch of "middle-class" brioche(butter in every bite!), I was able to gather some courage and tackle french bread. And my god, did this ever test my patience. Because so much depends on how you treat the dough in all of its various stages (knead, but don't over-knead. let rest. repeat. let rest some more. careful with temperatures. don't de-gas too much. create surface tension...eeeek!), I had resigned myself to the fact that this was just a test run. If anything, I would at least learn, and hopefully improve each time.

But eventually, the dough of your labor ends up in the oven and the room begins to smell of fresh bread... and you want so much for it to work!

I'm happy to assume, from all visual and olfactory cues (minus tasting... why must I wait 40 minutes still, to let cool?), that this was a success. I will update once I can be sure one way or another!