The best teachers encouragingly tell their students that they know you can do it, and then show you how. That's what Babette Frances Kourelos does for readers of Babette's Bread. She begins with the recipe that "made me fall in love with bread baking and left me hungry for more": Old-Fashioned Cottage Loaf with Spelt. It's a "slightly lopsided, decidedly quirky" loaf that instantly cures novice cooks of perfectionism. (It's also very forgiving; a reader mistook 2 t. of instant yeast for 2 T. and it still turned out delicious, and stayed fresh for days.) Having mastered that, even new bread makers will be fortified to try varieties requiring more kneading and/or fermented starters, such as French baguettes or Italian ciabattas. With more than 60 recipes, abundant photos, and step-by-step illustrations, Kourelos's volume starts with tools for breadmaking (with alternatives present in most kitchens) plus a tutorial on the array of flour and yeast, and allowances for humidity and temperature. This cookbook could well begin a bread revolution. --Jennifer M. Brown, reviewer