A little bit of thread necromancy, but...
I've been making my own bagels for awhile. Usually with whole wheat flour and they've been decent. However, whenever I ventured into 'real' bread making, it was always disappointing. Sure, any fresh, warm bread is nice, but once it cooled down, it was dry and tasteless. I played with recipes, kneading techniques, proving temperatures, etc.
I then figured, that the only solution was to use sourdough, but my previous attempt at getting a starter fell short. (I am now in process of getting one going again)...however, some digging around led me to this book:
Amazon.com: Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day (9781580089982): Peter Reinhart: BooksThe process for all the recipes is virtually the same: low amount of yeast, quick mixing/kneading and then prove in the fridge for min 12 hours (up to 4 days).
My first bread was ciabatta style (sans the oil) baguettes. I have never been able to get decent holes in my bread and even less getting a decent taste out of it, but my, this was amazing. Better than any bakery-bought white bread, I've ever had. Ever. Flour, salt, yeast, water. Nothing else was used to enhance the taste and nothing else was needed.
Even my wife, who's not a big bread fan (She's Korean), kept asking for more.
The process requires a bit of planning, but you can mix up a dough in 40 mins (4 times folding/stretching + rests), which can be done along other chores and prep for baking day is another 30-45 mins. If I plan it so that I bake twice a week, I wont have to buy bread ever and if I can maintain the quality, I wouldn't want to!.
Anyways..for anyone looking to improve their bread, I highly recommend that book. The recipes covers yeast based, sourdough, enriched breads (rye, sandwhich breads), and rich bread (danishes, croissant, etc).
I've made half-decent danish pastry before and are planning to attempt Reinhart's recipe this weekend (diet be damned!)