Making bread is often considered to be therapeutic. For Kitty Tait, a teenager who overcame clinical depression by baking, it led to a successful bakery, the Orange Bakery in Watlington, England, near Oxford, and a book. At 14, Ms. Tait’s formerly sunny outlook was plunging into despair. In less than a year of baking with her father, an experienced amateur, they began selling their goods from home and soon opened the bakery. The story of Kitty’s recovery and the challenges of opening the business is told by each of them, in alternating segments. It’s an honest, lively read. Recipes for yeast breads, sourdough loaves, earthy soda bread, buns, croissants, crackers, custard tarts, and cookies, including fine brown butter chocolate chip, fill about half the book.
“Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives” by Kitty and Al Tait (Bloomsbury, $30).
Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest. Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice.