The Women's Institute has a reputation for traditional home cooking that is second to none in the UK. The Best Kept Secrets is a series of cookbooks written by women who know all about cooking, homes and families from personal experience. They learnt to cook from their mothers and grandmothers, from family friends and from each other. They don't have to re-discover the British tradition of cooking because they never lost touch with it in the first place. Making bread is one of the most satisfying arts of the home cook. Commercial bread-making may have improved out of all recognition in recent years, but still nothing can beat the taste of home-made bread. The smell of baking bread alone can work wonders to lift the spirits. But many home cooks still fight shy of bread-making, thinking there must be some special mystery to it. Not so. As Carrie O'Regan shows in Breads and Bakes all you need are a few simple techniques and you can make a huge range of delicious breads and rolls, both sweet and savoury. As well as the traditional loaves there are some surprising flavours and ingredients in this book: the addition of mashed potatoes gives a beautiful, moist texture to Potato Bread, while Feta Cheese and Sage Cottage Loaf is deliciously savoury. There are some wonderful sweet breads such as chocolate, coconut and lime and even a fruit pizza.