Reddit mentions of How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science, 3rd edition.

I'm a big fan of How Baking Works. It's set up like a textbook, and each chapter covers a different aspect of baking science, with review questions and practical exercises at the end of each.

How Baking Works by Paula Figoni really helps break how individual ingredients react to heat and to other ingredients in baking.

Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Formulas by Jeffrey Hamelman is the bible of bread baking. There are other bread books out there, and many of them are good, but if you only buy one this one should be it.

The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum is a great home baker's guide to traditional baking, but almost every bakery I've worked in had a copy of this laying around. It's a great reference, and the fact that every recipe is broken down into weights makes it possible to convert many of her recipes into professional production, with tweaks.

Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller is a great supplemental baking book and worth checking out.

I recently bought myself this and have been enjoying it! But it's more like... why you need to do the things you do than recipes for beginners.

[How Baking Works.] (http://www.amazon.com/How-Baking-Works-Exploring-Fundamentals/dp/0470392673/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405494511&sr=8-1&keywords=how+baking+works)

How Baking Works This details the science of baking

The Professional Pastry Chef
Bo Friberg's latest edition, this one is pretty comprehensive. I'd suggest this one for the best dollar value

Gisslen's textbook is also good, but Friberg's has better examples of presentation. Professional Baking

This is a good book about the science of baking

https://www.amazon.com/How-Baking-Works-Exploring-Fundamentals/dp/0470392673


And this infographic explains things if you are more of a visual person http://imgur.com/FE4N4iT

How Baking Works is a good one.

Absolutely!

On Baking, 3rd edition by Sarah Labensky. This is the one we were required to have for the course. It is pretty wel laid out and explains a lot if you don't have much background.

How Baking Works, by Paula I. Figoni. I found this pretty good but at times slightly long winded.

Professional Baking by Wayne Gisslen. This is the first book I ever bought when I got a credit card way back in the day. It is pretty much the same info as On Baking but SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper. He also has one for cooking if you wish to improve your cooking as well!

Other books that I have found helpful once you fully read through one of those are:

The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum

Chocolates and confections by Peter P. Greweling. Though to be honest this one is likely to be out of the reach of just a home baker as chocolate work requires quite a bit. That said if you have the time/space/money to do chocolate work it can be very rewarding

I have found (so far) the answer to half of your question:

*"Second, wheat flour, if mixed with water and kneaded, becomes very elastic. The flour-and-water mixture in bread becomes stretchy like a balloon because of a protein in wheat known as gluten. Gluten gives bread dough the ability to capture the carbon dioxide produced by yeast in tiny flour balloons." From How Bread/Stuff Works

Also if you are deeply interested in this information there is a book called How Baking Works that I would suggest investigating

Best of luck.

A really good I would recommend in the book How Baking Works. It gives you the explanation you need without feeling like a textbook. I have an AOS degree in baking and I had this as one of my school books. It's not too expensive either. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470392673

https://www.amazon.com/How-Baking-Works-Exploring-Fundamentals/dp/0470392673/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473095030&sr=8-1&keywords=the+science+of+baking

How Baking Works - this book is basically a textbook and it will take you through everything you need to know. It even includes experiments you can do to really explore how different ratios, temperatures, ingredients, etc. can impact your baking.