Blog posts

Since I found this site and joined up, I have been baking ever 2 or 3 days. FOcusing mainly on the "basic loaf" recipe from lesson 1. My bread making has improved with each loaf. My kneading skills have improved immensely and with it my bread quality.

I made Hamelman's Country Bread for an uncle who knows his food. He spoked approvingly about the baguettes in France and I was really tempted to bake some for him and get his opinion on my baguettes. It was also an attempt to get my daughter to eat my breads. She is not a fan of hearth breads and I did not want to bake those soft cotton sweet dough breads found all over the country. The only time she liked my bread was a simple plain white loaf. When I asked her why she liked it, she replied that there were no raisins in the bread.

hi i love bread making and this is the first time i am hear

I am sitting at my sister,s dining room table trying to type on a laptop..  I have never done this before and the keys are sooo narrow!!!

 I baked yesterday, twice in a week!! I did the ciabatta and my brother in law took pictures with a great camara, pictures to come soon. He does part time camera work for hockey teams, so shooting bread gave him a whole different goal.

The flour worked differently again, and the crumb is once again different We had to open the windows as the cornmeal was burning and she was worried about the fire alarm going off..

Its probably stale by now but I made an attempt at claypot bread. I probably need a few more practice to get the hang of it but it was fun. Perhaps I am too used to the conventional way of making bread but I think the old way makes bread that is predictable and better looking.

More pictures in http://www.angelfire.com/planet/tomsbread/index.htm

After a 3 week stretch with no baking, I finally caught up a bit this past weekend.  With the exception of some crescent rolls for Thanksgiving dinner from a recipe in Southern Living magazine, everything was from the Bread Bakers Apprentice.

I wasnt to make a Rustic loaf, but my dough is always too runny.  Runny in the way that its like normal bread dough, but it spreads out no up. It rises, but not high. I tend to end up with a loaf 30cm in diameter and spreading.

I am guessing it has something to do with the spelt flour I am using.

Maybe it is my technique. By the time I decide it chould be in a loaf tin and I put it in there ti proof a bit, it doesnt want to rise.

So, I've talked alot about making this bread in previous posts on the original thread but have not documented the experience as yet in photos. So here goes:

3 cups casually measured AP flour + 2 T rye flour (i read somewhere that it enhances the flavor)

1 1/2 t salt

1/4 t active dry yeast disolved in 1 5/8 cup purified water

Oven at 475, baking vessel pre-heated. Baked covered 30 mins, uncovered 15.

1. What I call the biscuit stage-- all the ingredients are dumped in the bowl, mixed just enough to bring it together: