Hi everyone I am Dee Dee and I just received two bread making books by Reinhardt and a stone for my oven. In the past week, i have made 8 loved of bread and just completed my mother starter. I love the smell and tastes in my kitchen now. Why didn't I do this years ago? I spent my adult life baking horrible bread and not understanding why is was so bad. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
I did go to culinary school 25 years ago, but I spent very little time on breads from France. We did mainly pastries and cakes during the pastry semester. I hope to be baking a new bread at least twice a week.
If you want to bake more bread than is practical, giving it in exchange is a very valid thing to do. If someone does you a kindness, a loaf of fresh bread is a fine thank you.
Hi DeeDee and welcome to TheFreshLoaf!
Glad to see that you have taken another crack at bread baking in spite of previously poor results. You will find this place and the folk who populate it an AMAZING resource for not just recipes and technical know-how but for encouragement and camaraderie in all things breadish.
It's true and you'll see people mention this now and again: it's nice to be able to talk to other breadheads who truly "get it"! Family and friends may well like the end product and tussle to be first in line for that still warm first slice but aren't as passionate about the hows and whys as we are and think we are possibly a little off our nuts about bread.
Ask anything and someone here will know the answer or at least help guide you to discover it.
I know that if such a resource and community as this and other bread sites were available when I first dabbled in bread lo some 25+ years ago (I still have the very beat up Sunset Cook Book of Breads [1983] to prove it), I'd have stuck to it past a few disappointments. The encouragement and support that is possible with the internet bread community is truly an amazing phenomena.
You'll be a bread baking superstar in your neighbourhood in no time!
Happy baking,
Paul
Yumarama & MellowBakers