Hi!
I used to bake bread with my mum when I was about 8-14 years old and then I didn’t bake bread for a very long time except for the occasional supermarket bread mix (which always turned out very compact & bland). Last May I made a sourdough starter which worked right away and I watched a few Paul Hollywood videos on kneading. I discovered that kneading dough in a bowl doesn’t work quite so well as kneading on a flat surface. I felt there would be a lot more I know nothing about :)
When I searched the internet I read terms like hydratiation, autolyse, crumb, etc. which I didn’t understand (and still don’t really understand), and I thought it would be best to join a bakers community like The Fresh Loaf. I’ve baked the loaf of Lesson One which turned out well and I hope to learn a lot more!
Forget all those new words/terms - for now. Just bake a few loaves. Concentrate on developing a method that works for you, kneading, shaping, bake style, etc. then you can build on that with the new fangled fancy stuff - and if, when, one-day it all goes pear shaped with some new technique you know you can fall-back to something tried and tested for your next loaf.
Personally I'm not that enthused by the Hollywood stuff and his style, although his books do have some good recipe ideas - look out for typos - some early editions have tablespoons of salt rather than teaspoons... Also google for "The fabulous baker brothers" on you tube to get some other ideas on breads.
-Gordon
It's not all that uncommon here to see (relatively) new bakers who report difficulties with recipes / methods that are farther along the learning curve than they are. Like most things for most people, it's generally better to learn to bake bread by starting with "the basics" so as to set a solid foundation to build on to whatever degree you choose to do so.
you will find a glossary that explains the terms here is a link http://www.thefreshloaf.com/faqs/glossary
Happy Baking
Thanks for the suggestions -- I'll look up those words in the glossary and then forget them until I can bake some simple breads. I'm going to check out those fabulous baker brothers as soon as possible!
Consider trying this: buy a textbook used in a professional baking course written by a professional. Read it chapter by chapter, doing the "experiments" along the way, building your knowledge slowly and steadily in an organized fashion. The advantage of this is that you will develop your knowledge base in a deliberately organized fashion which the text's author has determined works for students. You won't be reinventing the wheel. Also, you'll be relying on an expert who really knows what he's doing. That's worth a lot when you're trying to learn a new skill.
By the way, I really do mean a textbook, not a collection of recipes with how-to directions scattered throughout.
Here are two different texts you might look at: DiMuzio's Bread Baking and Hamelman's Bread. Both are available at used book services on-line and so you needn't buy a new copy.
I cannot tell you how, even though it was exciting to learn bread baking in a trial by error fashion, I would have learned so much faster by working my way through a good textbook. Things I know now I could've learned 30 years ago.
Interesting suggestions....hmmm. All things to consider, but the main thing is HAVE FUN! "Josey Baker Bread" is a good book for beginners, because it starts at lesson one, and progresses forward towards more difficult. Hamelman's "Bread", is an outstanding book, and probably my personal favorite. However, in my opinion it is geared towards the more advanced baker. I don't recall that it has any beginners recipes, but it is rather like a textbook, as was mentioned in the previous post. Anyway, welcome aboard. We can't wait to see what you are baking!
And define fun in whatever way works for you. In my case, when I started a few years ago, my definition of fun included being able to produce a good loaf right away, with "good" being a subjective assessment relative to what was available at a decent price in my neighborhood.
So, I started with Lahey's basic white no-knead recipe. I had tasted a couple of loaves baked by other people, so while I knew it wouldn't give me bread I'd call great, I was confident it would more than meet the minimum standard I was looking for at the time. I also knew that even if I never got beyond using this recipe / method as a base for various combinations of flours and add-ins, I'd be able to produce a nearly endless range of loaves. And that was pretty much all I did for the better part of a year before deciding to try SD.