Hi TFLers! I am an amateur bread baker from Champaign, IL. Sometime last year, I started baking Jim Lahey's no-knead bread and it turns out (no one warned me), it is a gateway drug. After being extremely pleased with myself for producing lovely, fresh loaves of bread right in my home oven, I started craving something with more flavor - enter the sourdough obsession. I successfully cultivated my little army of wild yeast earlier this year and then proceeded to bake many a doorstops and frisbies before I sought out this site. I knew I was in good company when I started producing more edible sourdough specimens by heeding the advice of fellow bakers on this site. From me, my family, and my teeth, thank you. I learn more everyday.
and gateway drug is the perfect term for it!
but never a decent one to be proud of and one that someone else would eat. TFL site and folks changed all that. Now I won't eat it and everyone else will :-) Just kidding. TFL is a gateway drug too - I sure make more than one kind of bread now too!
I started with bread-all kinds of bread now. Then I went on to fermented vegetables,kimchee,saurkraut,pickles. Then kefir,yogurt,villis, water kefir (just starting) and next is CHEESE. My spouse claims I eat all kinds of "weird" things but I have never felt better. And no better place than here! Great community-worldwide!
Enjoy and bake delicious bread!