Winter is coming! I wanted to say hello and to thank other members of this community for all of the great information on this site.
I've been lurking here for a year, and after journaling my failures and successes (something I highly recommend!) I finally feel brave enough to join the forum- and hopefully I can contribute something useful to others!
Last year I took a 3 hour adult education class on artisan bread baking, While the techniques involved for me were just too time consuming to do on a regular basis, the class did provide me with some inspiration, plus a sour dough starter to take home. I am happy to report that it is still alive and happy (and I've shared it with friends far and wide). I found some guidance on this site that helped me simplify the process, and now I bake bread weekly (mostly sourdough, a 50-50 sandwich bread (uses both starter and yeast), and rye (Jewish Deli style). Although it's not perfect, it is still pretty delicious (with the exception of some failed attempts at pizza dough.... but at last I now seem to have a recipe, after tweaking proportions from a bunch of sites, that consistently results in a dough that is acceptable to my husband, who likes to create a pizza every Friday).
I look forward to continuing to learn from all of you!
Diane
I am so glad that you decided to cime out of lurkdom and post! I am looking forward to your posts!
Thanks Danni! The info on this site is amazing (and the people seem to be too!)
I look forward to seeing your bakes and sharing info.
There are quite a few of us Canucks on here. I'm in the tropics (Victoria) so winter is not so much coming yet though. :) There is so much inspiration on this site, I have trouble keeping up with it all. It's nice to have new things to try, as well as perfecting the 'same old' things.
Re pizza dough - if you can get hold of a copy of Flour, Water, Salt Yeast there is a whole section on pizza doughs (straight dough, dough with poolish, dough with levain, same-day or overnight). Lots of good things to try, including different flour combinations!
Thanks for the tip, LL! I am in Alaska--so a different "Great White North" neighbor !! :)
Lucky you, living in Victoria. I have a dear friend there and visiting your beautiful community is always a treat! My last trip I because addicted to the Chocolate Panda Tea at Silk, and had to have a huge container of it shipped up here. (Sorry for the digression from "bread" talk--but that tea goes great with toast for sure!)
Yes, it's a bit more 'white' and 'North' up your way! Glad you've had a chance to visit Victoria. We hope to get to Alaska one day too; I'd love to see Denali. :)
Mmmmm, tea and toast...