The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Reporting from the mountains of NC, USA

Wes W's picture
Wes W

Reporting from the mountains of NC, USA

I have a brick smoker that is the love of my life.   I will be pouring the footings for a brick oven on friday.    I'm not only interested in great pizza, but would love to learn the art of bread making like my Mother used to make.    

 

I look forward to talking to folks and learning a new art in cooking.

 

Wes

embth's picture
embth

Welcome to TFL.  With your smoker and the planned brick oven, you'll soon have a well equipped outdoor kitchen.  Home smoked meats and fresh baked bread will delight your family and friends, I am sure.  You will find lots of good information on bread baking on this website.   While you are waiting for your footings to cure, you can try your hand at baking bread in your indoor oven.  Warning:  Bread baking is highly addictive!!  

richkaimd's picture
richkaimd

Long ago, forty years at least, I decided to learn to bake bread.  I gradually reinvented the wheel, becoming a decent enough baker of a kind of bread I now think of as Northern European bread.  I have since learned lots more includingin this:  I could have saved myself some time by studying bread baking the way professionals do, by taking a course.  It would've saved me so much time.  I enjoyed my ride all along the way, mind you, but I'd have begun making so much better bread so many years ago.  Here's what I wish I'd have done:  buy a text book and worked my way through it.  (Some who've read my notes on this site before know where I'm going with this.  They can stop reading now; nothing new here for you.)  So, textbooks are not cookbooks; texts are written for students taking a course and, as such, help a student learn from the foundation of knowledge up, building slowly and in an organized fashion what a student needs to know.  Cookbooks don't do that, even the best.  So, at this point, you've the choice of learning bread baking in the organized way that professionals do:  buy a text book and work your way through it.  It can be lots of fun and satisfying as well.  I cannot tell you how much I wish someone had taken me aside and made me do it.

Here are two very different texts:  DiMuzio's Bread Baking and Hamelman's Bread.  You may be able to find them in your local library.  Both are available at Powell's Books and Alibris on-line.  It's not really critical to buy the latest edition.  Buy a used one if you like.  You can also examine the Handbook linked to at the top of each The Fresh Loaf page.

I think it's a good idea to continue reading this website and to watch videos of this and that related to bread baking just to see what's available in the medium.  If you study from a text, you'll soon learn quickly and be able to learn what's truly useful here.

 

 

Jane Dough's picture
Jane Dough

I agree about the textbook but only to a point. However the world of baking is so much bigger than an individual's perspective. The textbook method is definitely a good way to go for a solid foundation but it does not embrace creativity. That's what I see every time I read on this site. There are so many different bakes presented and so many variations in methodology that a textbook cannot possibly compete. Plus I get to ask for advice from real people who are willing to share their experiences.
I love books and I have plenty of resource books including the two mentioned with Bread being my favorite. In my opinion, Textbooks and a website like TFL provide the best of both worlds.

Wes W's picture
Wes W

Thank you all for your kind words.   I'm not a big text book person.   Give me a picture and I can build the finest furniture or a brick oven.   Give me a recipe and I can cook anything.     I'm not a creative person when it comes to food.   I can only go by the recipe.   I am so excited to get my oven underway.    I know I can bake in the kitchen, but like smoking pork or any meat,  it just has to taste better with fire.  :-)      I have looked at the getting started page.   I will start there and work my way up.   Like smoking different meat,  some you like, some you don't.      

 

I am a active member of a great smoking forum,  I was directed here my one of the members when he learned I was building a oven.    Best I can tell, this is also a great and friendly forum that I look forward to being part of.    

 

I picked up my block and firebrick today.  Tomorrow,  (if it doesn't rain)   the footings go in the ground.   

 

I hope everyone has a great evening.  

 

Wes

Jane Dough's picture
Jane Dough

Regardless of how you like to learn- welcome. I think you'll find your time here well spent.