Newbie

from an American living in South Africa.  In effect, having lived in Kansas for a number of years, I've gone from Oz to ZA.

Lots of friendly bakers here, from the beginner to the pro, so you will fit right in.  Make liberal use of the Search box at the top left-hand corner of the page.  Just type in a topic (sourdough, croissants, panettone, etc.) and you'll get reams of information.  Or, post a question.  Either way, you will have lots of help.

Bread can sound pretty intimidating to the beginner but as you master the basics, it becomes easy to understand.  If you are just getting started with bread baking, try the lessons that are posted on the first page (right-hand side, about 2/3 of the way down).  Here's a hint: do each lesson a number of times until you can consistently and predictably get the results you want, and then move on to the next lesson.  Each one will give you a base for the next, allowing you to understand the differences and to proceed with confidence.

Enjoy!

Paul

You might want to look up its special characteristics.  If you are following a normal wheat recipe and substituting spelt.  The dough will be wetter and needs more time to absorb the water to develop gluten.  Which means... use less water and after mixing allow the dough to sit 45 minutes before kneading into a dough.  Also I find it is good not to let the dough rise too high before baking, there will be lots of oven spring in the oven but spelt can be weak.  Use a greased form for best results while baking.  

Mini

Here in TFL we exchange experience and sometimes opinions about baking and other related subjects.  I haven't tried using 100% spelt flour but I would like to hear about your experiment and results.  Glad to have you here.  Al