I am so glad to have found this website. It is awesome. I have been baking for awhile. And I am lucky enough to bake for my job. At my job however I bake almost exclusively sweets of sorts (cookies, scones, cakes etc.). Baking bread is what I really want to do. This site is very inspirational and I am glad to become apart of this baking community.

Hello everyone.  Okay, aside from greetings, where to begin?  Found the site kinda accidentally while googling for info on a kneading bowl.  I joined, asked a question and have been blown away by the help I've received.  Totally fascinated reading the Forums and checking out recipes. 

Grew up in a large family in Minnesota with folks who knew how to cook and bake.  Mom's baking was so good, folks were buying her bread.  I inherited her kneading machine, love of the kitchen and homemade but go in spurts and spells with my bread making.  (Can tell that's fixin' to change!)

Have lived in Alabama for 30+ years, but (like Kansasgirl) still consider MN home.  However, when I've visited 'home' for a week, I'm ready to get HOME!  A white, sandwich loaf and brown-n-serves are my husband's favorites while I lean toward french bread and rolls - something with flavor that you can sink your teeth into.  I did manage a 'fair' job with Buttermilk Clusters but need improvement and have asked some questions there.  Am busy making jam for a few weeks and have run out of flour but am afraid you're stuck with me.  WOW!  Micki

I think I've fallen in love with this website. I stumbled upon it very recently, and I've already spent far too much time here. My grandmother taught me to make bread almost 40 years ago, and it's always been a kind of therapy for me. There is nothing as satisfying to the soul as producing something that smells and tastes as wonderful as bread -- in all it's wonderful possibilities. It's great to join a community of like-minded people.

I'm not exactly new to baking, I've dabbled in bread baking for a few years. I'm on my second bread machine, a Zojirushi. My first ended up on eBay. For some reason, I have a renewed enthusiasm for baking. I've also accumulated several books, including the Bread Bakers Apprentice, which I haven't attempted yet, and The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook, which I have had excellent results with every recipe I've tried.

I love the beautiful pictures on this site, which is probably why I keep coming back. It gives me such encouragement to keep trying on my own. I love hearing others experiences and learning new tips. 

Hi

In the recent rising prices, mom and I decided to start baking our bread at home. She knows how to make standard breads and adjust it empirically. I spend more time baking brownies and cookies and desserts. In terms of bread books, we had an all Betty Crocker Breads (from which I tried english muffins which came out quite nice and Egg Bagels which were...well...they got kinda squingy/shrivelled when I boiled them but they tasted okay...just well eggy of course).

Reading through my books I discovered their limitations and realized that I'd have to get...well better bread books especially if we're baking all our bread or as much as possible. So I caved and bought (well it doesn't take much persuasion to buy a cookbook...just money) Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice and Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible (and her other bibles too...:-D)

And my first attempts from BBA were the marble rye bread

And I finished making his bagels today and they were awesome! They just tasted great and chewy. And we all think we've never had proper bagels, even such good tasting ones. I'm sold! Tho it may seem tedious to me right now (3+ days for a bread), I'm going to try to make my way through the WHOLE BOOK! Yay! I can't wait. I haven't uploaded any pictures yet.

Anywayz, nice to meet you all!

Well, as my account name states I am a Kansas girl stuck in Maryland.  Even though I have now officially lived in Maryland (Ellicott City to be exact) longer than I lived in Kansas (Topeka)(I moved right after college graduation) I will ALWAYS consider myself a Kansan (sorry you Marylanders).

 I have always loved making bread, but have had long bouts (we are talking years) of not making bread.  When I first moved out on my own I made all my own bread.  Mostly plain white from a very old copy of a Betty Crocker bread recipe book.  I would occasionally throw in a loaf of french bread (recipe from the same Betty Crocker book).  I also whipped the occasional loaf of Dilly Casserole Bread (the best no knead bread I have ever had).  But until recently I have been in a long dry spell.

 Then this past winter I discovered the John C. Campbell Folk School (http://www.folkschool.org).  (Shameless plug).  I took the week-long breadmaking class.  Think 8-10 hours everyday of making breads and then getting to eat them.  Absolute heaven.  I came home inspired and began making bread weekly.  And I became a bread recipe junkie (you people are really bad for my waistline and pocketbook).  I was also inspired to revamp my kitchen (remodeling is frowned on in rented apartments) to give myself more room to work.  Even though I have a Kitchen Aid mixer I love the process of making the dough by hand.  I fear that when I first came back from my class I may have given King Arthur catalog the false impression that a new bread shop was opening from the continous orders I put in for about 6 weeks.

 One of the best lessons I learned from my week of breadmaking was that really good bread can take 2-3 days to make.  I now know the joy of coming home from work and whipping up a poolish in a few minutes and coming home the next day to complete the actual dough with a few minutes of kneading and coming home the next day to actually bake my bread.

 While I have owned Ruth Levy Beranbaum's Bread Bible for several years I was always intimitated by the recipes.  Now I read throught the recipes and can't wait to try them.  I also purchase Peter Reinhardt's Bread Bakers Apprentice.  Several of the recipes we made in class were from that book.  What a wonderful book.  It is a great read even before you get to the recipes.

So now I come to my quandry.  Maryland (as well as Kansas) gets ungodly hot in the summer time.  AC is a wonderful thing and a blessing, but AC in an apartment is very hard pressed to deal with an oven running at 400+ degrees for an hour+.  Other than getting up at 2:00 AM to bake do you have suggestions for dealing with the heat from the oven.  I am moving into another bout of no bread baking because of the heat and I really don't want to lose my momentum.

I can't wait to read your suggestions and constantly look forward to being inspired by the recipes posted.

Anne

Hello I’m Mike, I have some experience baking bread, not a lot though.  When I worked as the food manager at the Bodega years ago I baked fresh rolls every day along with all the other stuff that had to be prepared before the doors opened.

It took me years to get over that job but 25 years of working on life support equipment and playing in local bands has gotten me to the point of baking again. Over the years I’ve gone through periods of baking, sometime every week. My wife likes that nasty white stuff conspiracy calls bread they sell everywhere, but I don’t. Even the local bakery promising Italian bread does the over proofing thing of Cuban bread. Enough is enough.

Almost exactly a year ago I had to go up to Indianapolis for my nephews wedding. One of my on line guitar forum buddies invited me to stop by his place and he gave me a very hardy sourdough starter that even neglected has managed to survive. I’ve used it a dozen times or so and just learned the power of the stuff at about 12 hours after feeding it, wow. With out a doubt I got a better rise out of it than any yeast I’ve ever used. I’m souled on it :)

For the last few months all I can think about is a wood fired oven and have looked into it. Though I’m out of Miami as soon as I retire in four years I may still build one in the back yard.

I’ve come here to learn about baking bread, I just read about this cold fermentation and the effects of enzymes on the carbohydrates along with the fermentation processes and realize I know nothing about baking bread, but I can learn.

I missed this forum entirely, sorry! I made my first sourdough starter back in early May, and I was so excited, I Googled 'Wild Yeast' and found the blog of baker Susanfnp, who told me about TheFreshLoaf. I went to TFL straightaway and was dazzled, what with Sourdough Starters to learn about and Artisan Baking and a great archive (thanks, Floyd!). I bumbled right in, withour properly introducing myself. Now, 2 plus months later I finally read, slowly, through the forums and see Introductions!

So, I have been baking bread for five years or more, learning and reading all the while. Whenever I am unsure about a technique or a fermentation time or a retarding issue, I look on TFL. You bakers are an inspiration!

Just today I was thinking my lame was getting -- no no, I won't say it -- dull, so I checked on TFL. I learned that back in January 2007 Gloria Mielke mentioned sfbi.com as a source for lames. Sure enough they have a handle with disposable razor blades, and will sell it to you a lot cheaper than some companies sell their disposable lames!

Finally, I live in New Haven, Connecticut, right on the Long Island Sound, hence my handle, Soundman. To everyone else outside of the world of the web I call myself David. Well, there are several others so named, so Soundman will have to do!

Thanks again to everyone at TFL!

Hello all!
I'm so glad to have found this site. It's made me so inspired to start baking with yeast, especially since it made me realise that instant yeast needn't be dissolved in water first! Hehe! I was wondering why all my breads never rose and ended up being as hard as rocks.
Anyways...
Thanks for that and the constant info.
:) 

 I found this site about a week ago and have been reading around daily since. I've never baked bread (or much of anything really other than meats and veggies that required baking, but you know what I mean). I have an immense passion for cooking, but always steared clear of baking because I've always been really scattered and baking requires a level of accuracy and organization that I lack. However, I've been trying to quiet my mind lately and decided to give baking bread a go. I gave it my first go with the recipe for rustic bread on the main page. I had an amazing time with the entire baking process and although my loaf isn't exactly attractive, it tasted really great and I'm proud of myself for seeing it through.

So, anyway... my name is Mashi from Miami, FL and I look forward to baking more bread. Here are pictures of my first loaf (forgive the weirdness of one of them, I accidently pulled the cord out mid upload and I think it damaged the image.