Hi my name is Helen. I have begun a blog with a litle about myself so have a look in blogs!

Also have just read Timtune's comments on croissanrts and frozen butter. I freeze the block of butter and grate it onto the dough using a coarse Microplane. This seems to help.

Hi there, my name is Helen and I just joined up today. I am excited to be a part of this great looking forum and website in general. I love all the ideas, pics and comments! I am a baker by trade and have nourished a strong baking urge at home for many years, too. I love bread, dough is my favourite... I love the feel of it in my hands, working it, making it conform (sometimes!) and finding out what I can do to improve it next time.
I have the pleasure of living in a small village and working in the village bakery. We do small batches of doughs, handmade croissants, danish, muffins, pies and cakes.

I've noticed that there are very few new postings on the site the past few weeks. Is everybody afraid of the new format? It does take some getting used to, as it is quite different. It's fall, so we need to start baking more bread and sharing!

I am once again working on my bread baking skills. But this time the big difference is Altitude-5500ft above sea level. Now that I've found this fantastic web site I would appreciate any info how to adjust your recipes accordingly.
I have been going over and over why my attempts at Floyd's Italian and Ciabata Breads came out too dense and cakelike and the only conclusion I think would be an altitude factor.
I like to cook and bake Italian breads,pastries, and regional dishes from our family's
Albanese heritage. I hope to share some of these in the near future.
Next attempt Zaatar Flatbrea

As y'all can tell, I'm still working on the look and feel of the Drupal-based site. Drupal gives me a lot more flexibility: I can pretty much do anything I want with it. It is just a matter of finding the time and having the inspiration.

A few things I know need to be done:

Hello everyone

Oi oi i'm 13 and i wanna become a baker...so far I've baked French Bread ( not the artisan kind...the one you can do at home ), white bread using soy milk so it'll taste good with miso soup, and also a little something called golden knots ( a kinda sweet roll ). I just wanted to know if theres anything i should know about this site, like for example i've been hearing people talking about starters and i have no clue what that is. anyone mind filling me in?

I'm pretty new at this, and very much enjoying the site. Hoping to finesse what I'm doing -- my bread so far tastes great, and looks, um, not so great. *grin*

Wishing everyone happy baking!

Hi there folks! My name is Mike and I thought I'd join in the fun here at the site. I'm very new to the world of baking, but I've always loved food and most especially LOVED bread. Love it love it. Eating it that is. So now, I'm to the point where I want to play with making it and trying all kinds of fun stuffs with it.

I look forward to contributing to the community here (probably by showing off how NOT to do something) and getting to know you other afficianados. Hopefully I can get my wife to join up here too since she's actually the one in our home who's a terrific cook and a budding baker.

Take it easy!

Hi all,

I have been looking over this site and I think I am in love. It's good to know there are others who take bread as seriously as I do (my family laughs at my "bread obsession"), but that is what comes from being raised by a Frenchman! Even though I love all the different styles of bread I have never baked anything other than regular sandwich loaves myself, so I am going to give it a try. I hear the corner bakery crying already. :-( I am looking forward to trying all the different recipes and actually producing some good loaves myself. Then I can EARN the nick-name "bread snob".

Shawn