Hi everyone,

Having just registered a couple of days ago I thought I should introduce myself. My name is Henrik, I'm 22 years of age and I'm Danish. I'm a third year apprentice baker, currently at baker school but I'll be returning to the bakery in some six weeks or so. I chose this profession not because I necessarily want to work as a baker indefinitely, but because I have an interest in baking, especially bread though most things interest me in varying degrees. I'm also interested in programming, though it hasn't been my main occupation for the last couple of years.

And of course, I'm here to nick all your tricks about bread baking! And because I like the idea of an online bread baking community :)

-- Henrik B. N.

I've been baking breads for about a year, ever since getting a bread machine, a grinder and a bucket of wheat. Mostly have been trying to perfect whole wheat bread but it's different every time and only occasionally is better than a brick. That probably has something to do with my lack of adequate measuring devises, especially regarding freshly ground wheat. Someday I'll amend that problem but for now I want to branch out and try new methods as well.
Went to the bookstore and read the first part, all before recipes, of "A Bread Baker's Apprentice" because of the mentions from here. It completely changed how I view baking bread. Not sure whether or not I can go back to the bread machine. I'm attempting to apply his methods to a loaf right now and have some questions. I'll put that in a different section, though.

This site is awesome! I hope to learn a lot and thanks for all your help so far.

Hello everyone, my name is David, I live in Central IL. I'm not new to making bread but the extent of my bread baking has been basic white and whole wheat loaves.  I was recently gifted a Retsel Mil-rite grain grinder and now my interest in baking whole grain breads and home milling has been piqued.  I've been reading the grains and milling forum here but it seems most people are using a Nutrimill or another mill that has a dial for coarseness adjustment. The Retsel does not have this, how do I control the coarseness and texture of the flour in my mill so that it's easily repeatable and I can get consistent flour every time I use my mill. I've thought about using a set of feeler gauges to set the stone gap, the other idea was to buy a set of sieves used for classifying material but that's another step in the process I'd rather not have to do.  I'm looking forward to trying some different things and feeding my family more whole grains and further reducing my grocery store bill.

In addition to my new found interest in bread baking and milling I'm an avid gardner, we've had our most successful garden to date this year, filling our freezer and nearly every canning jar we own with all sorts of jams, juice, beans, etc. We still have 2 months of productive gardening time this season and should be eating well throughout the winter.

greeting everybody. my name is ron.

i'v wondered, does anyone here try to mix glucose with any bread's formula? in tiny portion of course.

does?

ron

Hello The Fresh Loaf community.

This is my first post but not my first time on the site; Been following you guys for a few months (this appears a common thing to happen) and have been slavering over my keyboard at the wonders I see! Not only does your baking look great but your tips, creativity and enthusiasm is inspiring.

I've been trying to make my own bread for probably a year now. It has not gone well. My loaves always looked good on the outside but when I cut into them...yuck! so doughy! as if they had no air inside (even after they'd atleast doubled) or hadn't been in for long enough but they'd been in ages. Now looking back I think the oven wasn't hot enough. If I remember rightly I was doing them on 180 degrees...seems a bit absurd now. I bought a bread machine and they turned out good but I really felt like I was missing out on all the fun. I found out about sourdough starters and when looking about for recipes I was directed here. What an enlightenment! I tried some sourdoughs and they were good but my poor thing died after a month from neglect... I wasn't sure how long they survived without feeding and was away for a couple of days. It did NOT look healthy when I got back. Since then, after being inspired by Richard Bertinet's technique on the 'Gourmet' website (was posted on here), I've used fresh yeast, put my oven up a notch and have had fun experimenting with satifying results, of which I'd like to share some images but am still to learn how to do that.

I guess that is all until I can do that actually... Could someone tell me please?

I look forward to sharing this lovely past time with you all

Madeleine

in Dundee, Scotland

Hi my name is Patrick and I am having lots of fun baking and learning from you all. Thanks all.  My question is in regard to building a biga(using Fooydm's rustic bread. My sd starter is at 100%. So my plan is to build at 50%.  so 6 oz sd starter,6 water and 12 bread flour. will this be close to the amount of biga in the recipe. I hope this is clearer then mud. Thanks again for all the great advise, Patrick from Modesto.

I just wanted to say hello and introduce my self. I have been baking since I was nine so yeah I love. I found this site looking for help. I posted a thread on chocolate bread that explains all. Thanks and have a great day!

My very first post to this esteemed bread board!

I have been lurking here reading for a while, and in particular looking for information on simulating a brick or clay oven by use of a BBQ grill.  While the topic is mentioned in some posts, most folks seem to then get into a discussion of pizza.  Now I love pizza as much as the next person, but that is not really what I want to bake.  I am after bread on the grill.

To that end I have begun experimenting on my charcoal grill with methods by which I can bake bread.  The first time I tried was a total disaster!  The top crust looked great, the bottom was burned beyond recognition, and the inside was still quite doughy!  Yuk! 

But one learns from one's mistakes.  So I have now had a second baking, and while the results were not spectacular, they were certainly acceptable, and the bread tasted good.  What more could one possibly want?

Thinking that I should reduce the number of variables in the process, I chose a very simple bread recipe, "Daily Bread" from the King Arthur Flour web site.  You can easily go to the King Arthur site and look for this one. I've made it before, and I know it is both good and simple.  Your very basic white bread.

That means that the variable in the BBQ baking will be in the baking process not in the bread itself.  So for the baking process I use a Char Griller, barrel type grill.  This is a fairly good sized grill, not one of the standard kettle grills.  I really want to simulate the effect of a brick oven or earth oven, so I needed some masonry.  For that I chose to use the pizza stone, and a terra cotta flower pot.  My pizza stone is about 14 inches in diameter, and I used a 12 inch diameter terra cotta pot.  I know that there is concern amongst many about using pottery from the garden store.  But my thoughts on this are that the bread is not touching the big pot, it is sitting on a pizza stone, and that flower pot is just resting over the top of the bread providing the simulated masonry.

I pre-heated the grill, stone, and pot to about 400 degrees (f), and the moved the flower pot long enough to slide the bread dough onto the pizza stone, added just a bit more charcoal to maintain, but not increase the temperature.  I was worried about how the process went, as the first time I tried my bread was burned after only about 10 minutes.  So this time I opened up and took a peek after 20 minutes when I had not yet smelled burning bread.

The crust was just barely beginning to brown.  Added another shovel full of charcoal and closed things up again for another 20 or so minutes.  By then the bread was a light golden brown, and when percussed it had a hollow thumping sound.  So off the grill and onto a cooling rack for a bit.

Then the first cut, it looked pretty good.  Tastes just fine.  But I wish I had gotten the crust just a wee bit crunchier.  I think I will have to continue experimenting to get this just the way I want it.

What?  You ask about pictures of this process.  Surely I can provide those, but not here, you must make a quick trip to my Flickr page.  Here is the link:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/12687649@N06/sets/72157621922724906/

Thats all folks

Curmudgeon66

I'm a 26 year old stay at home mom from Edmonton Alberta Canada, I've been working with yeast doughs a total of almost 3 months now, I do try my hand at different mediums but now find myself addicted to bread baking, because I've had some pretty good bread so far, it pushes me to understand and try more, different, complex things, the perfectionist and driven side of me makes me want to keep surprising my family with something new.  I have a 20 month old girl, and a 7 month old son, so I do use a stand mixer but when they nap I'd love to start trying my "hands" at some hands on kneaded recipes of more delicate complex nature, love to see theres so many breadies here! HI! :D

Here in Carbondale, Colorado, we will soon be building a community wood-fired bread oven, a noncommercial place for bread makers to bake together.  We feel that it is a good alternative to having twenty or thirty individuals bake at home in their individual kitchens, especially in this town, where community spirit is very strong and where many people grow their own food.   We would be interested in hearing from any of you who have experience with the community aspect of baking.  Do you have any suggestions for us?  Any pictures of your own community ovens, or ones located in other parts of the world?  Public response to the idea has been overwhelmingly positive, and we can hardly wait to begin.

 carbondalecommunityoven.weebly.com.

Linda