First blog post - like the site very much. I am a keen home baker and been baking since coming across Andrew Whitleys book in Easter 2009 whilst on holiday near Lyme Regis.

Todays bread is a "Millers" Levain - or "lots of bag ends".

Interested to know how many people bake with a Levain and how they maintain / feed it on weekly / daily basis ?

I am finally settling into a pattern of baking 3-4 loaves every weekend for our daily use-WWsandwich, fruited morning toast, french and maybe 1 extra as experimental,giveaway or to perfect a recipe.

It occurs to me their are many little things I can do to streamline the process of making the repetetive loaves such as pre-measuring out my flour into ziplocs and even adding all the dry ingredients to it.

I thought I'd ask the collection of experts here what they do to streamline their process? I have learned so much from this forum. I'm sure there are many great ideas as to procedure and supplies that make it easier and faster. After all, it will leave more time to bake NEW breads!

I've baked several loaves of bread using the "My Daily Bread" recipe on this site. Every time it's come out very good but I can't get the crust right. When it comes out of the oven the crust looks perfect, dark brown, and crusty, but as it cools it gets paper thin and soft. Am I not baking it long enough, to long, or something else? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Well it's been since I first found TheFreshLoaf in 2006 that I posted to my bread blog. Up until recently I hadn't had much time or energy to do much baking. Couple that with my love of crusty breads and whole wheat and my wife likes non-crusty, white breads and all the married folk can understand how this variable can decrease the amount of bread time for Jason.