Hello all you bakers!

What a wonderful site.  Here is a group of people who will understand what I do, that making bread is great fun and worth the effort.  That it really isn't as hard as everyone reckons.  In our circle of friends I am known for my bread - it is my party dish, a topped foccacia, simple and succfessful.  People are so surprised when I say I made it by hand, and impressed.  It is lovely to find a community of likeminded people, and such a rich resource.

I need a bit of help.  Typicallly, my baguette doughs, in fact alot of my doughs will seem cooked on the outside, they will have a hard crust and a nice hollow sound when tapped, yet when cooled, the crust goes soft and the bread inside will often still seem undercooked, or at least a little heavy in texture.  Am I aspiring to the wrong ideals trying to recreate bread which is soft and light on the inside and crunchy on the outside?  The only bread I regularly get spot on is my foccaccia.  What am I doing wrong? 

Perhaps you could also reccommend a recipe for me.  When I was a child (in Australia, as I am now), the local baker used to make a tea bread.  It was iced, and you would slice and butter it for morning tea.  It may have fruit in it, but importantly it had a filling, running along the length of the loaf, which I feel must have been some sort of blend of nuts and fruit, with perhaps brandy or something similar.  I would love to make a similar bread, even just a nice cinamony, currants etc loaf that is nice and soft, can be iced, sliced and buttered. 

Loving the site and the recipes, looking forward to trying a few.  Congratulations on such a wonderful resource for bread lovers all around the world!

S

from outback Australia