Hi!

I've been reading this site for a little while. I'm an amateur baker, started last year. I'm so interested in it and some of the science behind it, I started this blog

http://breadnbeer.wordpress.com/

please take a look and tell me what you think! I'm trying to make the best bread that I can, and I emphasize a lot on beer relation in bread. :)

But whenever I'm stuck, I come to this site to find the answer!

Thanks everyone!

Hi all,

I'm a long time reader, but an only now joining to post. Looking forward to involvement.

For some bio - I'm currently a sporadic home baker. While in grad school I was blessed with a chance to work at St. Honore' Cafe as a baker where I really learned a lot! Since then I've do the occasional baking project at home with the family. Most of my experience is with French and European style hearth breads and pizzas. I'm currently using an inefficient and poorly calibrated 1970s junker of a gas over that was in the house when I bought it - this year might be the year for the new oven! :)

I live around Sacramento, CA - so I don't do a lot of baking in the summer as I have a hard time justifying turning on the oven when I'm parying to keep the AC on. :) But - it's winter time right now - so I'm fired up!

Take care,

Tom

Hello dear bakers!

My name is Sara and I just signed up at The Fresh Loaf. I had been checking the website as "guest" but now I finally registered. I am very excited to be reading all that comes along the fresh loaf. I have started blogging 4 months ago so I'm still very new to the big (huge!) online community and I have a lot of catching up to do. See/read you all on these pages!

Sara @CaffeIna

http://caffeiiina.blogspot.com

Hey folks.

I'm a Purdue-student who's studying computer-related stuff in Indy, and just generally trying to stay on top of things. My health-nuttyness is the main reason I'm here; "Tradition-Shmadition" I'll say most days, but the Oldschool definately has something to teach when it comes to food-preparation; only in the past 60 years have we been eating all these brand-new substances which are hot out of the factory spigots to such ill avail.

Anyway, real bread, as I've come to recognize it, from the farmers' market or frozen at the natural foods -stores runs a good $6-per loaf. For me this is pricey, so I'm diving right into it.

If you want to help, please take a glance at my post here. ( http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/15079/poolish-first-quotflightquot-questions-allpoolish-loaf-adjusting-hydration-after-soak-and )

I've been reading here for several months, but never managed to introduce myself. I'm a professional chef and filmmaker, but my breadbaking is mostly from love and obsession. I have a wood-fired oven and teach classes on how to use them (fornorustico.com). I'm so impressed by the incredible breads that people make and I've learned a ton from everyone's comments and instruction. There are only 3 websites I go to on a daily basis: nytimes, ravelry (I'm a knitting fool), and TFL. Thank you so much for this amazing resource and amazing community!

Lea

Hello everyone,

I found this site to be an excellent primer on making bread, and I followed some of the basic instructions. My first loaf was very small, as I only used two cups of flour, but it made a nice, bun? It wasn't really even a loaf, I don't think.

The next time I used 4 cups of flour and got a perfectly sized, if a bit squished on the ends, loaf, that my neighbour and her friend tore into with abandonment.

The third loaf I think was my downfall. I used about six cups of flour and two cups of yeasty water, but only one packet of yeast. I also added in the variable of a cinnamon sugar filling and cinnamon sugar over top of the loaf. It looked beautiful, but was doughy on the inside. Oh well, there's always going to be more yeast at the store, and plenty of flour. It's cheaper than buying premade bread at the store, anyway.

Greetings from the Buckeye state. I have been baking bread for a long time and this site is amazing in all the wonderful recipes it has! Truely inspiring.

I live in a small town, single, raising my grandson (7) on my own and have been selling baked goods at our local farmer's market. Bread seems to be a big hit and I am always looking for new tastes and takes on this staple of life to sell at my stand or share with friends.

chrissy

I've been lurking here for several weeks and finally decided to sign up officially. I must say, everyone is so very nice on this site, to judge from the many postings I've read. I look forward to both getting and maybe giving a little advice.

In fact, I may as well start by asking for advice. I've baked yeasted bread off and on for several years, finally settling on poolish-based baguettes and batards just within the last several months as my favorites. I teach at the local community college here in Twin Falls, Idaho, and we're on spring break this week. I left campus last Friday with two sets of essays to read and a desire to try making bread with a wild yeast starter.

I began with Reinhardt's BBA wild yeast starter and got it to the point of mixing up the barm. Thus far, it all looked and smelled and seemed as it should be, according to my reading. I dutifully let the barm sit out, put it in the fridge overnight, and mixed up the firm starter for the Basic Sourdough Bread recipe in BBA. I should note there that whenever I try a recipe for the first time, I follow the book directions to the letter (and numbers, too).

To make a long story short, the final dough never really did rise. Oh, it "grew" a bit, but after five hours I got a little impatient, perhaps, formed a couple of slab-like batards, and set them to rise on a couche. Three hours later they still resembled slabs: firm they were, and imposingly heavy. I mumbled under my breath, slashed them anyway, and brushed them with an egg white mixed with a bit of water (the glaze suggested by Joe Ortiz in The Village Baker).

I put them on a baking stone that had been heating at 500 degrees for 45 minutes before I assaulted them with the lumps of dough. I reduced the heat to 450, and after two minutes, switched on the oven light and peeked at them. They were beginning to brown, but they were still lump-like, very flat. At five minutes, they were browner still but still resembled mausoleum slabs. I decided I couldn't watch any longer and went upstairs for another five minutes.

When I next checked (at about 12 minutes), they had browned beautifully and, strangely enough, risen just as nicely. At 25 minutes, they registered 205 in their centers, so I took them out, cooled them, and tasted them. Nice holes, dense but moist crumb, light sour flavor.

The wife and son loved them, but somehow I think I got more lucky than I probably deserved to. Any thoughts on what the heck is going on? I've never really seen a "real" wild yeast or sourdough starter, so I'm thinking I have it mixed up too densely, even though, as I note above, it looks like the books say it ought to.

Sorry for the long story -- this is supposed to be an introduction. I look forward to a long and fruitful association with the site and its members.

Ken

Hi everyone, I've never posted before but love this site.  I tried the no-knead bread recipe for first time and here is a pic of my first attempt.  It's a rosemary and lemon loaf..got the lemons from the meyer lemon tree in the back yard  and rosemary from my herb pot.                                            

It's pretty tasty, especially witha nice, ripe runny cheese.

S. Dough

Hi everyone. Just signed up from San Antonio. My name is Shari and I'm a mother of 1 beautiful girl who's grown into a lovely young woman. I taught her to cook and she put me to shame by jumping straight into making her own pie crusts, breads, and even noodles! I've been baking bread for about a year with various levels of success and thought it was high time to get some help from the internets.