Hi my name is Linda and I am new to this. I have been cooking and baking for years. But I real never got into the bread baking part of it. I now have the time my kids have moved out. I love this site I check on this site every day. My question is what are the best books for me to buy? Also what tools do I need to get started?

 Thanks for your help

Linda

This is my first blog, so I joined the website a couple weeks ago, already tried a few recipes and I'm joining the chorus of gratitude, thanking everybody for sharing their lovely recipes. My aim is to put up a few recipes myself. Just a little bit about my baking, as I'm on a wheat and dairy free diet, I adjust pretty much every recipe to my own needs, so far it worked. Phew! But I haven't baked much with yeast, my regular bread would be made with baking powder, quite nice.(Will put the recipe up soon). So now I can't wait to try out more of the lovely things that I found on this site. 

I made a lovely basic white spelt bread this morning, Crust was lovely and very tasty with strawberry jam.

For now my next project is to make croissants, already have the butter chilling in the frigde, will report back with further results.

Hello everyone. I am new to the site and completely new to baking bread. This is something that I can really get into, but I am having a little trouble with the texture of my first couple of loaves.

First, about me: I am 22 years old, male, and I live in SoCal. I will be graduating this year with a degree in Marketing. I currently work as a barista at SBux, formerly at a small coffee shop that had the best coffee in all of CA IMO. Working as a barista is what has inspired me to delve into culinary adventures. I have explored the process of making coffee a whole lot, including several brewing methods, home roasting and mixing beans, and refining my palette to taste the nuances of beans from several regions of the world. I would like to travel to the farms where coffee is grown and learn more about coffee and the people who are involved in its cultivation. I am very interested in learning about other cultures, languages, and foods from around the world. I enjoy hobbies that produce something, like car detailing. When I detail my car I call it therapy because it is a process. I have something that I can stand back and admire when I am finished. The next time I go through the process I learn from the time before and do it even better. I think that baking bread is very similar, which is why I like it so far. But bread is cheaper, and I like that too. I would love to work with a renowned artisan, such as Peter Reinhart, and learn and refine my skills in the kitchen.

Now, on to the bread. My first attempt at baking bread was a recipe from King Arthur Flour.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-100-whole-wheat-bread-recipe

My bread came out with a good flavor, but it is very dense. I am thinking that maybe I didn't let it rise enough after forming it. My crumb does not look as good as in the picture provided with the recipe. In fact, there really aren't any holes in it at all. It is a very heavy loaf.

A picture of loaf 1

So I tried again with the lesson 2 recipe on this website.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/lessons/addingmore

My bread was still a little dense, but this time it had some flake to it. I used the steam method of putting a cookie sheet on the bottom rack of the oven while it preheated. Then I poured a cup of water over it just before I stuck the dough in the oven. I baked both loaves of bread in a convection oven. I think the bread needs to stay in the oven longer next time because my bread is not getting a dark crust. I will invest in an oven thermometer at some point to check the accuracy of the oven's internal thermometer. I also need to get a better instant read thermometer to check the bread's temperature. For both loaves I used King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour. I would like to try some other flours to see how it affects things.

Pictures of loaf 2

What I learned so far:

1. Making bread is more about process than about ingredients.

2. Shaping and scoring are harder than they look. On my second loaf I wasn't going for any specific shape, but it was some sort of boule I guess. I got aggressive with my knife when scoring it and practically ended up with two loaves!

3. Practice makes perfect! Or at least each time comes closer than the last...

Questions:

1. What should I do to get a lighter, fluffier bread with more holes? Does it need to rise longer on the second rise perhaps? Is the dough not taut enough when I'm shaping it? Does it need to stay in the oven longer or at a higher heat? Should I try a different type of flour (I used King Arthur White Whole Wheat for both loaves)?

2. Does shaping bread always involve punching it down? I understand bread recipes all the way up to the first rise. I put the kneaded dough into a bowl and within an hour or two it doubles in size. At this point is the dough always supposed to be punched down before forming it? Some recipes don't really specify. I assume that it does get punched down because obviously it has to go down to a smaller size when forming it if it is going to have a second rise.

3. On the second rise am I waiting for it to get back to the size that it was when it doubled on the first rise?  On second rise, does the dough need to be covered air tight? I have noticed most recipes say to cover it with plastic wrap on the second rise. My first loaf I covered the dough with the same towel that I used on the first rise. Was that a mistake?

I'm sorry that I have so many questions, but I am completely new to baking bread. When I get into something I get into it. I want to understand every aspect of the entire science and art of baking bread. Being new, I would appreciate any comments, no matter how simple your tips may seem. I already ordered (pretty cheap from www.abebooks.com) one of Peter Reinhart's books that has recipes for artisan breads. I plan on also picking up The Bread Baker's Apprentice to help me better understand the process. I will probably check it out at the library until I get the money to purchase it. Any comments or tips are completely welcome!

I have just started a blog and I am looking for feedback on recipes and other people to try my recipes.  I will have lots of pictures and lots of recipes.  I use baker's percents and scale all of my ingredients.  So, if you are looking for recipes that follow the metric system look no further.  If you also have a blog I will gladly check it out and follow you.  Comments are always appreciated and fun to find.   

milwaukeecooking.blogspot.com

Well,

I just processed my first loaf o' bread.  I've never done this before.  I went to my local grocer and the bag of KJF stood out as being natual, rustic etc...  After my purchase I realized that I bought hard red KJF.  Not so bad as i've enjoyed 100% wheat before but I whish I bought soft or hard white.  Oh well.  I will just top it with PB and J to mask the flavor...  or my first jar of chocolate crack (i mean "Nutella."  Wow!  That stuff is truley not necessary but sooo good. )

I followed KJF's recipe on the bag and the loaf turned out good (solid/airy/cooked...) but...  The taste...

I look forward to the experienced folks in this community sharing their abilities.

I really have no idea.

Well, I shouldn't say that.  I do have some knowedge of the basics (salt, shugar, flour, fire...) but this doesn't come naturally to me.

Thanks in advance.

Clint.

I know this seems a little late but I think we could all benefit if we define these terms in order to remove any confusion surrounding them.

What is a:

• new starter
• young starter
• active starter
• fresh starter
• old starter
• mature starter
• ripe starter

Thanks for participating. 

Oct 31, 2009  Changed title of thread so it is more easily located using the site search machine.  I may turn this into a FAQ or anyone wanting to make a FAQ should feel free to use the information.

Hello!

I am new to this forum and new to this area, Portland, OR.  Fortunately, according to Peter Reinhart, Portland is "one of the 3 best bread cities in the country".  Anyone know what the other 2 are?  Anyway, for the past 6 months or so I have been overcome with passion for breadbaking and so find this forum very useful and inspiring.

It all began for me with Mark Bittman/Jim Leahy's "Speedy No-Knead Bread" recipe; following their instructions I produced my first wow loaf.  Since then I've decided that the bread I like best is from wild yeast starters and whole grain, so I've been experimenting.  I can't get my photos to upload yet (pixel dimensions too large), sorry.

While I am living in Portland and looking for land to start my own farm, I am pursuing this new found interest in bread baking, and am trying to get a job at a bakery.  Thing is, I don't have any professional experience!  Any ideas of places to seek employment where I can learn the craft if I'm willing to work hard?  Thanks.

-Katherine

Like many, I am starting with Reinhart's BBA. Perhaps I am crazy to want to start my home sourdough experience with a 100% rye, but there you have it!

Not thinking, I started my seed culture at 10pm yesterday after an intensive day of cleaning my home, not thinking at the time what this would mean for the 24 hour feeding and what would happen when it was time to bake! Can I slowly 'shift the clock back' so to speak by feeding my seed culture and then my 'barm'/starter an hour or so earlier each day over the week so that I'm eventually at a more convenient time without causing harm to my starter?

Like many here, I have also come to realize that this is going to make an incredibly large amount of starter! When I go to do my Day 2 feeding of my seed culture later today, can I go ahead and toss out 1/2 of my day 1 ingredients and add in only half of what Reinhart says to on pg. 229 or should I stick with the large amount of seed culture and do the discarding when I get to making the actual 'barm'/starter?

I live in a warm, dry area of the country. When I say 'dry', I mean that we got only 13 1/2" of rain total for last year, less than half of our usual rainfall, and it is not likely to change any time soon. We've had a bit of rain lately, but nothing to write home about if it were anywhere but here. It is also very warm - It's only March and already I have the A/C running just to keep it at 76F in the house! What kind of effect will this kind of weather have on my starter, and what kind of adjustments might I need to make? I can't afford to run my A/C any lower than this just for the sake of bread, obviously!

I have read here that the sourdough rye is a much wetter, stickier, slacker dough. I do not have a KitchenAid or anything like that, so will be doing this all by hand. Any suggestions for handling would be greatly appreciated.

The story thus far:

I've used the starter recipe here and gotten myself a...blob. Nothing but a blob. It doesn't do much, isn't very entertaining, and I can't bake bread with it. However, it smells VERY nicely sour. I don't want to give up on it yet.

I fed it with 1/3 cup of white flour and a little under 1/4 water today. It is the consistency of thick paste.

So as I said in the tutorial thread, if I don't see action by tomorrow I'm going to feed it with 1/4 cup rye flour and 1/8 cup water and see what happens.

I'll keep things posted here so that I don't take up the other thread with personal experiences. :)

I've been wanting to start baking our bread for some time now and once I found this site I knew it was that time.  I'm a stay at home mom living in Iowa with a 9 month old daughter.  I'm making a variation on French bread as I type this...first rise is going well and if it tastes good I'll probably post the recipe.

I hope I learn a lot while I'm here!