Submitted by Stephanie Brim on September 6, 2008 - 11:35am.

I'm new here.

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!


Submitted by dgreenlees on August 24, 2008 - 5:04pm.

First Bread

I am new to the site and to bread making.  I just made my first loaf tonight.  Orange walnut bread and it turned out pretty good for the first try.  I do think that I made one mistake.  During the last 10 minutes of baking I had to take out the bread and pour on top 1/2 cup sugar mixed with 3 TBS orange juice.  Instead of it staying in the middle, most of it ran to the sides.  I put it in to finish the last 10 minutes of baking.  When I took it out it was a little sticky on the top edges.  Still had a great taste.  The orange juice mixture seemed a little thick when pouring.  Not sure, any thoughts?

Also, just want to say I love this site.  I have learned so much from reading all the info.  I plan to get my own mill and grind my own flour in the near future.  Looking forward to learning from all of ya'll. 

 


Submitted by KansasGirlStuck... on July 9, 2008 - 1:34pm.

A lurker coming out of the shadows

Well, as my account name states I am a Kansas girl stuck in Maryland.  Even though I have now officially lived in Maryland (Ellicott City to be exact) longer than I lived in Kansas (Topeka)(I moved right after college graduation) I will ALWAYS consider myself a Kansan (sorry you Marylanders).

 I have always loved making bread, but have had long bouts (we are talking years) of not making bread.  When I first moved out on my own I made all my own bread.  Mostly plain white from a very old copy of a Betty Crocker bread recipe book.  I would occasionally throw in a loaf of french bread (recipe from the same Betty Crocker book).  I also whipped the occasional loaf of Dilly Casserole Bread (the best no knead bread I have ever had).  But until recently I have been in a long dry spell.

 Then this past winter I discovered the John C. Campbell Folk School (http://www.folkschool.org).  (Shameless plug).  I took the week-long breadmaking class.  Think 8-10 hours everyday of making breads and then getting to eat them.  Absolute heaven.  I came home inspired and began making bread weekly.  And I became a bread recipe junkie (you people are really bad for my waistline and pocketbook).  I was also inspired to revamp my kitchen (remodeling is frowned on in rented apartments) to give myself more room to work.  Even though I have a Kitchen Aid mixer I love the process of making the dough by hand.  I fear that when I first came back from my class I may have given King Arthur catalog the false impression that a new bread shop was opening from the continous orders I put in for about 6 weeks.

 One of the best lessons I learned from my week of breadmaking was that really good bread can take 2-3 days to make.  I now know the joy of coming home from work and whipping up a poolish in a few minutes and coming home the next day to complete the actual dough with a few minutes of kneading and coming home the next day to actually bake my bread.

 While I have owned Ruth Levy Beranbaum's Bread Bible for several years I was always intimitated by the recipes.  Now I read throught the recipes and can't wait to try them.  I also purchase Peter Reinhardt's Bread Bakers Apprentice.  Several of the recipes we made in class were from that book.  What a wonderful book.  It is a great read even before you get to the recipes.

So now I come to my quandry.  Maryland (as well as Kansas) gets ungodly hot in the summer time.  AC is a wonderful thing and a blessing, but AC in an apartment is very hard pressed to deal with an oven running at 400+ degrees for an hour+.  Other than getting up at 2:00 AM to bake do you have suggestions for dealing with the heat from the oven.  I am moving into another bout of no bread baking because of the heat and I really don't want to lose my momentum.

I can't wait to read your suggestions and constantly look forward to being inspired by the recipes posted.

Anne


Submitted by Lorie S on June 11, 2008 - 5:54pm.

Hello

Hello.  My name is Lorie and I'm new here. 

I've been baking bread for a couple years now and enjoy it.  However, with my toddler running around after his two older siblings I thought I'd try out bread machines.  I find completely different results and my kids beg me to go back to my old ways.  In my search to save my bread (from the machine) I found this site.  

I hope to learn much and hopefully be a blessing as well.