Hi.
I'm Dave, near retired, a lapsed breakmaker - we made bread for the family for the first 20 years of marriage. A recent present of a Panasonic breadmaker rekindled my interest.
So far so good, I'm impressed how much they've come on. Their basic and sandwich breads
are fine by my judgement. Making dough, roll into buns, no problem, like working with play-dough! Brioche the last one I tried, and I'm frowning a little. V.dark crust (not burned). Taste/texture fine, just wondering if I can tweak the recipe with a breadmaker.

DaveP

Regular readers of the TFL forum will have seen that we have amongst us an expert baker and educator in the form of Andy (ananda).  It is clear from Andy's posts on this forum that he is a very accomplished baker and he has access to kitchens that are suitable for teaching bread baking, the college where he works has even just invested in some deck ovens.  

Having such a resource within our community made me wonder whether we could arrange a course that teaches Artisan bread baking techniques to experienced amateurs (such as myself and most other contributors to TFL).  It is likely that such a course would last at least a couple of days and, given Andy's location in the North East of England, an overnight stay would be necessary for most participants.  However, one great advantage of a course like this is that participants could have a high degree of involvement in developing the course content.

I must stress that this is only an idea at present but, if there are enough interested bakers out there it may be worthwhile exploring things a little further.  It is unlikely that the course could be arranged before June or July 2011.

Is anybody out there - particularly those of us who are UK based - interested?

UK viewers:  yesterday night's "River Cottage" looked at bread.  You can watch the programme online if you missed it, with "4 on Demand" at

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/river-cottage/4od/player/3133940

And they build an oven too - can it really be that easy?!  Maybe not, but given the aim is to encourage people who've never tried baking before to have a go, I don't think it's a bad effort.

R.

The BBC is running a series at the moment called "The Great British Bake Off".  The presenters include Paul Hollywood (author of "100 Great Breads"), and last night's episode centred on bread-making.  The competition setting unfortunately didn't allow for slow-rise, so the focus was on straight doughs.

For those of you with a UK IP address or proxy, you can see the programme at:

http://bbc.co.uk/i/tndz9/

for the next seven days.

R

Hi!

I'm travelling to London for a week later this month and really want to visit a good bakery. Any recommendations?

I'm also looking for a good shop to pick up a few good baking utensils, again any recommendations would be a great help.

Many thanks in advance.

Hi there

Does anyone know the name of the Polish company that makes the Danish dough whisks?  I am trying to find them for sale here in Spain! Lots of luck needed!

Laura

Hi this is my introduction.   I am a keen home cook, mainly into european and aisan food.  Thai, indian, british, french, italian, spanish food...

I have baked the odd loaf of bread with ok or not so good results.  I've been on you tube for info on baking, read Richard Bertinet book, and been inspired by this forum. 

I am just at the basic stage I think even though I can't wait to do more... 

started using fresh yeast today.  Await the results in a hour or so.  The dough felt different already.  Zoe