Hello everyone,

After lurking (and learning) on this wonderful site for nearly two months, I thought it was about time I introduced myself.

Since retiring late last year, it has been great to have the time to re-explore different avenues of cooking/baking.

My mother used to often bake our family bread, and I recall the lovely smell, and the warmth of the kitchen with its solid fuel cooker, just the place to be on a cold winters day. We lived in cooler climes then.

My family moved to Brisbane Australia about 20 years ago. With it's sub-tropical climate No need for solid fuel cookers here....

Back to the cooking/baking. After determining that I could still produce a fairly good array of cookies cakes, pies etc, I was looking for a challenge. Never having previously baked a single loaf of bread, decided to give it a go, and was soon hooked.

Unfortunately we don't have a lot of choice of bread flours in our area and my first attempts, although edible, were nothing to write home about. I determined that the main problem was the lower gluten content of the available flours and am now getting better results with the addition of Vital wheat gluten.

Another pitfall for we novices, is volume versus weights, and the difference in cup sizes. Australia,as far as I know, has the only TBS that is equivalent to 4 teaspoons. To confound matters even further..many of the measuring cups and spoons available seem to be a variety of US and Australian measures...Just as well I like maths, and have a good digital scale..

In my repetoire I can now count, a White sandwich loaf, French baguettes, lovely Italian Scali bread, a tasty Cinnamon and raisin loaf, Monkey bread, and yes the ubiquitous No knead bread.

Yesterday I baked Susan's 63% Sourdough. My starter which is now 7 weeks old seems to be perky and strong and made a good looking loaf with great oven spring. I may have to tweak my ingredienta a bit though as although tasty and perfectly edible, the cumb was not as soft as I would have liked.

I am looking forward to my grand daughters coming to stay during the next school vacation. Aged 10 and 12, they love to cook with me and are excited about learning to bake bread.

Thanks to all of the members who are so helpful, and contribute so many invaluable tips, which enables we novices, to confidently try something new, knowing that help is only a keyboard stroke away.

Warm Regards to you all,

Margie