Hello from Sacramento Ca!

I have recently returned to my "roots" and started baking bread again.

The High School I went to had a requirement for working at a job, many of them on campus. I responded to a posting for running a bakery out of the school "Home Ed" kitchen, which included a couple of smallish industrial ovens. It was a bit unusual because I was a guy, but the Home Ed teacher figured we could give it a shot. I learned a lot, I was required to figure out how much my loaf cost to make, price accordingly and pay for power/gas/materials and then I could keep the profit. Turned out to be around a dollar a loaf, not bad for 1986.≈

The school was church run, and had a slight "prepper" aspect to it. The Home Ed also had a small store where bulk grains could be bought, and had a small mill as well, a demo unit for the ones they sold. I had access to honey made by bee raised by the Biology teacher as well. In other words, I got a good solid start in baking, even grinding my own blends of grain with access to wheat, rye, and even millet. I learned quickly that rustic loaves made from multi grains sold for a premium and sold quickly. 

I made bread developing my own schedule so that the stages fit into my classes. I developed a "signature" loaf based on wheat and millet in a nice round loaf format. I would make 5 or 10 loaves a day every day but Monday and they would sell out. Nothing like the smell of baking bread to sell bread!

"Real life" got in the way, and without access to high temp ovens I sort of let it go, not getting back into it in order to make pizza dough and cinnamon rolls for my son. He has autism, and has a limited diet that is badly impacted by certain ingredients like perservatives , so making pizza and cinnamon rolls without the added "junk" has helped him tremendously and even has produced some good bonding. "Dad, can you make me some more cinnamon rolls? They are the best" is the highest praise so far =)  (Along with "Mom, is there any Dad pizza left?"
He is even taking a liking to the bread, especially with butter and a little cinnamon/sugar on top. (won't eat that wonderful crust tho, oh well!)

I have had pretty good success with the Forkish methods, although the flavor of the sweeter poolish and biga methods are preferred over the sour levain method. I have a ways to go on looks, but the taste and crust/crumb are right there.

I prefer making smaller 700-750 gram oval loaves that are good for slicing over the round loaves, and it is a good size for giving away to friends and family.

Pictured is a recent loaf with some of my cinnamon rolls photobombing in the background