Greetings from Blighty!
Hello all, after lurking around the periphery of this forum for longer than I can remember, here I am.
I've been baking since I was a child and whilst my cakes, pastries and other sweet treats are always well received, one thing that gives me true pleasure is to bake bread. Even after decades of dough, I still get that warm, fuzzy feeling inside when I unload the oven and see the end product of my labours (which is actually about 10 or 15 minutes of my time spent measuring, mixing and kneading).
I've had many friends over the years who've rolled their eyes at the prospect of baking bread and others who have tried and failed: "But I followed the recipe to the letter, I even went out and bought a loaf tin and it was still rubbish! How do you make such good bread?".
There is no dark art to producing a loaf of bread, I tell them. It's just flour, water, salt and a good dose of patience.
Hi from the Pacific NW USA. No idea where Blighty is...but based on a few of your words like whilst and rubbish...I'd guess UK...but I could be wrong.
There are those who do...(as in bake)...and those who are afraid to...LOL! At least YOU are eating decent bread....while they are buying theirs. So don't worry..your in good company here.
It's a long story, but Blighty means England.
World Wide Words: Blighty
Simply following the instructions and being patient is definitely not enough. At least, it's not enough the way most recipes are written. Ordinary recipes require the reader to supply all kinds of knowledge and information that the recipe writers falsely suppose "everyone knows". I can follow a recipe absolutely to the letter and make you cringe with all the things I do to make you say "No, you fool, not like that!"
Thanks for the welcome and yes, I'm in England :)
I agree, David. There's a lot of helpful misinformation out there.
My friend's recipe (and experience) went like this: "mix in the warm water" (what is "warm"?); "put the dough in a warm place to rise" (warm...?); "when it's doubled in size knead on a well-floured surface" (err, how big was it when I started? it was sticky, so a few more handfuls of flour got mixed in); "put the dough in a warm place to rise for an hour" (it got really big and puffy) = overproofed; "bake in a hot oven at 200˚C/400˚F for 25 minutes or until golden brown" (it looked cooked, but it was a bit like cake inside and a bit flat) 25 minutes at 200˚C?!.
She ended up with a kind of bread-cake-pudding, which was really sad for a first time experience. After we finished laughing about it, I showed her how to make sourdough bread, doing everything at room temperature using flour, salt and water. She bakes excellent bread, but sometimes she still needs a little patience.
I wouldn't call it helpful misinformation. It's the assumption they make that everyone who ever wants to look at a recipe has already had many hours of help and experience, guided by someone like you.
If I were ever to write a recipe collection, the only thing I can think of that could give it any value (since there are so many great recipes already in existence) would be to give instructions that assume ZERO knowledge and ZERO experience other than the ability to read English, and allow the reader to succeed on the first try with absolutely no help and no advice. The kind of book that every eight-year-old would immediately know exactly how to use without even asking a question. I might only be able to fit four or five recipes in such a book, but who cares! ?