Brand new baker saying hi
Hello,
I came to baking a little later than most... about three weeks ago actually. For some reason I decided I wanted to learn how to make homemade bread and so I began my adventure in the world of all things bread. I tried a couple of recipes and found some success with my first couple of loaves of basic white sandwich bread but my husband loves multigrain so I decided for my third loaf multigrain it is. Disaster. It rose but not by much and it tasted too yeasty. My husband liked it but he's a beer drinker and I'm not so maybe that explained his reaction!
To cut a long story short, I was roaming around online and landed at The Back Home Bakery website: http://thebackhomebakery.com/index.html [1]. Most excellent videos on kneading, folding, rolling dough, etc. On the site was a link to The Fresh Loaf and lessons on baking bread. I thought, this I can do so right away I grabbed my bag of flour and today I'm proud to say I made my first loaf of French bread that tasted just as good as our local bakery. Imagine my surprise. The dough was wet but came together quickly. It was silky and smooth and looked just like the dough on the videos at The Back Home Bakery.
As I mentioned earlier my husband likes multigrain so when I clicked on lesson two there it was... a perfect opportunity to throw some seeds into the mix and see what happens. Success once again. The dough was a bit drier maybe because of the seeds (and my husband distracting me so I wasn't watching how much water I was adding.) It was richer and denser but looked good and tasted yummy.
Two loaves in two days and both turned out great. Maybe it's beginner's luck but it did a lot for my confidence so I just wanted to write to say thank you, The Fresh Loaf, for being there when I needed a baking guru.
Is it morning yet? Can I bake another loaf?
Ciao,
Janet