Hello from Boston
...or near Boston, rather (Somerville). I'm finally getting serious about bread making. I've made the occasional loaf over the years and about 15-20 years ago was on a kick for a while to make a good french bread. The best I arrived at was using Julia Child's slow ferment recipe, but I never did get a really good crumb but in those days I didn't have access to the ingredients (like, say, bread flour!) or information that I do now. I've been making a lot of corn bread and graham quick bread lately and I guess it was inevitable that I jump back into yeast bread finally.
I've been using Peter Reinhart's BBA, and repeatedly making the Pain de Campagne so I can compare apples and apples from one batch to the next as I get the basics down of dough feel, kneading, etc. I'm up to batch numnber 6 or so now, I think.
I've learned a lot by browsing and searching on here already. I feel like I'm in the right place because a lot of you folks are as obsessively detail-oriented as I am! I have some questions but I'll post them in the relevant topics rather than here.
Eric