Hello to all from the UK
Hello to all from the UK,
As a new member I would like to introduce myself.
I grew up in Holland, but moved to the UK about 6 years ago.
One of the things I missed after moving to the UK was the high(er) quality bread and wide variety of whole grain breads. Rows and rows of crates with pale soft white prepacked factory bread with the odd loaf of foreign style whole grain loaf, usually close to expiry date. Not really appealing!
Since a few weeks I have a bit more time so started to experiment with making my own bread. I was surprised how difficult it was to get it very wrong. So far all my loafs have come out very reasonable. Ofcourse there is still much to learn and much to improve, but so far I have not produced bird food yet.
Once I have mastered the craft a bit more I would love to give the -dearly missed- dark wholegrain bread a try. I am still looking for a good recipe.
So far I find making bread very relaxing and satisfying. Using organic pure ingredients, kneeding the dough, and afterwards being rewarded with a lovely healthy loaf.
My quest for the next few weeks is to find a local organic miller and see if I can buy from him directly.
A few weeks ago I have started a rye starter and hope to bake my first sourdough loaf next week. The starter needs tweaking. I thought: how difficult can it be to create and maintain a starter. So I did it my way, which is clearly not the right way. In retrospect I have been starving the starter. I plan to feed it 3-4 times a day in the next few days till it does double in size.
By the way: this site and forum is absolutely great! I discovered it a couple of weeks ago and have learned heaps. Thanks to all who post here!
The Whole Grain