Hello Fellow Bread Bakers,

I suppose you know you are hooked on bread when (1) you read bread cookbooks for pleasure; (2) you remember to refresh your sourdough before you remember to do laundry; (3) you give away as many breads as you keep; and (4) you love to hear what other bread bakers have to say as well.

Because I live in upstate New York, there's a long season when warming the kitchen and the house with my bread baking is most satisfying.  Yesterday I started a poolish with a tablespoon of my sourdough starter (instead of instant yeast) just to see what would happen.  After struggling with shaping the baguettes (one would think it would be so simple, but I think dough shaping does demonstrate  a lot of technique), I came across a posting in this website.  I made four batards. The sourdough gave the bread a wonderful lingering taste, like a good wine.  I called my neighbor to say I had some extra loaves. Within minutes, her little 5 year old was at my door. I laid a towel across her outstretched arms and placed 3 batards.  She touched one of them, and said, "Oooooh.  It's still warm." When she left, I watched her walk carefully around the snow patches, her treasure carefully cradled in her arms.

 Diane