Hello from Maine!
Hi everyone. This is my first post here.
I'm not a new bread baker, but my more in depth interest in bread making is new. I was basically discussing that with a member here and as she told me, "I'd do you a disservice if I didn't strongly suggest you go over to "The Fresh Loaf.". So here I am to take part when I know something, but for now to mostly learn and ask questions.
I'm a retired gent, so is my wife, except she's not a gent :-) . As you can tell from my username I live in Maine and I like southern BBQ. I do 99% of our cooking, and I enjoy it, but my wife does help at times as my sous chef. I began my more in depth "study" of bread making approx' 6 months ago with the gift of an older Kitchen Aid mixer from a friend. That mixer required lubrication and was given to us because of that condition; our friend thought I could fix it. I did, and for a few months we didn't buy a single loaf of store bought bread. Then the gears stripped in it. In the interim of shipping it out, the repair, and getting it back, I began looking for a new mixer. My answer was an Ankarsrum. So far I'm loving the new mixer.
Making the bread I made on the KA was easy, but I still wasn't happy with the flavor of the bread. To me more flavor means sourdough. Those first loaves were pretty easy. But now I wanted to use fresh ground hard white wheat for even more flavor and nutrition in my bread. It took approx 3 weeks to perfect that KAF Rustic Sourdough made with fresh ground hard white whole wheat. BTW, our dogs love failed loaves that are cut into treats and slow baked hard/crunchy. Plus I know what's in those treats. :-) I'm saying that I had lots of failures with that loaf before figuring it out.
The other night I made hamburger buns (2nd time, but this time they were superior) for cherry smoke grilled burgers made with our fresh ground beef. My wife declared them the best burgers she ever ate because of the buns and the ground beef. She's had my cherry smoked burgers before, but always with store ground meat. But back on subject...
I need to expand my horizons even more though. I absolutely must master the NY Sourdough Rye (aka Jewish Rye, or that's what we called it growing up) that I remember my parents buying for a treat now and then outside of NYC when I was a child. I miss it and it's a fantastic loaf. If I can get that flavor with fresh ground rye so much the better.
So I plan to read, ask questions, and when able, add something to threads.
Thanks for taking the time to read this folks!
Edit: Oh, and I make a killer thin crust pizza.