Where did you learn to make bread?

I started baking bread just about the time I retired from the US Postal Service in 2009. I've borrowed a lot of bread baking books from two local library systems and ended up buying more books than I need. I've also spent a lot of time gathering tips and techniques from here on the Fresh Loaf. I've been very lucky in that during that time I've baked less than a dozen unsatisfactory loaves. Mistakes in technique or baker's math have taught me some excellent lessons.

There's still so much more to learn.

Mainly self taught as a teen/young adult following recipes and using photos as a guide/inspiration. My mom tried a few times, but made bricks and openly admits to it. My grandmothers were good cooks, but I don't recall either making bread.

As a stay at home mom when my kids were small, I baked nearly all our bread, but with yeast and by recipes. Once the kids were grown, I picked it up again and took the challenge to try SD and to develop breads my own way - experimental class.  :)

Self taught. With a lot of help from the Internet and The Fresh Loaf.

I have a spreadsheet that I put together, it is the single thing that helps me the most.

it allows me to get the recipe spot on, play with hydration & ingredients, make up new recipes.

Now it would be great if someone came up with an online virtual oven.

Bill

Mom first, then in high school I got a job as a bagger/slicer at Brother Juniper's, Peter Reinhart's bakery. They didn't teach me to bake per se, but I certainly observed and learned a lot while there.

My baking at home didn't get serious under around the time my son was born, which was only a few months after Bread Baker's Apprentice was published.  That book and an enthusiastic neighbour who baked are what really got me going. It also got me searching for other baking enthusiasts to chat with, which is how TFL came to be.

is being 4 or 5.  My mom was quickly pinching off balls of dough between her thumb and index finger and laying them in rows on a baking sheet.  She pinched off a wad and handed it to me, then showed me how it was done.  I remember her lining up my teeny (maybe 1-inch or smaller?)  baby buns onto one short end of the pan, and then that proud moment came when they were baked and she handed them to me.  Oh the pride of a child baker!

I took a cooking class in college that spent one week on yeast, but more of what I learned came from reading Bernard Clayton Jr.'s "The Complete Book of Breads".   It was on my night stand quite often.  I love the science part of the process.  I love how bread dough feels like it becomes alive through the handling of it.  Totally addictive.

So many of the beautiful artisan breads done by the rest of you make me question whether I qualify as a "true bread baker."   My friends are impressed,.....but man....you guys humble my efforts.  (laughing.)  

as well as lots of trial and error, internet research and an experienced neighbor who loves to share his knowledge.  I got serious last year when I retired from full time employment.  I've always been a fantastic cook (my husband's words) and rarely use a recipe cooking but my time with the dough has taught me I do need to follow one more closely and write down my modifications because the dough is somewhat less forgiving than cooking a meal.

I've been looking for more courses in the area to improve my techniques but this website has an unbelievable wealth of knowledge with members willing to share their knowledge and I'm been addicted to it.

centered around cookies and cakes when I was a kid.  Mom baked bread fairly frequently but I don't recall doing anything more than watching while she did. 

My bread baking really began as a senior in college when my wife had severe morning sickness and was hypersensitive to, and nauseated by, odors that I couldn't even smell.  I wound up with most of the shopping and cooking duties and decided to try making some bread, with Betty Crocker as my guide.  Most of the attempts were edible, so I kept at it.

Later, I received a copy of Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Breads.  That was my first, and for a long time only, bread book.  It served me pretty well for the next 20+ years.

My bread baking really took off, though, with finding TFL (thanks, Floyd!).  There were so many new (to me) breads and ingredients and techniques to try!  And so much encouragement and help, too.

I hesitate to call myself "self taught" when I have benefitted from the advice and insights of so many others but it is true that more of my learning has been caught than taught. 

Paul

I grew up in a baking and science environment. The baking was mostly cakes,cookies and such and my uncle and nuns were the actual bread bakers. My mom thought she baked bread and tried to teach me what she knew.She made GREAT biscuits.My uncle, the baker, was not a teacher and his loaves were pretty hearty-even the white bread. I didn't think fluffy bread could be made by mere mortal (thought it only came in a plastic wrapper) until a boyfriends neighbor made bread. Holy Cow was it fluffy! And possible! That got my attention! That was 35 yrs ago. Life happened.

When I actually wanted to LEARN how to make bread (about 7 years ago now), I had to pretty much UNLEARN everything my mother taught me about making bread. She had no idea why she did what she did to achieve any kind of results. She passed away 20 yrs prior so  I learned here on TFL, and by baking endless bricks. But I was determined to learn and kept notes of my bakes. I can make some pretty good loaves and I much prefer my bread (even defrosted and stale) to most storebought "artisan" breads.

I am eternally grateful to my mother for her wisdom in other areas of life, still envy her light-as-a-feather biscuits and am also grateful for all the support from everyone on this wonderful site.

Thanks,Floyd! You did good!

self taught out of desperation for good bread that I could not find in the UK.

I missed my large variety of German rolls and bread.

I googled and looked for recipes on the net, got some bread books ...

I am a freestyle cook, can not do with recipes but with bread baking I am very precise.

at Treasure island in SF in 1974, staying at the transit barracks there, bored stiff.   The Navy cooks are the best and they made fresh bread every day, but since this was SF they also made SD bread for the officers.  Being on KP every day I got to wash all the bread pans which aren't like the ones we have at home. I got to talking to one of the cooks and he turned me onto SD bread.  I picked up a first edition of Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Bread at The Dead;s head shop.  It is still my only bread book.

Both my grandmothers made SD bread but my Mom made white bread in pans by buying frozen dough in the supermarket.  I didn't really get into bread making seriously until i bumped into TFL while looking to see of there was a multigrain Challah SD recipe out on the Internet somewhere - There wasn't and that was about the only bread I was making then .....haven't really made it since though  ...or any other bread, other than David Snyder's, more than once due to having a recipe crazy Bread Baking Apprentice 2nd class from Germany.  Now she is stuck on sprouted grain.

So it it Floyd's fault that most of my bread learning came about right here on TFL..... or perhaps it is your fault!!!

Happy baking  

My wife started getting into cooking. She excelled at most of it but struggled with bread. I decided to take a try at it with few no knead recipes. Then I moved into kneaded bread. About 2 years later I took a class at King Arthur Flour. It was incredible. Today I use our library to try out books and techniques. I have one sourdough and one rye starer in the fridge. And I make bread 2-3 times per week.

13 months ago I set a goal: I wanted to learn how the make the best possible baguette I could. I made 3 once to twice per week. I'm nearly there.

In Germany I baked a lot, but only cakes and pastry. Only after marrying an American and relocating to Maine I started baking my own bread, entirely out of desperation.

Books, especially Peter Reinhart's, The Fresh Loaf, some baking blogs and other internet sources, and, of course, Trial & Error were my teachers. In the meantime, I bake so much, also for a natural food store, that I wish I had a bit more time for contributing to TFL, and my blog Brot & Bread.

Happy Baking,

Karin

The freshloaf, definitely, and many books, not too mention kneading and other videos floating around on youtube. My mother never made bread, nor my grandmother, though she baked cakes and I loved to hang around to lick the bowl. I made cookies and pies in high school and intermittently afterward. About 15 years ago, my mother bought a bread machine for my husband and he made breads in it until the doctor strongly suggested decreasing the large amount of white flour he was ingesting. 

That bread machine stayed alone and unused in the basement for several years before I started using it for weekly challahs (which I still do) and later for whole wheat breads. I had never heard of sourdough, had no idea how to knead or whether there were alternatives, and I had no desire to expand my repertoire. I never gave a thought to how breads were made before commercial yeast was sold in little jars and packets.

Then I read 52 Loaves, and my baby was set to go off to college, and I wanted some PROJECTS. I picked a number - 108 - and here I am, with the dough for bread #72 rising. I also trained and studied for a bat mitzvah (went quite well), started doing artwork again, and began studying biblical Hebrew. It's a second adolescence.