Hello!

Hello Alice, I'm Bill. Proverbial "son of an engineer" and devotee of Self-Sufficiency.  Finally received my GrainMaker, so I can mill my own flour and having a ball learning how to make Whole Wheat  bread.

I don't know your level of expertise, so forgive my presumption. But if you, as I, came from a background of store-bought flour and recipes measured in cups, table/teaspoons, etc., go online to Amazon and order an inexpensive kitchen scale so you can learn to measure by weight instead of by volume. TFL is blessed with many accomplished, world-class bakers who can help you (and in my case, push and goad me for my benefit) become more skilled at this craft.  They will share more information in a single post that you will spend a week figuring out what they said, and be better for it.

Asyou read the posts, you will undoubtedly come across baking terms, like levain, poolish, autolyse, and more. Do yourself a favor and keep a journal of these terms, that you can later research them in order to visualize how they fit into baking.  TFL is a portal into an entire universe of baking knowledge that most people, like myself, had no idea existed. 

The first term I suggest you learn is called "baker's percentage," and how professional bakers express their recipes, measured by weight. And weight is the preferred measuring unit because it allows much greater control than volumetric measurements (ie, cups, tablespoons, etc) will ever permit.

  They will share more information in a single post that you will spend a week figuring out what they said, and be better for it.  As you read the posts, you will undoubtedly come across baking terms, like levain, poolish, autolyse, and more. Do yourself a favor and keep a journal of these terms, that you can later research them in order to visualize how they fit into baking.

  The first term I suggest you learn is called "baker's percentage," and how professional bakers express their recipes, measured by weight. And weight is the preferred measuring unit because it allows much greater control than volumetric measurements (ie, cups, tablespoons, etc) will ever permit.

Here is a link to a video explaining baker's percentages.  This should help get you started.

https://youtu.be/fohAKf3gdSg