Hello from North Yorkshire

I’ve just today signed up to this community having found it while looking for a recipe for Cramique, a sweetened loaf popular in Northern France and Belgium.  I’d forgotten about it until I saw it featured on an edition of Le Meilleur Boulanger this week showing bakeries in Northern France.  Well worth watching via the M6 website if you are interested in French style baking and it streams fine in the UK without a VPN.

I have been baking bread for a while but am still very much learning.  Eric Kayser’s Larousse book has been my inspiration in recent years.  I tried Mr Forkish’s text but with less success, I appreciate that others have found his techniques amazing!  

Most weeks I bake “pain de mie” and a batch of burger buns.  There are only 2 of us so that limits the amount of bread we need especially at the moment when socialising is out of the question.  I varied things a bit over the holiday period: we had some baguettes, I made half length loaves this time, so much easier to manipulate for an inexperienced baker.  I also baked a crusty loaf in a cast iron pot which was delicious.

My favourite bit of bread making kit is a Brod and Taylor folding proofer.  This has really helped me standardise proofing times by allowing repeatable conditions regardless of room temperature.  

I very much look forward to exploring this site and continuing to learn more about bread making.