Friday, August 8, 2008

About My Blog

About 7 years ago some good friends of ours gave me a lump of rising bread dough in a Tupperware container and lent me a book about bread-baking by Beth Hensperger.

After my first experiment with baking bread in my kitchen I was enamored with the experience. Of course that first loaf was just the beginning. Someone else had made it, I just baked it. I wanted more so I opened the book and started on my journey to become a weekend baker.

After reading Beth's book (which unfortunately has gone out of print, but I believe it was:
Beth's Basic Bread Book) I decided to try my hand at the most traditional bread recipie - pain ordinaire (we know it as French Bread):
  • 1.5 packages (1.5 tablespoons) active dry yeast
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 cups warm water (105-115 degrees Fahrenheit)
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 3 cups unbleached all-purprose flour
  • Cornmeal for dusting
  • Egg Glaze (see page 115)
I was confounded. Her book (an a few others I had checked out from the library) had told me that bread was 4 basic ingredients:
  • Flour
  • Water
  • Yeast
  • Salt
What was going on here? Why sugar? Egg Glaze? I was intrigued.

Of course the loaf came out a bit odd. I still did not know what to do or how to do it, but the tasted wonderful and I was committed to try again.

So after 365 weekends and 300+ loaves of bread I think I've hit my stride. I just hope I can share what I've learned here.

-Matt the Weekend Baker

3 comments:

Jill said...

Wow, Matt - cool blog! I have to say that giving you that lump of dough was one of my better impulses, which has paid off in spades over the years! :-)

What a great resource for bread bakers (and aspiring bread bakers, too). I can't wait to try out your recipes!

Barbara said...

Great blog! I also love breadmaking and will be back to visit often to see what other delicious loaves you have created.

I'm also inspired to try sourdough which is one of the breads I've shied away from so far.

Matt said...

Thanks :)
I'll have a new how-to post this weekend.