I have been making bread since my early 20's. I just love the idea that I am making something like the pioneers used to, with my own two hands. I used to love to knead the dough by hand, but now that I have a preschooler running around, I have found a new love, it's called a bread machine. I bought mine at Wal-mart for about $40 and have regularly used it since I purchased it last November. My goal is to make all of our bread and stop purchasing it from the store. My favorite breads are artisian. I love, love, love, sourdough. I had a sourdough starter for years but recently I let it die so I need to start a new one. It is easy enough, 1 cup flour, 1 cup warm spring water, and one packet of yeast (there are other methods but this is easy and fast) let it sit on the counter a day or two and watch it bubble and ferment. I just need to make time to put it in my sourdough crock (I really don't know what it is I just call it that). This was a fun find at an antique store. It is rather small, about 5" tall and 5 1/2" round but big enough for my purposes.
A great book that I use is
Rustic-European-Breads from your Bread-Machine. This is a wonderful book that inspires you to make more than just white sandwich bread (which is yummy too). I have to admit that one of my favorite foods in the whole world is bread. I love it with room temperature butter or with butter and fresh salsa--got this idea from a mexican restaurant! I recently purchased a unique piece of pottery that I bake my french bread in and it is fabulous!
It is called Pomaireware from
laarsenassociates. It bakes the PERFECT bread, because it is unglazed and the bread retains moisture produced by steam. It is virtually fool-proof. I just put the ingredients in my trusty bread machine and set it on the dough setting and wait a few hours until the dough gets mixed and is ready for it's second rise and take it out of the bread machine and let it rise on my silpat mat for another 30 mins. then form it into a nice ball and put it in my pomairware bowl. Let it rise again and pop it in the oven.
