Making Bread is Fun!

My bread making experience in the 80s was quite unpredictable. Sometimes the breads turn out nice but sometimes like rock! Most were not perfect until the machines came along. The bread machines made me very happy as I was always looking forward to a perfect loaf .

Then came the Artisan breads in the 90s.  A loaf of bread is characterised by the type of flour used, the length of fermentation; the longer, the better and using natural starters instead of commercial yeasts. And finally these are baked in stone ovens, like in the olden days.

So I was drawn to this somewhat traditional way of making bread. Not only the taste of a crusty slice is so wonderful but studies say that breads made by a long fermentation process are easier to digest. It has a quality far surpassing store bought loaves, in taste and texture.

My trials have been a plenty, most of the time producing mediocre results because so many things have to be right to get a perfect loaf. If its not the flours or the wild starter yeast, it could be temperature or time in the proofing, or even the type of oven used. But since i found a baking stone, my loaves are getting better. Maybe i am getting there and having fun here sharing photos of my work.

plain white

mixed grain

shaping

proofing in sunlight

ready to bake

sprinkle seeds

1 hour baking time

walnut, sunflower and poppy seed loaves