Bread Baking

Living in Europe we have made a number of adjustments in our lifestyle. The two biggest have been not owning a car and walking everywhere or taking the bus and the other is no longer owning our own 4 bedroom house but instead renting a one bedroom apartment. Some of the smaller adjustments have been having a dorm-room-sized refrigerator and not having many of the kitchen gadgets I am used to like my kitchen aide and bread machine. I absolutely love baking bread and I used my bread machine just to mix the dough, taking the dough out after the mixing and kneading was through. I mean who in their right mind makes bread from scratch and kneads their own dough in this day and age, right?! Well, times have changed and I am in Europe making bread from scratch, kneading and all, by hand. It's not that they do not have bread machines here but I hate buying things I can't keep and since we only plan to be here for a few years (God willing!) I refuse to buy things I can't take home when I go. And if it doesn't fit in the suitcases that came over with me it's not going home with me.

Anyway, I have been making some bread from scratch over here and am no longer deathly afraid of kneading. I am doing ok but I am looking to soar in my bread making. Tonight I stumbled across a neat website called The Fresh Loaf with many great bread recipes and some fabulous bread lessons that I have to share with you. For those of you who want to start making bread but are intimidated fear not, you will be on your way in no time. For those of you who already make bread these lessons will also be helpful to you as there is much useful information and many great tips.

Lesson 1: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/lessons/yourfirstloaf
Lesson 2: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/lessons/addingmore
Lesson 3: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/lessons/timeandtemperature
Lesson 4: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/lessons/glazing
Lesson 5: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/lessons/tentipsforbetterfrenchbread

ENJOY!