I started baking my own bread by hand in September. I had used a bread machine starting in 1993, but got inspired by eating my wife's handmade bread when we lived in California. The first few loaves I made were Irish soda bread, from a recipe and directions sent to me by a friend and former student who now lives in Ireland. But around the 3rd week in September, I started making yeast bread and was surprised how easy it was to make decent bread. Not great bread, certainly. Not even very good bread, perhaps, but decent bread, much better than I can buy around here except at great price and limited variety in a few bakeries.
Gradually, my bread has improved in flavor and texture. Yesterday I made my first biga using 1 cup of bread flour, 1 1/2 cups of water, and 1 teaspoon of active yeast.
Here's what it looked like after I mixed it up:
After one hour:
After four hours:
In the morning, after a night in a cold room:
In the oven:
And ready to eat:
No comments:
Post a Comment