I may be beginning my blog about my passion for the process of making bread but this isn't the beginning of my journey.
The beginning was way back in the early nineties.
I started buying Lauke bread premixes and couldn't just make the occassional loaf of bread!.
I had to make lots and lots of bread and was happy to stay up all night just to knead dough and bake.
I changed our dining room into a makeshift bakery. The dining table became my workbench.
I had bins full of bread flour premixes and I bought a huge Hobart mixer.
All the while I had no idea what I was doing nor any idea about the correct processes, shaping etc. However, thanks to Lauke Flour Mills and their great premixes I was still able to produce a variety of breads, rolls, plaits etc that were more flavorful than the commercially produced breads that were available in our supermarkets.
...
Not too long later life changed significantly for me. With those changes my bread making days were packed up, the wonderful mixer sold and the passion stored at the back of my heart to became distant memories and a dream for another day, another life.
...
2010 ... I saw a tv program about a bakery that keeps a "starter", a wild yeast that is constantly preserved and renewed whilst using it to leaven their bread.
I had to research this, I had to learn how to make my own wild yeast.
I had to bake bread.
BREAD~LIFE
It took another 2 years until I really had a chance to give my time and energies to this passion.
At this stage I have to thank my wonderfully generous husband who so graciously eats my breads ... the good ones and the bad ones.
No longer do I use premixes, in fact we now have our own home mill and we mill our own grain for most of our breads.
Wow, what a great research tool the Internet is.
I am learning so much from great bakers like Dan Lepard, Richard Bertinet, Jeff Hamelmann, Ciril Hitz, Peter Reinhart and great forums like Thefreshloaf.com and Sourdough.com, not to forget all the fantastic people who have posted their expertise on YouTube.
I still have so much to learn.
From here I hope to share this journey.
BREAD~LIFE
