Just wanted to share with you

[olivierco]

A baker came to my school some weeks ago and gave a "leçon de pain".
As we have in France many bakeries I hadn't considered to try home bread making although I like to cook.
Home bread making is in fact easy and gives very good and tasty results, even in a normal oven. Moreover, you are sure not to find in your bread any food additives.
I have been baking my own bread since. There is still room for improvement but it is already a pleasure to eat fresh bread, not mentioning the good bread aroma floating in all my apartment.

As you may know, I happen to like books so I bought two books from Richard Bertinet (each with a DVD explaining the basic techniques)


A good introduction.


More on sourdough bread.

[Victoria]

Funny you should mention this. My co-worker is obsessed with ordering from Poilâne Bakery in Paris. I guess she saw some story on it and how it is the top rated and the oven is hundreds of years old. She is determined to place an order soon!

I have never tried making bread, but I may at some point. Sounds interesting and i know how good it tastes and smells!

[olivierco]

Poilâne was one of the bakeries I bought from when I lived in Paris.
Since the death of Lionel Poilâne, there are now two Poilâne companies: one led by his daughter (original stores http://www.poilane.fr/) and one by his son (http://www.maxpoilane.com).
Their bread, somewhat expensive, is now available in many places in France, for instance in my nearby supermarket. Too bad they don't use organic flour...

[CynTEAa]

Home made bread is wonderful! Although, I often cheat and use a machine to make it.

Xine recently used a no knead recipe she found here http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/bake ... rry-035556

Yum bread and tea!

[xine]

that bread is crazy easy to make, you just need a day or to plan ahead.

the bottom crust though- got very crusty and somewhat glazed looked, but I don't know if that was from my dutch oven or if I over baked it. Though the inside was completely fine.

christine/xine

[xine]

PS @olivierco- let us know how those books work for you! I'm interested by this dvd instruction alongside the book. I tried reading through bread baker's apprentice, and I got tired of reading through it

[Victoria]

Poilâne was one of the bakeries I bought from when I lived in Paris.
Since the death of Lionel Poilâne, there are now two Poilâne companies: one led by his daughter (original stores http://www.poilane.fr/) and one by his son (http://www.maxpoilane.com).
Their bread, somewhat expensive, is now available in many places in France, for instance in my nearby supermarket. Too bad they don't use organic flour...

Yes the first one is the one! We watched a video of Lionel Poilâne, a little story on it here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id= ... ontentBody

.

[olivierco]

PS @olivierco- let us know how those books work for you! I'm interested by this dvd instruction alongside the book. I tried reading through bread baker's apprentice, and I got tired of reading through it

Both are easy to read. So far I have only tried bread with yeast (so no sourdough): regular bread, fougasse (the bread shown on the cover of the book) and the scones recipe he also gives. The DVD in the first book (Dough) clearly presents in ca 30 minutes how to make your bread. For only 20$ I thin this book won't disappoint you.

The DVD (which I haven't watched yet) in the second book (Crust) is about brioche, sourdough bread and how to create your natural ferment.

[Chip]

mmm, sour dough bread!

Sounds like fun, I love to cook, etc as you know, but never got around to bread making. I bet you nibble on cheese with your warm, fresh breads!?!

[olivierco]

You shouldn't eat bread too soon after getting it out of the oven because it might be difficult to digest.

I found a video with Bertinet explaining his technique:

http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/video/2 ... sweetdough

[skywarrior]

I love baking bread. Thanks for the two book suggestions!