Our Daily Bread

Now that I've offered to grow some produce such as the eggplants and capsicums for my dear neighbours, it has dawned on me that I need to find an alternative should I not be successful. In case I am unable to nurture to maturity my vegetables, I've given thought that maybe I should also start developing other skills such as baking and cooking which can serve to produce something else as a substitute.

So hence, I started to bake bread - a first step to enjoying fresh gourmet food. I watched a DVD created by one of the chefs from The River Cottage in the UK on how to make bread. The DVD was given to my by the ESSE wood fire stove agent at Pivot Stoves in Melbourne. After watching the DVD about 20 times and taking notes, I finally felt confident enough to make an attempt at baking my first loaf of bread. It turned out that it wasn't as difficult as I first thought. The divine smell of freshly baked bread permeated throughout the house. I couldn't wait to have a warm slice smeared with fresh creamy butter.

The next time I made bread by following exactly the same recipe, the bread turned out like a Frisbee - flat and hard. A disaster but I  refused to be defeated.

Matthew kindly bought me a book on how to make all breads of the world. A little over zealous but helpful nonetheless. The book served to troubleshoot my bread baking problems and after changing the way I knead and using a better quality yeast, I returned to successfully baking a good loaf.

A little more practice and I'll be able to offer freshly home baked bread to Joe and Lucia if the garden produce doesn't do too well.

Like most things, practice makes perfect and part of learning to bake beautiful bread was to make it frequently. My intention was to no longer have to buy bread but to make it myself regularly. We have toast each morning for breakfast so I need to make a fresh loaf at least every few days. I calculate to make fresh bread while on my rostered days off from work that way I would have enough time to proof the bread and bake it without getting too tired.

The loaves were quite big too, so I decided to bake two smaller ones instead, thereby making the bread last longer before going stale. I eventually became a bit more adventurous and started experimenting with shapes and toppings in preparation for my next more ambitious project of learning to bake the various breads in the 'Breads of the World' book.

A great source of inspiration - The River Cottage in the UK

http:/www.rivercottage.net