My First Blog Post

“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” 

— James Beard

What can I say, I love bread. Satisfying, indeed! I have always been a fan, but I don’t think it was until I starting making my own bread on the regular that I truly fell in love. There is something so magical about taking 4 simple ingredients (flour, water, yeast, and salt) and ending up with so many different kinds of bread. Simply vary the time and the method and the possibilities are endless. You can add other stuff if you want to but the real magic is in those 4 basic ingredients.

So how did I fall down the breadmaking rabbit hole? I blame my sister-in-law, Merrilee. She was visiting for Christmas a couple of years ago and brought along her sourdough starter to make fresh bread for our holiday feast. Watching the process, enjoying the smell of baking bread filling the house, and then enjoying the delicious finished loaves had me convinced that this needed to be a regular occurance in our home. Merrilee left us with a bit of her starter and her go-to recipe. Thus began the journey.

For the first year we stuck with what we knew. My Husband Josh and I would take turns making the recipe his sister taught us. But I started collecting recipes on Pinterest of all the different bread recipes I wanted to try and exploring breadmaking cookbooks. And finally after a long vacation our starter went belly up and it was time to venture out into the great big bed baking world and try new recipes.

This week I was sharing a baking triumph with friends and family on Social Media and was really excited about the conversations that it sparked and the positive feedback from folks that I started pondering how I might develop some community around the topic a breadmaking. A blog seemed like a good idea, so here we go.

This blog isn’t meant to be about recipes and the “how to’s” of breadmaking. There are lots of blogs like that already. In fact, I’ll probably point you to some along the way as I share the source of the recipes of each of the bakes I share here. Instead this blog is mean to be a place where folks can be inspired to give breadmaking a try. To celebrate our victories and commiserate about our struggles as novice breadmakers.

I don’t claim to be a breadmaking expert. If you are looking for someone who can tell you how to troubleshoot your baking woes, I’ll do my best to help, but chances are I won’t be the best help. But I will be your biggest cheerleader as your take the plunge and try that bread recipe that you’ve always wanted to try.

And in the spirit of community, I’d love to find collaborators. If you are a novice breadmaker and want to share your experience of the breadmaking process or favorite recipes and why you love breadmaking, I would love to hear from you. I’d be happy to post quality guest entries that honor the spirit of the blog from time to time.

I think that’s a good place to leave things for now. But stay tuned for my next post about this weeks bake, English Muffins, the bake that inspired a blog.