Baking Bread

Best place to start: King Arthur Flour’s excellent website. Good recipes, clear instructions, and a helpline. Search the site for the recipes you’d like.
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Agree, get a kitchen scale with 1 gram increments and weigh ingredients.

Also, buy instant yeast in 1 lb vac packs. Sam’s, RestoDepot, etc. One lb costs $3-$4, it will last up to a year in the freezer, and it doesn’t require blooming/proving. You mix it directly with tithe other ingredients in your recipe.

We rarely buy bread, it's just too easy and better to make your own. After you learn the routine the time investment is nil. I bought a book years ago called Crust & Crumb, it was a big help, but King Arthur's web site is an excellent resource, they want you to like breadmaking and they want you to be successful.

One ingredient which I rarely see mentioned is diastatic malt powder, you can buy it on the KA web site. It really helps you create light airy loaves, I never bake without it. I add a teaspoon when I add the yeast.

After you get proficient with a basic boule or baguette, it's fun to experiment, adding roasted garlic, herbs, seeds, cheeses, unlimited possibilities.

Good luck, a fresh baked bread with a slab butter is pure heaven. Come back to this board if you need help.

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andouille

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How do you make a starter

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Flour
Sugar
Water
Yeast

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how do you age it?

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Store it for a period of time

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how do you use it?

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Take some out and add it to your bread prep

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keep it going?

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Add more flour
Sugar
Water
Yeast

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All breads will start with this starter?

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That is entirely up to you

I like this post and will try to post so that it doesn't die. We need a good bread post for a while.

OK fellow TD F&D Bread makers - What'cha got?

Here's a free form Foccacia that is easier to make than it is to type out the recipe. It doesn't require a biga, but you could definitely add one or retard the dough for 24-48 hours if you wanted to develop more flavor.

A scale is highly recommended as the quantities are represented in mass. The measurements are displayed in pounds and ounces with pounds to the left of the hyphen and ounces to the right, eg lb-oz. So for the water it's 1-4 (1 pound 4 ounces) etc...

This recipe has been scaled down and converted for a 5 quart KitchenAid stand mixer but will work in any small format mixer. Just note that the speeds should be slow to start, medium in the middle, and high speed to finish the dough.

1-4 water, warm (95-110*F)
0-.5 yeast, dry active
0-1 sugar
0-1 oil
1-8 bread flour
0-.5 salt

In the bowl for the stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine first four ingredients and mix on speed two for 5-8 minutes until ingredients are combined.
Add the salt and flour and blend 10-12 minutes on Speed 4 to form the dough.
Increase to speed 6 and mix 3-5 minutes to develop the gluten.
Finally increase to speed 8 until dough releases from the sides of the bowl. You can do a window test here to see the gluten development if you'd like.
Coat hands with oil and wipe the side of the mixer to make removing the dough from mixing bowl easier. Empty dough in the center of a half sheet tray lined with parchment paper and proof until doubled in size. Oil hands and “finger” the dough to create depressions and to spread the dough evenly on the sheet pan. Drizzle the surface of the dough with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher or granular sea salt. Proof again until doubled in size and bake at 375*F for 10 minutes then rotate the pan 180* and continue to bake for another 5-8 minutes until bread is golden brown. Remove from oven and thump bottom of bread to test for doneness. Bread should sound hollow.

This bread is great as is but, it is also a great vessel for additional ingredients added before or halfway through baking.
Top it with;
* 1/8" sliced tomatoes seasoned with salt and black pepper
* add fresh chopped rosemary with golden raisins and thinly sliced red onions tossed in olive oil and salt
* Any Italian dried herb and/or seasoning blends

Here's a Baguette Recipe I have used before with good results.

This makes 4 Baguettes:

4 1/2 cups bread flour plus 2 1/2 tbsp. for sprinkling
1 package active dry yeast
2 1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups cool water---70 degrees or less
2 tbsp. corn meal

Put flour, yeast, salt and water in a bowl and mix until a smooth dough forms. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 4 1/2 hours or until the dough doubles in size.

Bring dough from outside to center of bowl to release air. Form dough into a ball and press it into a rectangle on a floured surface. Cut lengthwise into 4 equal strips and roll them out with out into 4 equal strips and roll them out with your palms to 18 inch lengths.

Place parchment paper on a baking sheet, sprinkle with corn meal and place the 4 baguette doughs on the sheet. Cover with a large container and let the dough rise another hour. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Sprinkle the loaves with a little flour and cut 3-4 shallow diagonal slits in the top of the dough and put them in the oven. Use a spray bottle filled with water and mist the oven with 4-5 sprays. Bake 35 minutes, or until the loaves are golden brown.

Cool 30 minutes before slicing.

You "linked" the pictures, you want to "img" the pictures.