I want to start!

This is it, you want to bake bread. Well done, I hope you will enjoy it.

Ever since the start of running the blog, I was trying to post recipes both easy and fancy so that everyone has something to choose from. That said, I’ve noticed the learning tag is not the easiest way to find what you want to do, so I decided to make this page to include quick links with answers to questions I’ve been receiving.

I would like to start baking, what do I need?

You need an oven, a bowl or a colander, a kitchen towel, a scale, water, flour, salt, yeast.

A couple rules, followed by a recipe have been described in How to start baking?

I don’t want to read a lot, I want to bake

See Basic kids’ bread.

I don’t have an oven

Try something simpler, like Proziaki, English muffins or Gozleme.

Sourdough is too difficult to begin with, isn’t it?

It’s not. While the recipe in Sourdough may be a bit tricky to start with, you can make your sourdough and use it for something relatively simple, like White wheat-rye bread.

I don’t have time for sourdough, I need to bake now!

You can try the recipes above, but if you want something more interesting, the Rustic bread will still take you some time, but you don’t need to wait for the sourdough.

Gluten gluten gluten gluten gluten gluten gluten!

I know what you mean. Recipe in Gluten-free bread requires a couple fancy ingredients and a sourdough. Instead, you could try and upscale a recipe from Gluten free burger buns – it should be fine too.

I want something for a party

Look through the snacks tag.

I want to buy a bread machine, what would you recommend?

Nothing.

Don’t get me wrong, they are a brilliant piece of equipment, save you time, give you warm bread in the morning etc. But they take away what I enjoy the most. If I make a lot of bread, I use mixer at first and then switch to hands.

What if you don’t like home made bread? What if you get bored with it? Would you be ok with a big dust catcher for quite a bit of your money?

I do recommend you start making bread by hand and if it sticks with you, buy an appliance to save your time.

What mixer would you recommend?

A planetary one. I have a big Kenwood mixer and am very happy with it. People having a Kitchen Aid are happy with it. I heard good things about Ankarsrum mixers.

Why am I only naming the pricey ones? The cheaper ones I looked at often had a 15 minute operational time with mandatory 45 minute break before next usage. No thank you.

This isn’t something you’re buying every week. Most of the discussions between Kenwood and Kitchen Aid users were including arguments like “I got a new Kenwood, because the old one broke down after 15 years”.

I baked a tonne of bread yesterday, what can I do with it?

Learn a couple ways of dealing with the old bread in How to use excess bread?