Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast… and a Lot of Trial and Error

My bread-making journey started back in 2020 when, along with what felt like the majority of the country, I decided it was time to learn how to make bread.

I bought Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish and got creating. I remember the weather being absolutely perfect for bread making and somehow everything seemed to work! I produced some amazing loaves and absolutely loved the process.

There is something so satisfying about making bread from scratch. Such simple ingredients, but the end result can be completely different depending on what you do with them.

Thankfully, bread making wasn’t just a lockdown phase for me and I’ve continued to make it ever since.

Making Bread Fit Into Family Life

About a year ago I bought a Panasonic bread maker.

I know this is probably slightly controversial amongst serious bread makers, but I absolutely love it!

It doesn’t produce the same complex flavour or beautiful rustic appearance as a handmade loaf, but it does mean I can make our family a fresh, UPF-free loaf within a few hours with hardly any effort.

I will always prefer making a loaf by hand, but realistically there isn’t always time. If we’re in a rush or just need a casual everyday loaf for toast and sandwiches, the bread maker is so useful.

I definitely think there is space for both.

When My Bread Stopped Working

A few months ago, after years of making bread fairly successfully, something changed.

I just wasn’t getting my usual results.

My loaves weren’t behaving as they normally did and, rather than keep getting frustrated and trying to work it out myself, I decided to invest in a day course at South Downs Sourdough.

This turned out to be exactly what I needed.

Mark runs the course from his home kitchen and has been making sourdough for 18 years, so his knowledge was incredible.

The day covered everything from making and maintaining a starter to producing a sourdough loaf and a rye loaf. But what I particularly loved was that it wasn’t about making sourdough your entire life!

It was about learning how to successfully fit sourdough into an already busy life, which for me is much more realistic.

Sourdough Pizza for Lunch

There were six of us on the course and at lunchtime we all sat down with Mark and his wife to eat homemade sourdough pizzas.

Such a lovely part of the day.

It was really interesting hearing why everyone else had booked the course too. Some were there for health reasons, others had sourdough starters that simply weren’t working and some, like me, were struggling with flat or inconsistent loaves.

I always love this part of cookery courses. You arrive knowing nobody, but because everyone has a shared interest in food and cooking, there is instantly plenty to talk about.

And obviously sitting around a table eating sourdough pizza helps!

The Little Things You Learn

Mark gave us so many useful tips throughout the day and introduced us to different bits of bread-making equipment, some of which I’d never used before.

My favourite discovery was a silicone bread sling for lowering the dough into a hot pan.

So simple, but brilliant!

This is one of the reasons I love going to cookery courses. You can read recipes and watch videos at home, but there is something completely different about being able to watch someone who has been doing something for years, ask questions and pick up all those little tips along the way.

Back to Baking

Since doing the course, I’ve successfully made sourdough at home again and, probably more importantly, I feel like I’ve got my confidence back.

I’ve included some photos of the different loaves I’ve handmade recently, from sourdough to baguettes and a simple white loaf. They’re all completely different, but that’s part of what I love about making bread.

I’m definitely not giving up my bread maker. Some weeks I want the satisfaction of spending time creating a beautiful handmade loaf and other weeks I just want to press a button and know we’ll have fresh bread a few hours later!

But thanks to @southdownssourdough, I’m excited about experimenting with handmade bread again and seeing what else I can create.

The course was worth every penny.

And I think that’s one of my favourite things about learning to cook — no matter how long you’ve been making something, there is always someone who can teach you a new way of doing it.