I've been doing bread for a while now and can offer a few pointers: If you want dead-easy go with a no-knead recipe. There are various version available online. Bread making is all about technique (unless you're doing no-knead). Follow instructions carefully. It takes time to learn what the dough should feel and look like at different stages. Flour makes a huge difference. Oftentimes the difference between a good loaf and a bad loaf is the brand of flour I use. I, for example, always get lousy loaves with Gold Medal AP flour but great results with King Arthur AP. Start simple. Salt, flour, water, yeast. Don't bother working-in anything else until you can make a good loaf with those things. More ingredients won't fix your technique.
I would say that "patience" is also essential. Bread making and beer making have a lot in common and both of them need a schedule. I would also argue that a baguette will give more "bread-like" results if you don't know what you're doing and that you can work your way back from there.
Homebrewing is such a good time, it's become one of my favorite hobbies. Unfortunately I'm temporarily living somewhere away from my friends who have the equipment for it, and I don't have the money to buy my own set yet. I wasn't aware that Hubski had a decent amount of homebrewers.
Seems like quite a few homebrewers 'round here, for such a smallish community. There are a few posts with this tag :
You do beer as well? I've been at homebrewing for about nine months now, a few years if you count mead. Great hobby. Very true about patience in bread though. Main reason I haven't done sourdough in a while is because I don't have quite that much patience.
Naaah. I like my beer weak, fizzy and Asian. My dad homebrewed, my uncle homebrewed and my cousin homebrews, though. My wife made wine back when we had room. Port, mead, etc. What I know about bread I know from her. I grew up in a house that considered zucchini bread to be cripplingly difficult to make so I have a blank spot in my head where baking belongs. My victory was a butter pie crust last year.
I've used this with success: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Fi...