After I moved on from that job, I grew my own sourdough starter and started baking at a home scale on a regular basis but I soon simply stopped baking bread. We usually did not purchase bread so I wasn't stressing over the lack of freshly baked bread in the house. However, since moving to Yellowknife we've been purchasing three loaves of bread every week or so. We get a nice full grain one for sandwiches, a sweet one for the toaster oven, and usually some bagels because really... bagels!
So I've decided to take the plunge again and start baking bread on a regular basis.
1. Pick a casual day to become the regular bread baking day. It usually takes a few hours to go from yeast and flour to fully baked bread so it's best to plan bread baking for a day usually spent in a casual manner. This is especially important for me as I don't like to leave the house while I have bread rising or proofing - I'm just a bit overprotective of my dough!
2. Start small. Don't worry about replacing all of the family's bread intake immediately. Focus on slowing reducing purchased bread while increasing home made bread.
3. Read. Take bread books out of the library. There are a plethora of bread baking books with various techniques and advice (sometimes contradictory) and combined they offer a great resource.
4. Experiment. Don't just make plain white sandwich bread. Experiment with various traditional and unusual recipes. Experiment with pan shapes and free-form loaves.
5. Pantry Staples. After a few weeks of bread baking you'll know what times of grains, flours, and additives you need to keep in your pantry. Keep your pantry stocked with these items so that you can easily bake family favourites as well as experimenting with recipe variations.
6. Leftovers. On occasion, not all of your glorious home made bread will be consumed before it becomes hard so develop a few recipes that use up bread crumbs and stale bread (stuffing!)
