Doug,

First problem: Comparing bread in The States to bread in Italy!!! (my issue was comparing bread baked by experts in Profundville, Belgium and parts of France)

Buy some frozen yeast, look for it in good stores. Are you in Indiana? Look up Trader Joes and other specialty major food stores. They will have the frozen yeast. Follow the directions on the container. If you are near Bloomington check out Bloomingfoods for the frozen yeast.

Anyway... Sounds like you have the tools, the knowledge is not all that hard, the issue is you do not have the recipe! There are some good suggestions here and check out Dom's recipes or get a copy of The Joy of Cooking.

You will find the correct flours at better grocers. Our local independent grocer actually carries a nice variety. Try Red Roof (or Barn?) flours. Very good!

Cheers,

I'm NE IN. You'd think I could find something out here, I am making do with the Como loaf at wally world. It actually makes an excellent french toast.

I'd like to buy a known starter of good yeast and go from there. But here's the thing, I'd really just like to find a bakery that does all this for me. I'm not a tailor, cobbler, musician, or baker.

I love the people out here, I just don't like what they eat.

I love cooking and admire you guys who bake... but making bread is a huge PITA... not happening at my house.

I mean to make proper pizza dough take two days?

Not true. Pizza dough in a few hours and most of that is letting it rise/rest while you do something else. Make a bunch so it's ready to go.

Lately I've been making soda bread. Maybe 5 minutes to mix then ~40 to bake. Cant get any simpler.

I keep thinking that Bill Douglas will pop in on this. The bread and cereals available in New Zealand are so good that I tried to get my favorite cereal sent here by the case (they weren't into shipping internationally).
Whole mixed grain not overly sweet, healthy and delicious. Seems we ought to be able to do like that here?

Cheers Richard

+1.. grew up making it with my mom I thank her every time we talk. Now I'm passing it on to my kids, nothing it better than fresh hot homemade bread.....hate the store crap.

What you need is a good Santa Cruz Sourdough.

Enriched white bread should be re-classified as colon glue.

We have fantastic bread and bakeries here in Seattle. Maybe you should move to a place that doesn't suck.

I love America, but there are things about it that could be better. I haven't found any perfect place yet and I've been around some.

If bread is important to you move to the left coast, no problem with bread here!

We've been buying Rudi's organic whole wheat bread for a while now. Whole Foods carries it, as do others I am sure. Damn good commercial bread. Tastes and smells like actual bread, unlike whatever that smell is that comes out of "regular" bread.

NE, IN? arent there any amish farmers markets around? would think they would be able to bake a good loaf. get your azz out of wally world if you want quality food. when we lived in indianapolis, we lived a few blocks from a wonderbread bakery. mom never bought the stuff. never liked the fluffy white stuff, closest i get now is a loaf of sourdough.

one of the things is missed the most when i went off to college; was every saturday dad would bake a couple of loafs of sourdough. the open jar of starter on top of the fridge freaked out a few people.

maybe you can find a brewer in your area with some used wort that you can use. there is a reason bakeries and breweries are next door.

fwiw, Wild yeast from the local air helps give bread it's regional characteristic.

Save a bit of the mix for the next batch:
Basic Sourdough Starter Recipe | Exploratorium
"Fernando Padilla, Plant Manager of Boudin Bakery in San Francisco, CA with sourdough starter that has been used there since 1849."

We eat real bread from a local store that carries fresh baked bread. Not cheap, but it's well worth it!

I believe it was in the 1950's.

Jello molding was even able to penetrate into Louisiana...

One of the things I really like about the recipe book that I posted earlier is that you do not need starter yeast, it is easy to mix (no kneading involved) and quite easy to make. And it tastes great!

That is what I just picked up, 10 minutes walk from my house, here in big bad Los Angeles!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1332472508.jpg

It's really not that bad - you mix the dough and knead it in about a half hour, come back after it's risen to separate it into loaves and knead it a bit more, let it rise in the pan, then bake. I typically mix the dough Saturday morning, then run errands, work out and such between kneadings, bake it (takes 20-30 minutes) and head out for the day while it cools.

That's what I'm talking about.

Moving to somewhere that doesn't suck doesn't exist. Here's the trade off, our Midwest beef is much better than either coast, and our people are far more polite. I had the best filet last night, I guess I need a little red meat to remind myself.