Michelle Safirstein and her members over at BigBlackDog look like they’re having a lot of fun baking bread and “hanging out” online together.
Michelle formed a baking group, HBinFive, around the popular no knead bread book, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. They just started baking their way through the book in January, and will be baking together for at least the next 2 yrs. So if think you would enjoy some bread baking camaraderie with fun like minded people, now is a good time to jump in.
Judy, one of the members, says “We post our finished loaves on our recipes twice a month. It’s a fun group, and I am trying recipes I probably never would have tried. I tend to stick to favorites, and this is getting me to try new things. I LOVE the soft whole wheat sandwich bread!!!”
Here’s an example of one of the groups “Bread Braids“.
If you’d like to join HBinFive or have any questions, contact Michelle at ms dot bigblackdog at gmail dot com and she’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
If possible please add me to your group. I have returned to bread making after many years and enjoy it even more now.
Olivia,
You’re more then welcome to join my Bread Group. Just send me an email at ms dot bigblackdog at gmail dot com and I will subscribe you. Even if you just read along with our Google Discussion Group you will learn quite a bit.
Michelle
HI Michelle,
I’m an amateur in baking. It would be nice to join a group like yours to learn more about baking bread.
Nicole,
You can add vinegar or beer to just about any bread recipe. Say the recipe calls for 2 cups of water, just substitute 1 cup of beer for the 1 cup of water in the recipe.
I would suggest adding 1-2 TBL of vinegar and just deduct the same amount from the water.
For other flavor boosts don’t forget about topping your bread with seeds or you can incorporate seeds right in the bread dough too. I particularly like to add sesame seeds into the dough and then top the bread with a combination of seeds; sesame, smoked sesame, fennel, pumpkin seeds and so on. Garlic is another great flavor booster and you can add Rosemary, Chives, Onion, Basil and the list goes on.
Bread is so much fun to experiment with and it’s very forgiving. But don’t forget to write down how you amended the recipe!
Michelle
I’ve just made a loaf from the master recipe in “Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” and I found it a bit bland. I could increase the salt but what I’m really looking to do is figure out how to add a bit of vinegar, as in the Cook’s Illustrated whole wheat recipe listed on this site, to the Beer Bread recipe given in the book. I don’t know how much to use for a recipe of that size. Any suggestions?
Eric,
This is so sweet of you to take the time to write such a wonderful post.
Thanks so much…xoxox!
Michelle