The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Baking
If you’ve spent any time scrolling through your phone lately, you’ve likely been bombarded with some glossy, overproduced “complete guide to starting baking” that insists you need a $600 stand mixer, specialized silicone mats, and a pantry full of expensive, imported grains just to make a decent loaf. Let me tell you something: most of that is absolute nonsense. I spent thirty-four years in a bakery where the oven had no thermostat and the only “equipment” I trusted was my own two hands and a heavy wooden table. You don’t need a laboratory to make bread; you need to stop looking at the gadgets and start looking at the dough. I’m not here to sell you a lifestyle or a collection of pretty copper bowls. What I am going to give you is a real, unvarnished look at how flour and water actually behave when they meet salt and time.…