Novice Breadmaker takes her first small step

Earlier in the year I blogged about a few new years resolutions that I would like to tackle this year, one of which was to actually bake a loaf of bread from scratch.

The most lovely Maria from the Urban Homesteaders Club (UHC) very generously decided to host a bread making workshop on the weekend for any UHCers who were looking for some knowledge and experience on how to get started. Maria has been baking her family's bread for the last 15 years, and therefore is a guru in my eyes!

We made two recipes, the first being Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall's 'Magic Bread' recipe, and the other being Maria's Family Loaf recipe.

With Hugh's Magic Bread dough, you can turn it into a lot of things!

We made some pita bread (note Maria's fantastic tomato haul in he background!)

And a focaccia!



The recipe can also be used to make pizza bases and bread rolls.

And with Maria's excellent tutelage, I managed to create this...

Foccacia with sea salt, rosemary and garlic!!

I made two of these, and the first one was absolutely demolished by the family in next to no time so it must have been OK! It would have gone smashingly well with some spicy roasted capsicum dip, the kind I used to buy at the Queen Vic markets in Melbourne. If anyone has a link to a recipe for it, it would be much appreciated!

I have yet to bake Maria's Family Bread  recipe as I need to get a few ingredients as well as a bread pan (I know I could do it on a flat tray but I want to try and make it like bread :)), and I am psyching myself to attempt it this week.

Once again, BIG BIG thank you to Maria for putting on the workshop!