Today in my kitchen...making bread

Oops. I'm already a little behind on posts, trying to work on that.  Anyway, I just so happened to get the day off work today, so I decided to make some tuscan bread!
Working in a bakery had given me exposure to a variety of new baking avenues, one of which is bread making.  Several of my co-workers love to bake bread, so I was inspired to try it out myself. A few months back I set out to make my first bread with a starter (for those of you who have never used a starter, it sounds super intimidating, but don't be impressed, it is very easy). The recipe I used was from The Italian Baker by Carol Field.  This book was actually given to me as a Christmas gift from my best friend's mom, Mrs. Hussmann.  So I guess I owe all my bread baking love to you Cathy!
Ok. Back to the bread.  I'm going to go through the steps of baking my tuscan bread, so you can see how I make it.  Let me know if you want the recipe!

This is the bread starter, after rising for 24 hours.

Closer look at the starter.  This universal starter is made from yeast, flour and water.  

To start off the bread I add more flour, yeast, salt and water to the starter and mix all the

ingredients together until combined. You can do this by hand or by mixer, I prefer the mixer because I can use the dough hook.

Here is the dough after mixing all the ingredients.  knead by hand for four to five minutes and place in an oiled bowl for the first rise.

After the first rise, I reshaped the dough and cut in half so that I can bake two smaller loaves.  Place the loaves on a floured pan and cover with a cloth for the second rise.

Here is the dough after the second rise.  Much bigger right?

Fresh out of the oven...looks delicious, wish you were in my kitchen for a fresh slice eh?

mmmmm.

We love to dip the bread in oil and vinegar.

That's all folks!