October Bread Baking

This first weekend in October has arrived in the true tradition of fall. Blustery winds, scattered rain showers, and much cooler temperatures will fast forward our still green treescapes into a burst of reds, oranges, golds, and yellows. Driving back from Philadelphia yesterday, every roadside stand on the eastern shore had their displays filled with pumpkins and every gourd imaginable. Stacked hay bales and gathered cornstalks screamed that Halloween is just weeks away.

With a high of 57 degrees as today's forecast, I'm taking off the chill by baking bread. Simple ingredients and no preservatives make home baked bread a must have in our home. From October through April, we bake bread almost every day. Some we eat, some we share. In the summer? Not so much. Setting the oven at 450 degrees competes with the air conditioning, and that's counter productive, don't you agree?

As my bread rises, I thought it just wouldn't be right not to share my bread making tutorial with you.  (Click on the picture below to open this tutorial as a large slideshow).