So, what is this all about?

First of all, I know I should keep my posts as brief as possible, but since this is my the first contribution to this newly created blog, I wanted to tell you a short story that explains why I decided to start sharing these experiences and what you can expect from this blog in my future updates.

So, here we are again. I've made several attempts to start blogging in the past, but for some reason I just couldn't keep up with it. Maybe I didn't have the time back then (but I still don't) or the subjects were poorly chosen. The fact is: none of my previous ideas resulted in a feasible, interesting blog. You must be asking yourself what's the difference now...

I've recently moved to Cambridge, MA from my home town in Brazil and, as you can imagine, it was a considerable change in all aspects of life; no family, no friends. Just my wife and I. Nevertheless, one of the things that didn't change was my passion for cooking. I just love how it makes me feel better when I dive my soul into this fascinating world. But back in Brazil I always struggled to find high-quality ingredients at a reasonable cost. Finding bread flour, for instance, was always disappointing.

I was enthusiastic when I first went groceries shopping at a local, relatively small market  in Boston (nothing like Walmart) and encountered a huge selection of flours of different kinds, brands and qualities. My first reaction was: I'll finally be able to make a decent home-made pizza. I remembered of a really nice dough recipe I had found a while ago that resulted in a decent pie, even by using all purpose flour. So, I had to give it a new try, but this time using an appropriate, high-gluten flour.

I bought the King Arthur Bread Flour, a nice italian extra-virgin olive oil (I always add olive oil to my pizza dough to give it a smooth texture and enhance its flavor), some fresh tomatos, herbs, cheese and all other ingredients that were required. When I got home I went straight to the kitchen and started preparing the dough, which had to be left fermenting slowly overnight in the refrigerator. In the next morning, I got a nice, thick pizza stone and a peel (I highly recommend both if you're serious about making good pizza). Finally, at that night, the magic happened: what an amazing pizza!

Chicken BBQ pizza: a little bit out of shape; I was still learning how to use the peel :-)

I was able to prove to myself that a good pizza can be achieved even if you don't have professional equipment  just by using high quality ingredients, the right recipe and the appropriate technique to closely reproduce the effects of a wood fired oven. The right recipe, in this case, was the pizza dough recipe mentioned above, which was originally published in "The Bread Baker's Apprentice", a book by Peter Reinhart. A concise version of the same recipe can be found here: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001199.html.

That successful pizza experience motivated me to buy the book and begin a wonderful journey through the world of breads. And here lies the main purpose of this blog: it's intended to tell you the stories behind all of my adventures through the recipes of "The Bread Baker's Apprentice". There are 38 different bread formulas, each one requiring a distinct technique and resulting in a very peculiar bread. I intend to attempt at least one different recipe every two weeks, so we should have more than one year of delightful breads and, most important, fun!

I hope you enjoy!