Alexandra: i love baking bread, and it’s actually really, really simple! one of the things i love about it is that bread has this tendency to be a little temperamental, not in that it won’t work or anything, but that there’ll always be slight nuances and differences you can discern due to any number of variables (oven, flour, water, yeast, flavourings, humidity, etc). if you’ve never made bread before, i’d suggest starting with jamie oliver’s basic bread recipe, cos it’s easy and it’s got a number of different variations you can use it for. find a brand of flour that you like and stick with it, as different brands tend to have different protein contents which can affect the outcome of your bread, so it’s best to stay with what you’re comfortable with. also, one indispensable tool in my bread-baking arsenal is not a bread machine (whcih takes all the fun out of it), but a pizza stone, especially for loaves you don’t bake in a tin. preheat your oven with the stone inside to get it really nice and hot, then slide the loaf (on a piece of parchment to make cleanup easier) straight onto the loaf when you’re ready to bake. have fun!

toaster….cute

I think they’re just shy.