Bitten by the bread making bug again

I had a lovely morning with my littlies today. After their sister was taken to school, and on our way to the playground, we ventured out to the Bourke Street Bakery in the name of research :-) We tried the lentil pastry, chocolate croissant and rhubarb danish and they were all delicious. And with afternoon tea and dinner in mind we brought home a soy and linseed loaf and a plain sourdough loaf

I've written about my love of breadmaking in the past, but each summer I go off it for a while, not being able to stand heating up our already steamy kitchen with the high temperatures required to bake bread.

But lately I've enjoyed a couple of handmade sourdoughs, and then yesterday a friend dropped by with a new starter for me (after I killed the last one with neglect - oops!).

It made me go straight to the present I was given by friends for my 40th birthday last year - this cookbook by the Bourke Street Bakery. It's a beautifully designed and photographed book, but I must admit to having been a bit intimidated by it in the past. It's very professional and extremely thorough in the explanations of bread making, but with kids screaming at my ankles around dinner time it's more than I felt I could cope with!

Now that I have my starter though I'm keen to tackle one of the breads, maybe the potato and rosemary which looks divine.

Another thing I would love to get the courage up to try are the chocolate croissants... partly because it looks like a good challenge, but of course partly because I'd like to eat them. Lots of them ;-)