Bread Update

Well, so far so good. Even though I ended up letting the bread rise for an extra hour because I didn't make it home on time from playgroup this morning. The dough looks nice and smooth, and it rose like it was supposed to. It is now doing the second rise in the pan, and then into the oven it goes!

I resisted the urge to stop kneading early as I usually do because I run out of time, and was rewarded by a much nicer dough than usual. I guess the cookbooks know what they are talking about after all...it will be interesting to see what the difference is in the finished loaf.

This has been an odd loaf for me, just because it is an all white flour loaf. I resisted the urge to throw in some whole wheat as I said I was going to learn how to do this right. But it is so ingrained in me that white bread is bad, that it was a tough decision to make. And I cut the recipe in half so it only made one loaf. I wouldn't want the kids getting USED to white bread! The book told me to throw in the whole packet of yeast instead of cutting it in half even if halving the recipe, so I did.

That is why I love making bread. It is not nearly as precise a process as baking pastries or other such yummy items. I have always been a dismal failure at pastry making because I can't resist the urge to tweak and I tend not to be an obsessive measurer. Which one needs to be to bake well I have decided. M is a fabulous desert chef. The precision suits him.