This could go all totally wrong. Last time this happened I spent days dusted in flour and ended up in tears and Mac Daddy brought me home a bread machine.
Yup. I'm gonna try to make homemade bread.
I don't know what it is about bread. I can bake cakes and cookies and tarts and pies. I can make custard and pumpkin roll and poached pears and cheesecake. But not bread.
I don't know if its the yeast or the humidity or the cat hair but every attempt I've made has resulted in either a brick or a flat doughy thing that casually resembles the belly roll of an old man in tight pants.
If only I could give up on the dream of making fresh bread for Mac Daddy. He loves bread. He stops on his way home some days just to buy a fresh loaf of crusty grainy bread to have with dinner. It pains me to see him walk in the door with that paper bag. I wish he could just come home and open the door and have the smell of fresh bread waft around his head.
Okay... well thats half the story. The other half is that I'm really angry that I can't make bread. Dammit.
So I've heard lots of good stuff about this book and this method and its supposed to be easy and even quick so we'll see. I'm not holding out much hope but I'm giving it a shot because I want nothing more than to put fresh bread on my holiday table this year. If I fail I swear I will smuggle in bread from the bakery and lie. Lie!
In the meantime I made cookies. I can make cookies. I made Bezzie's cookies. I even saved enough so that when the kids left this morning (with cookies lovingly packed in their lunches) I had cookies left to have with my coffee for breakfast. Cause ya know they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day!
This book and its method is great! It was given to me by a friend. I was HIGHLY skeptical, but once we tried it, we were hooked. We always have a container of dough in the fridge now, and bake our own bread as needed. Extremely easy and very, very good. Try the challah recipe---yum.
Posted by: Lori | November 21, 2009 at 09:31 AM
I think you just need to let go--let the bread guide you. Sounds hokey but I think your stress over the bread jive is blocking the bread love. ;-)
I thought those cookies looked familiar!
Posted by: bezzie | November 18, 2009 at 07:38 PM
I made some awesome crispy-salty oatmeal cookies a couple of weeks ago. My husband's co-worker said that they were OK but that his real favourite was chewy oatmeal cookies, and that they are very hard to make. No matter what I say, I can't convince my man that this is not true. It is very small and petty of me but that pissed me off to no end. Now I am on a mission to make the most amazing chewy oatmeal cookies in the land. I don't even really like chewy cookies.
Anyway. Good luck with the bread :)
Posted by: mizkathychin | November 18, 2009 at 06:04 PM
I admire your dedication and determination. Humidity does make a difference.
I like homebaked bread too! And I make a lot more of it using my bread machine (Zojirushi, at least 15 years old and still going strong) than I would if I made it by hand. I use the dough setting to mix the dough for special breads for the holidays such as Stollen, Kardammummakrans and Russian Easter Kulich.
Don't despair if your attempt doesn't pan out (sorry for the bad pun :)); just get a good bread machine. You can put the ingredients in the machine and wake up to fresh bread in the morning!
Posted by: inglesidebelle | November 18, 2009 at 03:26 PM
I took that book out of the library (I like to try before I buy) and made the bread. It was delicious.
Bread isn't hard but does take practice to know what the dough should look/feel like. Have you been to http://www.kingarthurflour.com/ ? They have an online bread baking class, lots of recipes, a blog, forums and a shop. I have used their stuff, visited their shop and baked a bunch of their recipes and I've always been pleased. Good luck!
Posted by: Karen | November 18, 2009 at 01:03 PM
i bought this book last year for my husband. we make bread from this book all the time, it really is easy adn does turn out really good! he actually just made a batch of dough this weekend. the dough is better the longer it sits.
have fun and good luck
Posted by: teri p | November 18, 2009 at 10:32 AM
I have that book, too! I think I've opened it, erm, once? Maybe I'll tackle it with you, although it might be dangerous for me to have fresh bread in the house on a regular basis. :)
Posted by: trillian42 | November 18, 2009 at 09:58 AM