I’ve never baked bread from scratch before. I’ve always wanted to, but never had the time or the know-how. Recently, that motivation has taken over and that’s all I could think about for months now. I would get ready to go to the store to buy what I needed, all to talk myself out of it. Things have been very crazy for me lately and there have always been other priorities instead. But today, I broke down and did it. I had a plan all worked out; however, that plan worked out so much better in my head. This is my story…
I read Rebecca Tero’s article on Baking Bread. She’s part of a large family and baking bread is a weekly chore. I figured if anyone would know how to bake really good bread, she would! Her recipe is very easy to understand, but for someone who’s never baked bread before may have a little trouble with her recipe, like I did. Please remember, Rebecca’s recipe was just fine. It was all about the baker just not knowing what the heck I was doing!
My plan: I couldn’t bake bread during the day because not only do I babysit, but we had an afternoon appointment. I actually had a free evening so I figured I’d bake my bread after dinner. I would mix the first set of ingredients, which needed to be mixed for 15 minutes, and help my daughters finish up their bath at the same time. Then, I would add the next set of ingredients, which needed to be kneaded for 9 minutes or so. That’s when I would take advantage of my mixer and allow it to do the kneading while I put my girls to bed. 20 minutes to rise, 25 minutes to bake, voila! Bread before I went to bed.
WRONG! First off, I wasn’t supposed to mix the first set of ingredients for 15 minutes. I learned this after I called a good friend who bakes bread and asked why my ingredients were still watery. “Sponging” means allowing those first set of ingredients to sit while the yeast works and allows it to rise and get light and airy before the flour is added. The yeast can’t do it’s job if it’s being mixed the whole time. I also thought I killed the yeast because my water was possibly too hot when I added it. Luckily, patience prevailed and as the wet batter sat for 20 minutes (more), the yeast worked so well, it almost overflowed out of my mixing bowl. See picture #2….
Then I had to add 5 cups of flour to that bowl. Obviously that wasn’t going to happen, as my friend laughed at me over the phone knowing I was going to have to hand-knead this monstrous mound of dough I was about to make. Don’t forget, my girls are still not in bed and it was approaching 9pm. Then I had an idea! I found my largest container and combined all the ingredients together in that bowl. Then I held the big bowl near my stand mixer and used the dough hook to do the work. Score 1 for me. I did do some hand kneading but I actually enjoyed that.
One more problem… the recipe states that this would make four loaves. I only have two bread pans. Feeling like a dork because I didn’t take that into consideration when I started, I called my neighbor and asked if she had any bread pans for me to use. I can always depend on my good neighbor to save my behind in my lack of brain waves.
So here I am, bread pans sitting on a warm oven waiting for the dough to rise and realizing that I didn’t finish shaping the dough in the pans, I ended up pushing down two of the loaves to shape, which caused the rising to be delayed. My neighbor’s bread pan was big enough that I was able to make three loaves, instead of four like the recipe states. That’s a good thing for me because I ended up with one good, large loaf of bread. The other two ended up being smaller because I remembered (too late) that my grandmother used to press a cross in the dough and bless the bread to feed her family. I wanted to do the same and that created the dough to sink in the middle because I waited too long to do that. Nonetheless, my family has been blessed with some tasty bread because, thanks to Rebecca, my baker friend, my neighbor, my mom and the peaceful quiet of late night, I made my first loaf of bread. Despite the fact that it was only supposed to take an hour or so to make, took me almost three hours. Obviously, this is why people make bread in the morning, not late at night. The bread turned out very tasty, but I clearly need more practice. And there’s nothing wrong with that!
