Making Bread

That's right. Today I decided to roll up my sleeves, face my fears, and have an attempt at baking. I decided to look online for a bread recipe. I had two requirements: first, that our kitchen contained all of the necessary ingredients; and two, that it was simple. I suppose a third key was that it had to taste good (but I just had to gage that one off of reviews others had given the bread).

It took a little bit of looking, but I finally found this recipe. Five-star light oat bread (it's supposed to look like that picture). And the directions just said add everything to a bread machine and you'd be set to go. Well, I didn't have a bread machine, but how difficult could it be, really?

I found a lady's comment explaining how to make the bread without a bread machine. I mixed the dry ingredients in one, the wet in another, and combined them. Simple, no?

Well, it got tough with the kneading. First, the bread was REALLY sticky, and even though I floured the counter and the bread and my hands, it got stuck everywhere. I had to scrape it off and wash my hands so that I could start again. The second time around I added so much flour that.....well, I'm not sure how it will turn out. But still, it kept getting sticky, and because I didn't want to add too much flour, I stopped kneading only after about four minutes (five to eight is recommended, or until the dough is elastic-like....mine wasn't really).

So then the directions said to let the dough rise. I know, I know, for all of those who can cook, this stuff seems pretty obvious, but I wasn't sure- do I let it rise in the fridge? sitting out? covered? left open to the fresh kitchen air? I first decided just to set it out covered in plastic wrap. After I had done the dishes, I remembered that my mom covers hers with a towel. So I did that.

Now it's just sitting there, under the cloth. It doesn't look like it's risen at all (probably from the lack of kneading). But I hope it rises a bit, because then I get to punch it back down! Who knows. I'll try to update you later, after I've baked it, to tell you how it turns out.

<>
The bread barely rose at all, but it did get a little bigger when we baked it. It's really dense...almost like a rock. But it's a really good tasting rock. I recommend the recipe, even if you can't get the thing to puff up! Seriously, if I can do it, there's no doubt that you can, too.