Homemade Bread

I've tried making bread a few times. It usually tastes good, but doesn't always work texture wise. And I go through spurts of making it and not. I've even made challah a few times under my mother-in-law's watchful eye. Then I go home and... well, the results are different!

All to say, I think I want to try again. So today I'm testing the recipe I saw on Large Family Mothering that she calls "fast, easy and delicious!". It is supposed to be quick, with whole wheat and white flour. I'm sure it won't be quick the first time, nothing ever is, but if it works, I'll keep trying and get faster, right?

Here we go!

Hmm, so I decided to use my stand mixer since I have one, even though she didn't use one. Note to self: when using a recipe from a Large family site, you might want to remember your equipment isn't large family size. The 30 minute rise time allowed me to dig dough out of parts of the mixer that aren't supposed to connect with the food, oops! I had to put the dough in a different bowl for that rise, the original one was very much not big enough.

The dough was giving off heat. I suppose that is from all the yeast, but it was strange to feel. It rose almost immediately, I could have watched it move if I hadn't had flour and dough on every counter, container and part of me.

It rolled out easy, and looks kinda like hers does after it cooks, so we'll see! Waiting on the 2nd rise...

Here it is right after being rolled. Looks good!

Here is what the table around it looks like, just for kicks. Flour, parchment paper container (I never quite understand "lightly oiled"), kids cup from lunch, rolling pin, pink plastic crown hair clip, and plastic bags from making a parachute with Grandpa.

It is in the oven now. I didn't realize there was no time limit on the recipe, and then remembered that was one thing I most dislike about making bread. How long do you cook it? "till it is golden brown" great. That usually means looks great on top, doughy inside. I've used the temperature method too, and that works better, but I don't remember the temp fully cooked bread should be. Oh, we'll see!

Here it is after about 30 minutes. I took this picture so I could have proof of how nice it looked before I chopped one loaf in half to see if it was finished. I know, very unprofessional. But I figured to sacrifice one loaf was fine in attempts to still have time to put the other back in to cook. Turns out, looks great! Off to wake up the girls and try it.

It was perfect! That's never happened, ever. Delicious, fully cooked, and at least one of the girls likes it. Um, yeah, I think I could have halved it, and still split it in half and made two normal sized loafs, but we have some in the freezer so that's actually kinda nice. Worth a try ladies, especially if you don't have a lot of time. I started during nap time and it was done before they got up!

(yeah, they did stick together, but oh well!)