Wheat "Bread"

Let's get one thing settled before you launch into this post: I am a bread-making novice. Bread has many non-simple things about it. Yeast. Kneading. Waiting. Rising. Kneading....anything that takes that much work just isn't worth it to me. Hence my unrequited love for cinnamon rolls.

So. I ventured into the world of homemade wheat bread with some trepidation and a lot less of the This-is-a-Fun-Experiment attitude I had with beans. Because I know bread. I have a history with bread. Not a good one. Hence my very limited attempts to make it. (sort of counter intuitive isn't it? I didn't stop playing the violin because I really stunk the first year I played it, now did I?) Also, the Fun-Experiment attitude goes awry when I'm making food that's built into my menu for the day because if the food doesn't turn out, then What Will We Eat???? e.g. when I went against common sense and added a WHOLE tablespoon of paprika to a "Hawaiian pork sauce" this week. As attorneys tell juries ad nauseum, "Don't leave your common sense at the courtroom door.")

Bread.
This is attempt No. 1:


Har har. I know. So. The way you will know this is what your bread will look like is that after 5 hours of "rising" it will look like this:

which is exactly what it looked like when you first mixed the dough.

How I salvaged it:

Add some tomato sauce, cheese, meat, and still more cheese. The pizzas tasted pretty good.


Attempt No. 2:


Yum. Made with molasses. And this time, the lack of height is partly my own fault--I started the bread late in the day and wanted it cooked before I went to bed--and partly how the bread should look (I think).

The recipe I used is from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook 13th Ed.
called Entire Wheat Bread. It made a moist, tasty bread, and my husband (who doesn't approve of wheat bread usually) voted it was a keeper. I froze what we couldn't eat (two loaves of hearty bread is more than we can handle in a week). I loved how healthy the bread is. I think my body was thanking me for eating something nutritious for once.

So, the challenge for this week it to get out there and try a bread recipe--and send me pictures of your results and any recipes that were particularly successful (and if you are into copyrights, let me know if I can legitimately post the recipe I used).

Next post will be about wheat grinders (which are a must if you plan on using the wheat you are storing). AND THEN! We have a guest author about beans. I want the post to look good, so it's taking a little more time than I hoped, but it's coming. Hold your breath. So much goodness coming up!