Baking bread...

I have never, by myself, baked bread without a bread machine. I really like the taste of something like a wheatberry or multigrain bread but only if it is really fresh and that seems to call for some self baking. But first I wanted to make sure that I could just bake some bread in general. So I picked up a mix that pretty much had everything I need. I'm sure it would be better from scratch with real butter and such, but we're going with process first.

So I decided to use my kitchen aid to do all the mixing because I have sore hands and I GOT TO USE THE DOUGH HOOK! Ahem... according the the stand mixer handbook, the method that this mix used was something called the quick mix method. Basically the yeast goes into most of the dry ingredients first, followed by the wet, and then the rest of the dry. Its supposed to be more foolproof.

The only difficult part in this whole thing was getting the water to be between 120 and 130 F. Our hottest tap water is much hotter than that, but somehow I managed to get it to about 131 and then let it cool down a bit.

And here is the loaf. Rolling it out was about as easy at the kitchen aid manual made it look.

And 40 minutes of rising later, here is the risen loaf! Right there in the lower left hand corner is the spot where I poked it to be sure of the fact that it had indeed doubled. Apparently if it doesn't un-dent it is ready.

And finally, all baked up. It is pretty typical white bread but it is BREAD! I can do it.