Bread, Bread, Bread!!

I successfully made bread today! It took three tries and a smoking mixer, but I eventually got it right. I got the recipe from a friend of mine and I was really excited because it is a recipe that doesn't have a lot of steps - basically, you put the stuff in the mixing bowl, start the mixer, add flour, let it knead in the mixer, then put it in pans, let it rise, then bake it. Mucho easy! Well, not quite that easy.

I started with the recipe for three loaves. The first time, the dough kept "climbing" the dough hook. I turned away for a minute or so, and the dough got up so high that it got above the collar of the hook and into some of the grease in the hook mechanism. So, I had grease streaking through the dough. Out went that dough. I didn't even take a picture to document.

For the second try, I looked up my mixer model online to see how to avoid the dough "climbing" problem. The instructions suggested that I might need more flour in my dough. I was concerned about this since the friend who gave me the recipe said to err on the side of too little flour. So, I started again, and I added extra flour. Things seemed to be going OK, although the dough was definitely harder and the mixer was working harder. After a few minutes, C asked what that smell was. I thought he was talking about the bread smell, at first. But, then, he said, "Mom, there's smoke!" Indeed, there was smoke coming from my beautiful Kitchen Aid's motor. I stopped the mixer and finished the kneading by hand. The problem was that I wasn't quite sure when I had done enough kneading! I'm still new at this. But, I did my best and produced three tolerable loaves of bread:

These first three loaves didn't look as pretty as they should have and they were rather dense. They also didn't rise as much as they should have.

So, then I tried for a third time. This time it was 4 in the afternoon and I was glad I had lots of flour and yeast! I decided to take pity on my poor Kitchen Aid, though, and only try 2 loaves. I made all the calculations for the recipe and jumped right in. This time things went well right from the start. The dough tried to "climb" the dough hook a few times, but then went right back down on its own. And, there was NO smoke involved. It was easy to make nice, neat loaves. They doubled in size just like they were supposed to, and then baked up nicely. The only problem was that the towel stuck to the top of one of them so the top doesn't look quite perfect, but I think that's God way of dealing with my perfectionistic tendencies. They bread tastes just delicious - almost as good as that of the friend who gave me the recipe - and is almost a perfect texture.

Aren't they lovely? Can you believe anyone can go on for so long about 5 loaves of bread?! But, I am proud of them.

More on L and the dreaded paragraph writing. First thing this morning, I had her sit down with her idea web and told her to just start writing whatever was in her idea web, even if she didn't have her beginning and closing sentences decided. Well, the child wrote almost an entire paper, with very nice organization (but poor spelling and punctuation - that's another topic). Her question was "Should Professor Dumbledore have trusted Severus Snape?" This is a Harry Potter topic for those of you that don't recognize it. L has read all the books several times, so she got very in depth with reasons that Dumbledore should and shouldn't have trusted Snape and then ended with her own opinion. Tonight I have to deal with the spelling and punctuation and then she has to rewrite. She hates rewrites, so I think we need more prayer! It is so frustrating to have to work so hard to get her started on something that she ends up being so good at. She dislikes writing so much, but she is quite good.

On that note, I am off to read before bed. I am still reading Eats Shoots and Leaves and Why Christianity Must Change or Die, but I have added The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. I'm enjoying it immensely so far. I'm still knitting some socks for a friend of L and a tie for P, but I'm enjoying the chance to read now that I don't work outside the home. It's almost a novelty for me still. Ah, well. More later.