bread: conquered (for now)

For many years I have been afraid of using yeast in baking.  After making my mom's famous pumpkin biscuits one year and having them turn out like hockey pucks, I pretty much swore off any use of yeast in baking.  Then about one year ago, Emily shared with me her pizza dough recipe using quick rise yeast.  Well, she more than just shared it with me, she walked me through making it.  I got to feel the water to see what temperature she used and everything.  Since that time, I've made her pizza dough recipe a couple of times-always to good end.  Slowly, ever so slowly, has the idea been growing in my mind that perhaps I could try to bake bread with yeast.  Quick breads (like zucchini and banana) don't count since they don't use yeast.  REAL bread.  Whole Wheat Bread.

And so, in true lizzylife fashion, I attempted, struggled (with uncertainty), and conquered the whole wheat bread...documenting the stages of the process along the way.

 Here we have the dough before I let it rise.  I have a wonderful feature on my oven called "proof".  It keeps it at the perfect temperature for the bread to rise.  I kneaded the bread for about 10 minutes.  My wrists hurt by the time I was done!

Here is the dough after doubling in half.  I poked a couple holes into it to make sure the indentations stayed....I couldn't help making it into a smiley face:)

Oh--I made the recipe exactly as written. But I took one reviewers advice when they suggested putting the bread into 2 loaf pans instead of the 3 it calls for.  

I punched it down and then put it into 2 loaf pans to rise again.  I think this is a part I will have to do better on next time.  I had some odd indentations on the bottom of  bread, which I guess means that I didn't pinch it together well enough or maybe missed doing something.

Here are the loaves cooling after about 30 minutes of cooking.  Everything I had read said not to overcook the bread, and to test to make sure it was done by tapping on it to see if it sounds hollow.  If you hear a thud, it isn't done yet.  So- about 3 times during the last 5 minutes of cooking, I took the bread out to tap it, not sure if what I was hearing was a thud or hollowness.  I had to call David over and see what he thought.  We weren't really sure, but thought they sounded hollow with a hint of "thud".   So I took them out. 

I am sad this picture isn't more clear--I didn't take more than one, but you get the idea.  The density is really good inside-not too dense, and very holey.

We are planning to make some grilled cheese sandwiches with it tonight.  Yum! 

One wheat bread down, a million yeast adventures in my future :)  I am looking forward to it.


For those of you who might want to try baking bread, the recipe I used is on AllRecipes.com called "Simple Whole Wheat Bread" by Nita Crabb.  It is rated with 5 stars.  Lots of the reviews say it is a very forgiving bread recipe and a great one to start with for newbies.  Give it a try and let me know how it goes!