Saturday, January 16, 2010

I Did It!

I finally did it.  I baked a successful loaf of bread – two loaves in fact.  Bread is a culinary hurdle I have been unable to sail over.  Oh, I have a bread machine.  I can make hockey pucks and tortillas in my bread machine.  This happens no matter if I use a recipe from scratch or a packaged mix. 

I store the paddle for the machine in the pan unattached.  One time I forgot to install the paddle.  It was baked right into the hockey puck loaf.  What an idiot.

Cornbread has been conquered and improved by me.  No problem.  It’s so good I call in cornbread cake.  Buttermilk biscuits I rule supreme.  Pass the butter.  Yeast breads I swear to dominate.  Today I begin to teach myself how to master yeast bread baking.

walnut-bread-ck-1932611-l I chose a recipe from the November 2009 issue of Cooking Light.  All the ingredients to make Walnut Bread were in my kitchen; so I could proceed.  The planets aligned.  The weather cooperated.  The angels sang.  The gods approved.  It was good.

I took a picture to record my success so I can remember this 1st step.  Certainly, I will have many steps backwards; but I finally did it.  It was good.DSC_1430_2842 The recipe did not call for an egg wash; but a taste tester suggested to try that.  It looks pretty good.  Another taste tester in my kitchen thought kosher salt would be good.  I salted one loaf.  It was good.

Warm bread and melting butter.  It is good.

Note:  Why do food stylist place their food on fabric?  I don’t want my bread on a piece of linen or burlap (pictured above).  Please keep the lint, threads, and fluff off of my food.  Thank you.

4 comments:

L said...

Your bread was always good the first day, the true test is if it's not rock hard on day two!!

MAYBELLINE said...

Chicken and turkey sandwiches on day 2.

Lisa Paul said...

Congratulations! I had come to terms with my inability to bake anything: bread, muffins, cookies, cakes. I just didn't have that gene. And I was okay with it. All those carbs aren't good for me anyway.

Then for Christmas, my mother-in-law gave me a bread making machine. I supposed I'll have to get my flour on now.

Maureen said...

That looks so yummy...congratulations!

ps. I once threw out the paddle from the bread machine in the uneaten stale bread that I had forgotten to remove if from....duh :(