Homemade Bread

I mentioned in a previous post that Husband and I were making cinnamon bread {Pioneer Woman's recipe}.  This was our first attempt with true homemade bread (not including oddly-shaped bread machine bread) and I think it came out pretty good.  There are two things that we would like to change for next time: 1. Add something or use a different recipe so that the bread itself is a little more dynamic and not just plain white bread with a cinnamon swirl and 2.  Add raisins and/or brown sugar to the swirl (this is H's idea).

Today I wanted to try regular white bread and used a recipe that was a bit different from the Pioneer Woman's recipe.  The recipe was from a site called The Hungry Mouse {About page, actual recipe page).  I preferred the method for activating the yeast in the recipe I used today.  We used the PW recipe twice because the first time we had no idea the yeast hadn't activated properly (well, we had our suspicions).  PW, as always, did a great job describing the process so perhaps today's was easier because I have one full bread loaf behind me (actually one bread loaf and one calzone- see below- yuck!)  I really liked how the Hungry Mouse (from Salem, Mass!) described the milky consistency the liquid ingredients should take on as the yeast works its magic.  I actually set my timer to 7 minutes (in between the 5-10 minute suggested range).  As I peeked at it at 1 minute, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes, I could see exactly what Jessie (from Hungry Mouse) was referring to.  It started in the middle and slowly spread to the inside edge of the bowl.  It almost looked like there was a bit of flour that had settled in the middle and then it got progressively larger.  I know I am probably way over-explaining this for some of you, but this bread making is so new to me and I am still working through those insecure oh-yay-I-totally-messed-this-up-again feelings.  Also, I am working on being more patient when cooking/baking and the process of making bread is super good practice with this.

Anyhow, the entire process took about three hours though, obviously, very little of that is hands-on time.  Here is the breakdown (I first typed in "breaddown"- ha!):

• 15 minutes to prep the ingredients and make the dough
• 1 hour to let it ride (the first time)- I made chicken salad
• 1 hour in the loaf pan to let the dough rise agin (the second time)
• 40 minutes to bake

Here is the picture of our cinnamon calzone- yuck:

Here is the second attempt at cinnamon bread (sorry, I didn't take a shot of the "swirl" in this one):

Here is today's bread which I CANNOT wait to make toast with tomorrow a.m.:

Oops, that is actually Charlie the Goldendoodle :)  I am trying to train him to bring the Sunday newspaper upstairs.  He is good on the stairs but as soon as he hits the landing, he holds one end down with his paw and starts shredding.  Hm, we live on the third floor so the newspaper is never intact when he gets to the top.  I figured I could practice with the automotive section for now :)

I'll add my toast picture tomorrow :)