What have I gotten myself into? I'm officially addicted to homemade bread and I haven't even perfected it yet...so that means this is either going to be a problem or it's going to be the best thing I've done in the kitchen in a long time! My second week of adventures in bread making has come and gone, and I'm hooked guys!

This week I went full on wheat mode with a new recipe. Last week the recipe I used called for half regular all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. This week the recipe was 100% whole wheat and has lots of other yummy ingredients that are good for you too! Which made me happy, because the overall goal of me making my own bread was so I that I would know what ingredients were in my bread and that it would be healthy for me too.

This week my "what an idiot" moment was when I realized that the reason my second rise wasn't rising fully was simply because I was dividing the dough into two when really I only had enough dough for one large bread pan. Um hello...so after I realized that I made another batch and it rose just perfectly....or would have but then I forgot to brush the top with milk and sprinkle with oats, so I frantically pulled it out of the oven and added the missed step only to realize that me taking it back out of the oven made the loaf collapse a little...waaa.

I've admitted to you before that I am not a baker. And when I say that, I don't mean that I can't bake or don't enjoy it....because believe me I get hit by the baking bug every so often and I'm not half bad. But with baking it's the whole everything has to be measured perfectly and if I mess up there is no way to fix it thing that I don't like. It's way too much pressure for my liking, mostly because with cooking I am a perfectionist and with baking there is a fear of it not coming out just as the recipe says.

However, there is a but here. I do love homemade pizza crusts, and I am determined to start making homemade bread of all varieties. The main reason for this is that I want to know what ingredients are in my bread, it's all very rustic and quite therapeutic.

There is something about the kneading that I really like. I feel like I am channeling all of the great women who made bread with no fancy equipment, but just with love to feed their families. They did it out of necessity, but really they had it right all along. That is what I'm going for, I'm putting my baking fears aside, my fears of not having something come out perfect and I'm going to teach myself to bake bread.

Adventures in Bread Making: Week Two

Adventures in Bread Making: Week One