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Baking Bread

I'm not much of a bread maker. Frankly, it kind of scares me a little bit, so I avoid it. I have a breadmaker, but I don't like using it for baking - the square loaves are not real conducive to sandwiches. But I hate mixing and rolling out the dough myself, letting it rise, and shaping it in to a loaf. It makes me feel very unsure of myself, and it never turns out very good.

I was talking to Awesome Sister-in-law #1 about this, and she told me about a recipe she used that was pretty easy, to the point you couldn't do much to mess it up. So last night, I broke out the recipe to give it a try. I wasn't sure how it would do - it's been so long since I've made bread that my yeast is several years old. But I mixed some up in water to see if it was still good (it was), so I went on ahead with the recipe.

The final product looks pretty good, although it didn't rise super high, so it's a little dense.. I also didn't have a second loaf pan, so I improvised by using a pie pan instead. I tried it out this morning on some French Toast (a nice treat, since I haven't had it in years), and with the addition of some butter, ricotta cheese, and some syrup, it was, to paraphrase Alton Brown, Good Eats.



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