Failures and Happy Endings of Baking

The last three days have probably been our worst three days in a long long time. A quick example of our meals and snacks have been: pop tarts (how do we still have these in our pantry?), fig newtons, angel hair carbonara (leftovers from going out to eat with my mom, "Granny," ) "organic" cheese crackers (these things are horrible!), m&m's and fajita's at Mi Rancho. Go ahead and throw a couple of cane sugar dr.pepper's in there for good measure. And it been like this for three days. We even had James Coney Island today. There's nothing worse than canned cheese. I literally feel sick when I think about all the food I have consumed in the last three days. But I bought a new cookbook and we're getting back on track. At least I feel better about it all.

Here's our baking adventures this week...


First, I tried making sweet bread this last Sunday. I'm not putting the recipe, because it didn't work. If it does in the future, I'll post it.

Outside it looks amazing, but if you look inside, it didn't cook all the way through. *sighs*


So Chef Blackheart tried to make white bread. He thought I might need a break from the bread making duties.

Here is his first attempt.

Again, it looks good on the outside, but it didn't rise properly, and it was hard as a rock.


Then, Wednesday, Chef Blackheart surprised me with the most beautiful loaf of bread I've ever seen, and it tasted amazing!

So, what did we learned this week?

1. Sweet Bread was not meant to be made in large loaves. But in small rolls
2. When making bread with dry live yeast, stir the yeast well to make sure to break open the outer shell.
3. If your bread dough doesn't rise properly, throw it away and try again. No use in going further. It's not going to come out correctly.
4. You don't need a bread machine.
5. Try try try again, you'll get it and you'll be glad you did!