Baking Bread

The first assignment for Tuesdays with Dorie were the white loaves in Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan. I never made bread before. To be honest, I was a little scared at how the loaves would turn out. Bread always seemed like a lot of work (at least that is what my mom told me), but I have this fantasy of becoming this amazing bread-maker, perhaps it is all that sexualized socialization taking it's toll. Making bread seems so simple. All that is needed is a few ingredients. Plus, the house smells so nice as bread bakes and the idea of making bread just seems to emit feelings of warmth and comfort; perfect for a January winter day (though I am ignoring the 60 something degree weather we have here in Houston as I write this...).

The girls were so excited. Maya, my daughter, LOVES bread, particularly toast with butter. When they heard the timer go off on the oven both Maya and Amara came running to see what delights where about to emerge. They were so excited and wanted to eat the bread as soon as it came out.

After eating all their veggie and protein the gals were permitted their fresh-from-the-oven bread. Maya said, "Wow, this bread is yummy," and I got about 3-4 "really" yummies from Amara. They ate two pieces each. Erik, my husband, gave the bread a 7.8 out of 10. He is a hard critic.

Erik gave it a 7.8 because it had a beautiful, crunchy crust, but it was a little dense. I am not sure if the density was caused by using the dough hook on the Kitchen Aid instead of kneading by hand, or if I did not knead/mix it for quite enough time, or perhaps the dough may have even over-worked it. It does not matter though because density aside it was damn good with and with-out butter. Plus, we have bread for the week, and another loaf in the freezer for the week after. How cool is that?