Bread Update

Well friends. I am finally getting my bread back under control. I've had a string of failures lately and I've been kind of discouraged. Notice the lack of posting about bread failures? That's because I'm kind of embarrassed. Oh well, I guess it still tastes good, right? Just not for sandwiches.

Well, I already wrote about my foray into the world of sourdough--it's going great! I'm about to I just put my second loaf in the oven--much more risen and promising-looking. However, given my track record with fallen loaves, this isn't a sure thing yet. I am excited. I also made criss-cross cuts across the top to make it pretty. :)

I also had my first success in a long time last night with whole wheat bread. I am SO relieved to finally have a usable loaf of whole wheat bread in the house! I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch today to celebrate. It was amazing. It's a bit smaller than I would have liked, but I didn't really care--it was solid! And not fallen. And really soft and chewy, while still totally durable enough to slather chunky peanut butter all over.

So, I like to make my own bread because it's cheaper (when it works, lol) of course, but also because it avoids preservatives / artificial ingredients. Please don't feel like I'm telling any of you (my 3 readers, :) I love each of you) that you need to make your own bread. I'm just sharing my adventure with you.

In my bread journey, I'm trying to transition to more sourdough because of all the information I've been reading about making grains more digestible. It's interesting stuff, really. Because sourdough has live little beasties in it, the beasties eat part some of the sugar and other stuff in the flour, and in turn produce healthy leftover liquid stuff that gives it the sour taste. It's a win-win. If you don't want sourdough, you can soak your flour overnight to give close to the same health benefits of making it easier to digest without so much sour flavor. Also, I love me some sourdough. :) Fresh from the oven, slathered in butter... Oh yes.

Here's a source that helped get me started reading about wheat and different kinds of bread.

Also, I got to share my sourdough starter with someone at work and it made me feel good! Ok, that's probably lame, but I really liked getting to share something with a friend who will (and already has several times) use it and benefit from it. She's already completely showed me up on sourdough bread texture and rise wise, but mine had more of a sour flavor which I liked better.

Oh, ttfn. I will tell you all tomorrow how my second loaf of sourdough turned out!