Well, I'm not much of one for New Year's resolutions, just because I think they're tiresome and made to be broken. Such as resolving to go to the gym even though you've never set a foot inside one, ahaha, and you're rendered squeamish at the sight of naked people mincing around a locker room. Or resolving to clean up your potty mouth even though everyone knows that, in certain circumstances, it feels super good to lay a curse word down.
So... resolutions? F*&^ that. But... in 2013, I tentatively resolve to sharpen my bread baking skills.
Confession: I suck at baking bread. My dough never rises. My endless fretting over sagging dough does nothing to remedy the situation. I avoid yeast like it's the plague. I produce leaden loaves that make my husband laugh.
I have issues.
And I'm dealing with them head-on in the New Year. A loaf per week. At least until my attention is drawn elsewh--- oh, look, shiny!
Here's last week's effort. A hearth loaf from the King Arthur Flour website.
What do you know? That dough? It rose! Just like magic. And it tasted so tasty that we polished off both loaves over the course of the week. It tasted best toasted and smeared with butter. The last few slices got grated up for breading some cubed steaks right before tossing them in a pan.
Very satisfying!
So this weekend, I focused on this whole wheat oatmeal bread.
And what do you know? That dough rose too! Almost too much:
Here's the finished product:
As opposed to not rising, which is what my bread dough used to do, it rose so high that it fought against the towel I'd laid across the top of it, then it slumped to one side, just a little. I call this my Hokusai wave bread.
Now, if you'll excuse me I need to go dip a slice of this in some soup.
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