It's a good day (or two!) for baking bread!

Brett's coworker, Rose, has been curious about some of the bread adventures I've been going through.

Leslie, our realtor, was drooling over the blueberry banana bread I gave her recently, and has heard stories about my attempts at baking bread, and we were meeting up with her Sunday for another full-on house viewing extravaganza to find our dream home.

We were meeting up with Brett's family for their first-ever foray into the exciting world of Indian food Saturday night.

We were running outta the last batches of bread I made for us...

So, gee, what to do!?

MAKE MORE BREAD!

Saturday I baked up a batch of the whole wheat Italian bread I made recently, only deciding to try sweetening it with a bit of honey, and adding some of the milled flaxseed we picked up. Rather than make one big loaf, I opted to split it, so we could give half to Brett's family, and try half for ourselves. It was good - but still kinda tough/chewy/dry - did I over bake? Is this just a trait of this recipe? I still didn't achieve the sweetness I was going for (imagine a sweet honey whole wheat sandwich bread you'd pick up at the store), so I'll continue the hunt for that recipe...


I baked those off Saturday afternoon so we could give one to Brett's folks, and also made up three sponges of the yogurt French bread... Boy, that stuff really ferments - could easily be called a sourdough!


Here's me just pulling the first loaf outta the oven, hoping it'll cool fast enough to take it to Leslie. (It did, she loved it, her Danish husband loved it - yay!)


After hooooours and miles of house hunting (still no dream home), I had to make and bake the other two loaves. I can't do more than one at once - not enough room on the baking stone. So I staggered them, and just had to remember to crank up the oven to 450 for awhile before each loaf went in, and then turn it down to 400 for the baking....


...which I forgot to do - hence the darker loaf that cooked in 2/3 the time (good thing I could smell it and checked the interior temp of the dough!)

How gay is that pose!?

I was most disappointed in the last/darker loaf, which we kept for ourselves, because I'm finally mastering cutting slashes into the dough and getting an attractive baked loaf, only this loaf cooked so hot and so fast that the exterior set before it got to rise and kind of "balloon out" along the cuts... I can handle the darker color on this one (you really can't taste it as "burned"), but was bummed about the less attractive loaf. Oh well - still cuts and eats the same! :)

Brett came home from work today saying Rose was drooling over the loaf all day - she had it tucked under her desk, and kept pulling it out to smell it. Hope she and Steve liked it!

Hm, what'll I bake next?