Yay for you, Sherry! Bread making can be such a joy, a fun hobby, and you can usually eat your failures. This weekend I made Grandma Swanson's Swedish Brown Bread and Potato Rolls. There was a problem with the Brown Bread in that it overflowed the 3 bread pans it was in. Come to think of it, the last time I made it was even before the use of instant yeast - ha! But next time I will use 4 pans and the taste was still all I remembered.

Teresa

Sherry:
Why not try the Braided Bread , before Christmas, or Easter.
I make it all year.
Lou

Sherry, it sounds like you were just ripening. Most people have a lot of inedible failures when they first start making bread. It sounds like you went straight through to good! So you were learning about baking and your ovens and all the little things you don't even know you know, up until you were just ready.

I've always baked some bread, but never had the right circumstances to do it on a more regular basis. My new kitchen is so functional that, as soon as it's finished, I expect to make lots! I wasn't really thinking about it either, though I noticed when I was putting things back that I seem to have acquired more than half a dozen bread books during the remodel. And it's not like I didn't have any before! Think I'm looking to expand my repertoire?

Here is a multi-tasking tip I discovered recently:

use your plastic cover for covering food in the microwave to cover your bread rising in a bowl - it fits down into a large bowl perfectly!

{{gwi:1514194}}

Sherry,

I'm pleased you're enjoying baking bread. I love the sense of earthiness I get from working with the dough & seeing the finished product.

Bread can certainly be fattening & unhealthy. Just remember to limit use of white flour. Bake with mostly whole grains adding healthy nuts/seeds & keep the serving size down. Vary the grains by including 100% wheat, oats, spelt, rye, quinoa, barley, etc. Bread is part of a good nutritious diet. It's the 100% white flour stuff that's not so great for us (homemade or commercial).

Enjoy! I'm sure your family is also enjoying the fun you're having. Bread is the Staff of Life.

/tricia

Lou, is braided bread Cardamom Bread? I braided that for Easter. Boy was that good!

Theresa, I was looking at potato flour the other day but didn't buy any. I love potato rolls! I don't have a microwave cover. Finding a warm place in my cold-ish house has been a problem, but I accidentally discovered this "trick": I keep my cast iron pans in the oven; I had been removing the pans, heating the oven for 30 seconds before putting the rising bowl in. When I forgot to remove the pans, I think the oven stayed warmer longer. I've been leaving the pans in the oven ever since.

And I love the idea that I was "ripening" all these years, p111og.

Tricia, I've been adding wheat germ to almost all my breads. I have made oatmeal bread, too. I've added sesame seeds to some, caraway to others - not the kind you mean, I know, but I'll get to that. I'm going to have to work on keeping the serving size down. Nuts!

I have two loaves of Honey Whole Wheat rising right now!

I remember a while back there was a thread about keeping bread fresh in linen bags. Lou, you may have made some, but I could be wrong about that. My question: How long do linen bags keep bread fresh?

Sherry

Sherry, I use either freshly made mashed potatoes or instant mashed potatoes from flakes in the Amish store bulk bins. I actually tasted the instant potatoes yesterday and they were much better than the brand envelopes sold in regular stores. They were still instant, but pretty good - good enough to put in the potato roll recipe.

Teresa

Good for you Sherry! Whenever I see breads in the store I congratulate myself for not having to waste my money on something so much inferior to homemade bread.

I have been making bread for over 20 years and I love each loaf of it, including the failed ones. Regardless the outcomes, I always learn something from each loaf I made. I make mostly sourdough sandwich breads these days. My family loves it.

I even got hubby hooked on bread making. He was very resistant in the beginning. But I persisted and he finally gave it a try. After his first loaf, he never looked back. Now, he makes himself a loaf of Russian Black bread every weekend. I bought him a bread maker because he doesn't want to use my 25-year-old Kitchen Center. He uses the dough cycle then bakes the loaf in the oven. He surprises everyone especially his own mother who can't bake a cake out of a box. The look on her face when she found out about his bread, priceless!

Al

Sherry, welcome to the wonderful world of bread addicts. (grin) I've baked bread since I was a child, and I've always liked it.

Now I bake more whole grain breads and a lot less white bread, but sometimes it's just plain farmhouse white for tomato sandwiches or whatever.

Nothing like homemade bread, even the bad loaves are pretty darned good, and they can always be toast or bread crumbs.

Annie

Sherry and bonus.....the house smells so darn good!

I got on a bread making kick about 6 months ago but I've pulled way back. We were eating a loaf a day! I just don't need that many carbs ! So now I make a loaf every third day and if we are out, we're out! Haven't bought white breads or whole wheat breads for a while now but I still prefer to buy artisan loafs, rather than make them, for special occasions.