Not Always the Breadwinner

Let's be honest folks, cooking is not always a victorious triumph that ends with a beautifully presented and delicious dish. Sometimes, it's a pain in the ass. You can slave away in the kitchen for hours with the end result an inedible and unappetizing failure that only leaves you confused, frustrated and hungry. You followed the directions. You checked and double checked your measurements. Yet, something went wrong. In the case of my honey wheat bread - terribly wrong.

Sunday night at around 7pm I decided I wanted to use my new bread maker. That was my first mistake -- who the hells bakes bread at 7pm at night? Bread -- the kind you must knead and wait to rise and...and...and...yeah genius...it takes forever! 4.5 hours to be exact. But, with thoughts of our new house smelling like a loaf of freshly baked homemade bread I headed out to the grocery store to round up my ingredients. Not feeling overly ambitious (aside from the whole baking bread at 7 o'clock at night) I decided upon a recipe that came straight from the booklet in my Cuisinart bread maker:

Basic (laughs) Honey Whole Wheat Bread -- Large, 2lb loaf:

1 1/4 cups of water 80-90°F
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 tbs unsalted butter 1/2 in pieces at room temperature
2 tbs honey
1 1/4 cups bread flour
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp active yeast

Place all the ingredients, in the order listed, in the bread pan fitted with the kneading paddle. Press "Menu" and select "whole wheat". Select your crust (soft, medium or hard) and loaf size then press "Start" to mix.

Hello. Could those be any simpler instructions?

I didn't actually get the loaf started until 9pm. At 12:30am I checked the bread maker and decided to call it a night (or rather, morning) after seeing the clumpy, crumbly mess illustrated in Photo A.

Here's what went wrong:
#1 The Water Temperature: Foolishly thinking that water boils a 100 °F, I boiled some water and let it cool for a few minutes in hopes of reaching the required 80-90 °F temperature. Water, in fact, boils at a scalding 212 °F. I was off by 100°F. The hot temperature of the water killed the yeast.

#2 The placement of the yeast The yeast must remain COMPLETELY separate from the wet ingredients. I sprinkled the yeast on top, and while I did place all the ingredients in the correct order, some of the yeast particles must have fallen downward and gotten into the water rendering them ineffective. The booklet says to "Create a small crater in dry ingredients using your finger or a spoon, and placed yeast within the crater."

#3 Flour measurement Do NOT pack down your flour when measuring and always measure on a flat surface. When baking, you must be as precise as possible. Spoon your flour into your measuring cup and then level with a knife or spatula to ensure the measurement is exact. By scooping and packing you could potentially add an extra tablespoon or more of extra ingredients. I packed the flour. And I packed it hard. Oops.

Not learning from Sunday's late start time (or perhaps just determined to get a successful loaf of bread!) I decided to try it again last night. After making those 3 adjustments, by 1am I had a beautiful loaf of bread and the house smelled divine.

Cooking (especially baking) takes time, patience, practice and finesse. But this recipe helped reinforce the fact that if you follow a recipe very carefully, you’re likely to have success -- no matter how difficult a recipe may be. This reassuring fact continues to give me the confidence and motivation necessary to keep trying more challenging recipes.

My next loaf: Sun-dried tomato and mozzarella bread. Well...maybe I'll just start with an old-fashioned buttermilk.