After months (years?) of anticipation and research... I got a new toy:
I've used it a few times now, and LOVE it. I was using my (large) kitchenaid before, but it took forever to incorporate the flour. This thing does it SO fast! And I love being able to make more loaves at a time.
Still using this recipe, still not 100% whole wheat. I use a little more each time I bake, so we'll get accustomed to it gradually. This time I used fresh ground wheat flour from my mom who was showing me how her wondermill works. I think that's next on my list!
(pre-rise - I was nerdy this time and weighed the dough on my kitchen scale to get the loaves more even than last time when I guestimated (badly))
I LOVE my pans. They are awesome. They have a silicone coating on them, so you don't have to grease them and the bread pops right out. The pans look clean afterwards, so cleaning them takes two seconds.
I need another one, though - see my one blue standout? The recipe says it makes 4 loaves, but I always get five out of it.
(post-rise ready to bake)
MMMmmmmm.
I'm no bread expert, but it sure is fun learning! Also, what a 'domestically-happy' feeling you get from making fresh bread! **side note: my kids are sure spoiled since we make so much of our food from scratch! Last week I used THWOK dough (our nickname for pillsbury dough - shout-out to Valerie!) to make pigs in a blanket on a busy evening instead of homemade biscuit dough and the kids hated them! HATED. I guess that's one drawback...**
Also, honey + sun = pretty.
Tonight we mixed up a giant batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to freeze into doughballs. Our doughball supply was dwindling way too low.
Can't let that happen!
**Another sidenote: I guess since we're talking bread, I might as well mention that the redhead is no longer gluten-free. We took him off the GFCF diet a few years ago, actually, somehow it's never come up here. We still avoid dairy, but not as strictly as we did before. Lots of reasons for this, but there you go.
