Adventures in Bread Making

Today I had no plans but to go to yoga and take my car to the shop-- exciting day I know. I had actually been looking forward to it until I realized that playing around on the computer, doing crossword puzzles and busting through a few more pages of my current read ("The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao") didn't actually take up that much of my day. I was going to take the dogs for a walk, but on account of the crappy snowy/ slushy mixture we've got going on out there that's not happening either. Anyway, so I found myself sitting here running out of things to do. I am trying to cut down on my TV, already did some work, and didn't have a whole lot to blog about until... I decided to make some bread! Yay! What better activity to engage in on a yucky day like today?

Now, if you read my "101 Things" entry you would know that I am on a mission to perfect my bread making skills, what little I have that is. My only other attempts at bread have been the following:
1. a sad little cinnamon raisin bread courtesy of the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook that never ended up rising
2. a boule, which is otherwise known as a French round bread that rose and was quite tasty on the inside, but exceedingly crusty on the outside-- so much so that it took some serious biceps to cut through that sucker.
3. cinnamon rolls, which were hot and gooey and yummy right out of the oven, but got hard quickly and also did not rise as much as I think they were supposed to.

My fourth and current (but not final) attempt is going to be me taking another shot at the same cinnamon raisin bread recipe from Martha.

The Recipe-- doesn't it look delicious?? Let's hope it comes out looking like that!


Waiting patiently for the yeast to rise:


Putting the Kitchenaid to work!


Hoping my dough rises!


Okay... so it's been 40 minutes (the allotted time for this recipe) and it has only risen minimally. Granted it's better than the last time, when it was basically a giant heavy lump. I think I'm going to wait a little bit longer....

About to go in the oven


It's been in the oven for 20 mins and it looks beautiful!!! Yay! I am seriously so excited right now. I may be on my way to perfecting my bread making skillz! Wahooo!! More pics to come!

Beautious!


AND Delicious!


And that concludes the story of "Joy Makes Bread"