Rise Above (Anything; My Standards Are Low Right Now)

I've been making some progress on my goals for the coming year already, particularly number 14: making yeast-based bread more often. I've already made three different recipes in the last month.

One was by Real Simple - you know, the Martha Stewart thing. This Foolproof Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread apparently had me fooled - it was only about two inches high when it came out of the oven. Still, it was tasty.

Sandwich bread, my butt.

The others have come from my Pillsbury Healthy Baking book. (I've shared this with you before, but it's really amazing. I've loved everything that's come out of it.)

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The first recipe was for braided loaves, made from no-knead refrigerator dough. I've used that recipe for rolls, but the bread was so good that I can't not make it again. It was sweeter than I wanted, despite cutting back on the sugar, which is fine; it's a sweeter recipe, dotted with almonds. But I bet I could take out all (or almost all) of the sugar for a savory loaf. It was definitely the prettiest bread I've ever made, so naturally, I forgot to take a picture.

Yesterday, I made whole wheat bread with walnuts. Everything seemed to be going well until I realized it was really hard to knead in the flour, and I still had a cup and a half to go.

I forgot to add half a cup of water.

It was supposed to be heated and added with the milk and butter early on. I called both my mom and my grandma, who had no suggestions (they know better than to forget ingredients in bread). So I stopped adding flour, let it rise, and baked it for a shorter time. I think it ended up okay, despite the fact that I also needed 8x4 bread pans and only had 9x5.

Looks decent, even if it rose funny because of the big pan.

I may have been making bread. But I haven't necessarily done it well. But that's okay - it's edible, and my goal doesn't say I have to master breadmaking.

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