A few days ago we ran out of bread so my mom told me to go make some. I followed the recipe, like I’ve done several times before. I threw all the stuff into the bread machine, and then I realized my first mistake: we were out of wheat gluten. I went to my mom and told her, and she said to use the bread flour, which has the wheat gluten already mixed in. I realized that I already put it the 6 cups of flour required (all purpose), and by then I realized it was going to be funky. After the bread machine mixed all the ingredients, I let it sit there to raise for a while. I should have set a timer for 30 minutes while it was raising, so I could go and check on it, I forgot. I came back to the kitchen, and the bread dough was oozing out the lid of the machine, so I took it out, cut in half, and put each half into 2 greased bread pans. Then I put them on the back of the stove and covered them with a wet dish towel (so the dough wouldn’t dry out) while the oven heated up. This was were a timer was REALLY necessary, but, of course, I had to, just HAD to go and NOT SET ONE. I left the kitchen and started working on my May Baskets to deliver to my friends for May Day, and then went to go take a shower. I blow dried my hair and then went to the kitchen for a snack. And then I saw it. The bread. Still sitting on the back of the stove. Partially baked from the heat of the oven heating up. Raised so much it was almost sitting on the stove from the inside of the pans. I ran over to take the towel off and pop them in the oven before it was too late, but when I pulled the towel off, there was another problem. The dough was completely stuck to the towel. I had no hope of trying to pull the dough off the towel and still make something edible, so I ran and got my mom, who smartly and carefully pulled the cloth up and then carefully pulled the long strands of dough holding it to the rest inside the pan. We had to throw away the towel, because there was about an 1/8 of the dough from each pan stuck on it. We put them in the oven, and I was thinking that it would be slightly burnt, it would have a really thick crust, it would be too small, it would have fuzz in it, I was pretty much worried about anything and everything that could go wrong with the bread that I had already messed up pretty bad. The 30 minute (I ACTUALLY SET A TIMER) timer went off, and then I went and took it out. The first one didn’t look too terrible, just slightly deformed, like one side got a little squished, and then the other side like a bread stick was added on top mid-bake. I described the second one as looking like 2 or 3 raccoons each took a GIANT bite out of it, and then one side having an almost paper-thin crust. Is that an accurate description?
See the bread stick?
This is the worst fail in the history of fails and bread-making.
Yeah. So… at least my dad liked the taste and texture, he said it was somewhat like a biscuit. My mom had me try again the next day for better loaves.
THE NEXT DAY
I got out the bread machine, and added all the ingredients just like I did the day before, only I made SURE to use bread flour. Happy, I went off to add the finishing touches to my May Baskets, eat some lunch, and hurry downstairs for a math lesson. I also made SURE to set a timer to check if the bread had risen enough. Everything was going great so far, and I was very happy heading up the stairs, because I knew that everything was right, and I had even remembered to set a timer. I got out the pans and then I opened the lid of the bread machine. I noticed then that the bread hadn’t really risen at all. I thought about it and then I made a checklist in my head: Water, check. Honey, check. Salt, check. Oil, check. Flour, check. Yeast, che….I FORGOT THE YEAST!!!! I told my mom what I did, and she said to add the yeast and then redo the cycle on the bread machine. I did it, but it didn’t raise normally, and was kind of sticky. After my timer went off, I greased the pans and put the dough in. I covered it with a wet towel, and then set it on the back of the stove to raise while the oven heated. I TRIPLE-CHECKED to make sure I set the timer. I put them in the oven, and set a timer. After I took them out, I was REALLY happy because, guess what? THEY LOOKED LIKE LOAVES!!! They were still a little small, because I didn’t add the yeast until AFTER everything else was mixed, and because of the stickiness I left a little dough out because it wouldn’t come out of the mixer. These ones came out much, MUCH better, but I’ve definitely made waaaay better loaves of bread before.
SOME GOOD LOAVES FINALLY!!!!
Next time I make bread, I’m REALLY going to try to NOT do any of the stuff I did this week!
Amish White Bread
Ingredients:
- 2 c. warm (it NEEDS to be warm) water
- 1/3 c. honey
- 1 1/2 t. salt
- 1/4 c. oil
- 6 c. flour*
- 6 T. wheat gluten*
- 3 t. yeast
*you can use 6 cups of bread flour and not use wheat gluten instead
Let raise for 30 minutes.
Let raise in pan covered by wet cloth for another 30 minutes.
Cook for 30 minutes.
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