My New Love - Baking Bread

Bread.

Warm, delicious, freshly baked bread. Need I say more?

I will of course because it's my new love.  

I've mentioned it before here, but I just love it so much I need to share more.

Here's my bread story. . . 

I purchased this book 

approximately 18 years ago.  I know this because I bought it when I first started dating The Husband which was 18 years ago!  We would go to a book store every weekend.  It was our thing.  You see not only do I love books and reading but so does he.  Anyway, I remember picking this up at Barnes and Noble so many years ago thinking wouldn't it be fun to make bread.

I also remember trying to make coffee cake from this book and having it be a complete failure.  It turned me off from working with yeast for oh, approximately 17 years!  But here I am now with the courage and confidence to try things that once scared me .  You know, like cooking, baking, sewing, knitting, etc. etc. 

So last weekend I was making a bread from The Complete Bread Book and I said to The Husband  "I think I'll bake each bread in the book starting at the beginning. "  And he said "Oh, are you going to bake your way through the book and write about it on your blog. Then write a book and make a movie about it."  Yes he said this to me with a big smile

 on his face.  

Fresh I say!!  FRESH!  

My response:  "NO! I just thought it would be fun to make each bread in the book and why not go in order?"  And then I said "FRESHY FACE!"  Although I really wanted to say more colorful words. 

The first bread I made from the book were these Button Rolls.  They were picked based on the ingredients I had on hand.

The button rolls were not my best, but they were the first attempt after 17 years.  So not too bad if I do say so myself.  (They are shining from an egg wash and the little bumps on top are supposed to look like buttons. Mine did not.) The kids liked them and they went well with soup.

Once I made the button rolls I did a quick look through the book to see what ingredients I should always have in the pantry.  I now can make almost any bread in the book and add the ingredients to the grocery list as I go.

The first bread in the book is The First Loaf.  Makes sense right?

Easy peasy and so yummy.

The next bread is the Cuban Bread.  The author says this bread is a" first bread bakers dream".  It was super simple to make and delicious too.

Last Sunday I made Egg Harbor Bread 

What else can I say?  Again, so good. (I had to take a taste!)

This Sunday - English Muffin Bread!