My Trials with Baking..

In the perilous quest to become an equally as amazing cook as my mother, I have recently begun to bake my own bread. Going into this, I was well aware of the fact that a person with only a small amount of experience in the culinary arts cannot simply look up a recipe, follow that recipe, and expect incredible results. That being said, you have to start somewhere right?

So, I started my baking experience with Whole Wheat Bread. Simple, delicious, and seemingly easy. Kind of. Little did I know what a disappointment my bread would be :(

My first attempt (which is where most of these pictures are from) seemed like it was going well. Except that I used ALL whole wheat flour... my first mistake. The recipe I used called for only %100 whole wheat flour, so I followed the recipe (more on this later), finished making my dough, and popped it in the oven.

I didn't even bother to take a picture of the finished product. It was heavy, dense, and extremely moist inside. I smelled like raw dough, and the only way I could choke it down was by slathering it in Nutella. I ended up throwing out the loaf, which if you know me, is a testament to how bad this "bread" really was. I never waste food, in fact my roommates call me the Garbage Disposal, because anytime they don't want to eat something of theirs, I take it happily.


My second attempt was better. Slightly. I was better educated in the bread making process. I had learned that for the bread to taste like, well, bread you must use at least two different type of flour. Whoops! I also forgot to distribute the sweetener (I used pure agave nectar) throughout the recipe, instead I added it all in the beginning. I forgot to add an egg which is supposed to do... something good, I can't really remember right now, which is probably why I forgot it originally. Poo.

I probably made other mistake which I am unaware of. The second attempt came out tasting better, but looking worse... It was still pretty dense, and I couldn't get it to rise past the rim of my bread pan so it looked similar to a brick.

If there are any more experienced bakers reading this that could shed some light on my mistakes, I would LOVE to hear from you!

I'm still learning, and I think that if every time I try something new, and it turns out slightly better than the last, thats a success!

Yup,

Kasey