Monday, August 04, 2008

Ahh, now I understand.

I've tried baking bread several times, with moderate success. I love my hardwood bowl and wooden mixing spoons. I have read the 10 Tips for Better Bread post that Farmgirl Fare posted in 2005. I would have assumed that I'd be a purist at heart, because of my love of the special, the artisinal, and the handmade.

Then, my friend gave me a bread machine.

I didn't know if it even worked, so my son and I tried it out yesterday. We used a recipe for French bread that came in the manual. I measured and dumped ingredients in. I pushed a button. And I walked away.

Three and a half hours later, the bread machine beeped three times and I had fresh bread.

My house smelled good and the bread had a good crunchy crust on it. I wasn't cooking tons of fresh bread by hand before, and now....I'm not sure when I'll do it again!

I'm on the hunt for recipes to use in the machine. I've found a few that I want to try so far.

Now I think I understand the appeal of bread machines.

1 comment:

Michelle said...

I've coveted making bread and getting myself a hardwood bowl after reading FG's 10 tips too. But I hear you: I just made my first fully-kneaded-by-hand loaf a few days ago and I think I understand why bread machines are a good thing. That said, I never used mine when I had it. *sigh* someday i'll make bread. maybe. shoot - i just read somewhere some recommendations for being able to adapt any recipe for a bread machine. i'll see if i can remember where...