January 7

Adventures in Breadmaking

I LOVE bread. Seriously, I could eat a bread only diet and never get tired of it. I have the tools to make all kinds of homemade bread now, so that is what I am going to do. Homemade bread is so delicious, and so far, it has been much easier to make than I expected.

Daniel got me The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook to go along with the breadmaker. It is full of recipes that look really good, and I am excited to try them all. The first recipe I tried in my bread machine was a white whole wheat bread, made with 100% white whole wheat flour. All I had to do was dump all the ingredients inside, and the machine did the rest. The loaf was perfect with a crunchy crust while still soft and chewy inside. It was delicious!

Last night, I made whole wheat pretzel bites. I used the breadmaker on the dough setting. Once the dough was ready, then I had to do more work. It took a little bit of time, but the whole process was fun. In the end, they actually tasted like real soft pretzels....so yummy! The only problem is that the pretzels are only good fresh. We had a bunch leftover, so we tried some today. They are definitely not good as leftovers and should only be eaten right out of the oven.

Then tonight, I decided to get a little bit more creative. I used another recipe from the Bread Machine cookbook, a garlic focaccia bread. It probably would have been good by itself, but I added mozzarella and Parmesan cheese (and some pepperoni on Daniel's) to the top. I cut the bread into strips, served it with pizza sauce, and we had yummy cheese sticks for dinner tonight. They were just as good as any pizza restaurant cheesesticks, but much less greasy. It was fun to have something different for dinner too. I don't think Audrey agreed. She passed on the cheesesticks, and just chose to eat her green beans and dip them in the pizza sauce instead. Choosing green beans over breadsticks?? I don't know how she is even my daughter!!

So far, I'm three for three on successful bread machine recipes. I'm sure I am due for a major flop sometime soon!!