I finally did it. I made my own bread.
And it wasn't half bad. I wouldn't even call it hard little rock bread. While it didn't rise as much as it should have, it was soft inside and crispy on the outside. Well, hard on the outside! But a good texture and a nice taste.
I followed Glo's (above) recipe (see it in the comments to this post) and I saved some of the dough and made some really tasty cinnamon rolls. The rolls had extra time to rise while the bread was baking and I think this was key.
I read through lots of recipes and some suggested actual times to let the bread "rest" and others said that you simply have to watch the dough and develop a sense for when it is ready. Taking a hint from the way the cinnamon rolls continued to rise and their fluffiness after being cooked taught me a lot.
All in all it was a lot of work. I think it could get easier though and just become another one of the multi-tasks ongoing in a day. And I sure hope I get good at it eventually.
I got the idea to make cinnamon rolls from Debbie, who reads and often sends me sweet notes. They turned out to be the best part. And while a few days later a little bit of rock bread has been slowly shoved toward the rear of the fridge, the cinnamon rolls are long gone!
