I Baked Bread!

Ya'll, I am proud of myself. I seriously doubted my ability to bake anything, much less bread. Baking bread always seemed like something only lifelong-bakers or pioneer women could do. But I did it, and I am definitely not a baker or a pioneer woman.

I used the recipe for sourdough starter + bread from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (btw, a big thanks to whoever got that for me for the wedding! Can't remember anymore.) Last week I made the starter, which wasn't too complicated & was kind of fun, watching it froth & bubble for a few days. It also made the house smell sooo good.

After anxiously waiting a week for the starter to develop, I could finally bake some bread! I was nervous about it but once I started the recipe, I realized that a lot of it is just waiting for the dough to rise. I think there was three different times I had to let the dough rise, for a total rising time of about two hours. Glad I had the whole afternoon...

Kneading the dough was fun-- it felt like playdough. I think if I bake enough bread, I'll eventually get some nice arm muscles. :) Then into the oven it went while I hoped and prayed it would turn out well. I hate wasting food on bad recipes (or my mistakes), plus I just really wanted to be successful at this. And I was!

It is delicious. Deric and I gave it all of five minutes to cool before we ate it with butter & honey. Still warm & so, so good. I said on Facebook last night that I may never buy bread again, & I really may not. There's something satisfying about being able to bake your own bread. I felt more self-sufficient somehow... maybe because bread's a staple that not too many people make anymore? I don't know what it is, but I'm proud of myself. Deric was pretty happy too-- now his sandwiches for work are on homemade bread!

So, be encouraged. If I can do it, you can do it! Its definitely worth the effort (& time).