Saturday, January 26, 2008

I Finally Did It!

Yeah! After only 4,987,309,827 tries (okay so give or take 4,987,309,817) I finally was able to get my whole wheat bread to rise, look nice, and be edible. Yeah!

This is a recipe a lady in our church shared with me about 6 months or more ago. She had brought over a fresh loaf, we loved it, she gave me the recipe, and it has never worked. I've tried, and re-tried, and re-tried, and re-tried again, but it would never raise into a nice loaf. She wondered why I kept trying, at times so did I, but now I'm glad I did.

I kept trying because the taste was so good. The whole family really liked it. I would try other whole wheat recipes in between trying this one and in between giving up all together and buying bread at the store, but still the hands-down (or would that be mouth-watering?) favorite was the one from Marlene (no not Looper Marlene in case you're wondering).

I also kept trying because this recipe makes 3 loaves at one time and I liked that. That would mean I wouldn't have to make bread every day, or every other day, or every other every-other day.

Yet another reason to keep trying was that I didn't want to fail. I knew, deep down, that the only way to get it right was to keep trying. If the family didn't mind eating my mistakes over and over and over and over again, I should keep feeding them.

Finally today, it paid off. Yeehaw! Three loaves of bread, two nicely shaped in bread pans that rose, look so nice, and feel so light; and a third that due to the fact I only have two bread pans was shaped into a round "rustic" loaf and baked in a pie tin that also rose, stayed in its shape and was gobbled up completely for lunch with chili.

Now I might have to make it more often than I think, but since I have it figured out, that wouldn't bother me too much. What always bothered me was the failure. But today I'm not a failure and I'm going to gloat in my glory, pat myself on the back, and grin from ear to ear.

4 comments:

Susan said...

So what did you decide was the problem? Too cold to rise well? Old yeast? Liquid too warm for the yeast? I'm curious.

Kristi Heinz said...

So, this is unrelated, no need to post it under the comments...I was just wondering what a "looper" is? Are they pastor's wives? Just friends? Confessional chicks? I thought they were all home schoolers, but I have read a few that are not. Just curious.

I would love to have a home schooling discussion with you someday. I would LOVE to be doing it. I could list my excuses, but they would all sound unreasonalbe I am sure. Maybe we can chat someday. I read the blogs in an envious way.

By the way, we are going to be back in Wisconsin for Bender's conference this year. I have missed it and will be glad to be back. Will you all be attending?

I enjoy your blog!

RPW said...

So are you going to share the recipe??? Or did I miss it in an earlier post??

Kristi,

Loopers is a confessional Lutheran homeschool email list, pastors wives are there, but it is mostly laypeople, and you are perfectly welcome to come sign up. Go to CAT41.org, click on "services we provide" and click on Martin Loopers. Beware, there are days where they can be pretty active. It is nice and laid back, with talking about life in the midst of talking about homeschooling.

Glenda said...

Susan,

Well, I learned several things over the course of the tries. One was, that for me, letting it rise three times never, ever worked. So after the first rise, I just shaped it and let it rise the second time in the pan. The second was that I needed to let my Bosch tell me how much flour to put in. I know I should've "known" this, but sometimes my thick skull takes awhile to process the info. :-) But what made this time work the best is that I before shaping the dough, I really worked it with my knuckles to work the bubbles throughout the dough; then when I shaped it I really worked that piece and sort-of tri-foleded it, making it tight. That allowed it to rise up and not all over the place I think. Those tricks I remembered again after watching Alton Brown's episode on bread. One that I had watched previously but had forgotten all of his tips.

Hopefully all this will play in to being successful yet again as tomorrow will be another day to bake.

Kristi, Lora answered your Looper question, I'll email you with other answers.

Lora, I'll post the recipe for you.