Brown Bread

Above you can see my first solo attempt to bake bread. It was a very proud moment for me to slowly take the bread tray out of the oven and inhale the wonderful aroma signifying the completion of my efforts. Baking bread has been something that I have felt I should do for such a long time and I don't know what has stopped me from doing so.

What surprised me was how long it took to prepare but the satisfaction of slicing it and eating it for breakfast (it wasn't savoured unfortunately as I slept in and was nearly late for work) the following day was worth it. In the recipe, it said 20 minutes preparation time, and this was true but I missed the information giving the whole time needed. It was so long that my private lessons had to be interrupted slightly while I moved onto the next stage of the process much to the interest of my private students.

Why was it such a proud moment? Well, for me bread is a staple part of my diet. It is literally the foundation for so many of the things I eat - mainly toast and sandwiches and the different combinations that I put on top of them

So as for the preparation; getting the ingredients was pretty easy, kneading the bread for about 10 minutes was not so smooth on the wrists or on my patience especially given the limited space in my kitchen. As a whole the major requirement was patience, patience to do it correctly and to regularly check the recipe I found online. It is not a great virtue of mine but given the fact that I didn't literally have to wait and watch it slowly rise, it was not a problem.

So now that I have broken my baking bread virginity, I have promised myself not to go back to buying cheap, poor quality bread in the shop. That would be far too easy. This will involve a lot of planning in advance but if forced to have the option of bread or no bread, I know which one I will choose.

For those who are interested - Brown Bread Recipe