Our Daily Bread

I don't think I've ever told you all this, but for the past year, since moving to Oregon, Daddy and Mama have been baking our own bread. :)
Nothing fancy, just your average whole wheat bread. Someday, I'd like to venture into adding dried fruits and whatnot (like Kae and her amazing raisin bread that sustained us for the first part of the trip East earlier this month ;) )
But, I must say, for us novices, even nailing down whole wheat bread has been a challenge.
The challenge being, namely, how to make it light and fluffy. Not dense and squat.

We initially started with the "Honey Whole-Wheat Bread" recipe from Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking but it was a little rich for all the us. And so thick and heavy!! ;_;

So we started to adapt the "Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread" recipe from The Joy of Cooking 75th Anniversary (a must-have for any kitchen, we say!!) and have slowly but surely been getting better and better results...
One effective trick we learned was keeping the bread, while it was rising, in the greased rice cooker on "Warm".
But what would start out as a big, fluffy mass of dough...would inevitably collapse into a thick log.

It wasn't until reading The Little House Cookbook that I learned the key tidbits of advice to making a fluffy and delicious bread.
And that being heating the water and milk in the recipe not to piping hot, but to an eerie but effective bloodwarm.


Just look at that fluffy, golden-brown bread!!
I swear, I am never going back.
No more having to slice the bread horizontally to make decent-sized sandwich slices! XD

Even Ella seems to approve...sorta.


You know who she reminds me of in this photo?
One of the Gelflings from the Dark Crystal!! Don't you think~?
And can you believe she's just shy of turning the big ol' 18 months old!!
My, how time flies~

Well! Happy baking, everyone~
And take care!!