Bread Baking S.O.S.

Help me.

I have tried many times to bake whole wheat bread. I’ve used recipes from the bag of whole wheat flour and from the internet. I seem to churn out whole wheat BRICKS instead of bread.

I gave up on the whole bread baking deal for a few years, then when I went grocery shopping last week, I
was shocked and disgusted with the price of a 12 inch Boboli pizza crust- 3.50!?!?!?!?!?!? So I bought a container of active dry yeast and made pizza dough myself. I used this recipe from Cooking Light and it turned out fine. BUT it was WHITE flour.

So I decided to try baking whole wheat bread again. I used the KitchenAid Mixer’s recipe for whole wheat bread- 5-6 cups of flour, 4.5 tsps yeast, 2 c warm water, 1/3 cup brown sugar, a lil salt, 1/3 c oil… you get the idea.

Things were looking pretty good. I let the dough rise in my oven, which I turned on and then off, to get that “magic” but elusive 85 degrees.

I punched the dough down, shaped into loaves (one was a little bigger than the other, whoops) and let them rise again.

Then I baked them according to the instructions- 15 minutes at 400 and then 30 minutes at 350.

This is what happened. A wrinkly crust and a very dense loaf.

I troubleshooted on Breadworld.com and my problem (or at least one of them) is that I let the dough rise at too warm of a temperature.

OK Guilty. I kept the temp at about 100- 120 by turning the oven on to 200, then letting it get to 130, then turning it off. A hundred times. But I was afraid it wouldn’t rise at all! And I don’t know where I am supposed to get an area of my house 85 degrees. It’s NEVER 85 degrees here except in the summer. And it ain’t summer yet.

On top of it all, I was completely exhausted from the bread baking fiasco yesterday. I kept running up and down the stairs to peek on the bread and the sheer anticipation of success or failure sapped my strength. My husband, the ever positive encourager, even quietly suggested that maybe I should give up whole wheat bread dream. He reasoned that perhaps we don’t have the right equipment, like a brick fired oven or something. It’s only 3.69 to buy it at the store and that may be worth it.

What do I do? How can I fix this? I just want to make homemade whole wheat bread that is yummy and good and healthy and all that jazz.

Bread bakers of the blogosphere, please rescue me. I’m sending out an S.O.S.

This was an incredible weekend for us!

Keith and I went snowboarding on Saturday, leaving our wee one with her Grandma. They had a great time and she took her bottles really well. (Dr. Browns bottles worked for us!). I was face-down in the snow quite a bit, as we hadn’t gone boarding in 2 years, but I thoroughly enjoyed using my new board. We’ll be going every Saturday through the end of February with a group of friends. Most of the group is made up of families- we are one of two couples that did not bring their children.

When we got home, my mom and grandma had done ALL of our laundry and taken the Mercy for a walk. I also got some sympathy from my mom, who realized that my baby doesn’t take extended naps yet, just catnaps. “You must be so exhausted! No wonder you hardly get anything done!” Finally! Some respect!

With all the laundry done and the dog already walked, I was able to finish the baby’s earflap hat:

And I liked the pattern so much that I made two, one for our little girl and one for our friend’s baby.

They are Kim’s Hats from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I used Knitpicks Sierra yarn from my stash and size 9 dpns. My only concern is itchy-ness, as the yarn is wool and alpaca. I have not had much success in lining it with fleece- I tried, but it wouldn’t stretch enough. Any ideas?

I also made some pumpkin cookies!

These are the easiest cookies to make- just mix a 15 oz can with a box of cake mix and bake for 10-12 minutes at the temperature on the cake box (usually it’s 350 degrees). They are really gooey and you don’t have to worry about them being undercooked because there aren’t any eggs! I also hear that they are one or two weight-watcher points. These cookies are so addicting I made Keith take the rest to work today so I didn’t eat them all.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend!