Maybe I was inspired by Julie & Julia, but I have been cooking/baking alot lately. Chris suggested that I start a blog about it and post some pictures. So here I am, blogging about my cooking, baking, and everyday adventures :)
Last week while at the grocery store in the bread aisle I wanted to get some cinnamon raisin bread. It's like $5 a loaf which is just outrageous and I said to myself that it can't be that hard to make. So the next day, after a half hour walk to the market and a half hour walk back with 2 bags full of groceries, I bought all the ingredients to make my very first raisin bread.
I had never worked with yeast before. That was a bit of an adventure. I stirred it into hot water (both of which you're not supposed to do! Something I didn't learn until later). It looked like brown water and smelled atrocious. I found it a little ironic that bread baking in the oven smells so good because of the yeast, but when it's proofing in water it's disgusting.
So I put all the ingredients together and was left with a sticky mess. I was determined to make the bread so I left it for 2 hours and waited for it to rise. It didn't rise. Not even a little. It probably shrunk a little.
Still determined, I rolled out the dough and added the cinnamon sugar, rolled it up tight, popped it into the pan and let if cook. The recipe said to let it cook for 45 minutes. So I did just that. After my timer went off, the dough was still pale, it didn't even look like it cooked at all. So I left it in for another half hour or so.
After finally took it out, I let it cool. When it came out of the pan it was a pale rockhard piece of dough with raisins poking out. It was as heavy as a brick and didn't even bake all the way through. I wish I had a picture of it, but I threw it into the trash with a distinctive thud when it his the bottom.
The next day I talked to my mom about baking bread. Turns out I didn't proof the yeast properly (or the yeast was bad, but I'm pretty sure I was the screwup on that one lol). After my mom told me how to properly proof yeast, I tested it out on the 2nd package and it got all frothy (which it's supposed to do). So next day I set out for round two of cinnamon raisin bread.
And all I have to say is by round 2, I won! .. the yeast proofed properly, when I left it to rise, it actually doubled in size that I had to make two loaves since my pans weren't big enough. It browned properly, was super tasty and had the awesome cinnamon swirl when you cut into the bread!
I was very proud of my (second) attempt at baking bread. I want to try a new recipe every week or so. Today I'm trying out latkes :)
