I baked bread

A few months back, I guess, I decided I wanted to bake bread. Not because of practical reasons (though they do still apply) like lower cost, fresh and pronounceable ingredients, and the bragging rights of telling everyone that I baked bread. No, I decided I wanted to bake bread because it would be fun.

So, we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to find a loaf pan, because we received a gift card from there and I have no idea what we'll use it for. I really wanted something fancy like a Le Creuset stone loaf pan, but the B,B&B failed me. So, off we went to Kohl's to use one of our many other gift cards. The only stone loaf pan they had weighed about 40lbs and had a price tag that sported a similar number simply because it was Food Network brand. Le Creuset I would have paid that much for, Food Network brand? No, who is it even made by?!

Unwilling to leave without a loaf pan, I ended up with a stainless steal, non-stick dealy. Eh, it baked the bread, and was less than $20.

For my first attempt [read: overwhelming success], I used this recipe. It was delicious and looked good too.



I still felt the need for a stone loaf pan, so when Shawn and I went to Jacksonville for a doctor's appointment we stopped by the William Sonoma store. Of course the woman working there thinks that everyone who likes to cook or bake is supposed to be all chitty-chatty (I can't help but disappoint these types) and asks me about what kind of bread I'm going to bake. Then she tells me about how she used to be in a bread baking commune in the '70s. Commune? I'm pretty sure that's what she said, but it sounded like she really meant "group" or "club." They would each bake 6 loaves and trade them with each other, along with the recipes. Sounded neat.

Anyway, they didn't have a Le Creuset pan in an appropriate size so I bought one made by some other fancy French company.

Back to baking. Second round looked just as good, but taste? Not so much. I used a recipe from a Loretta Lynn cookbook I picked up at the Goodwill bookstore and while it was a simpler recipe, it tasted simpler too.

Today I went for an Amish white bread
.


(notice the fancy French pan)

It's still cooling now, but from the little pinches I've tasted every time I walk into the kitchen it seems to taste pretty good. Now I with I had some Amish apple butter to go with it.