“Good things come to those who wait.” I have found this wise old adage to be very true in baking bread. I hope it also applies to waiting for me to post about my bread making escapades. Above is a photo of specimen A. It is a classic white bread; good for sandwiches and toast. I am mostly pleased with the result. It came out moist and tasty. My one wish is that it came out a bit taller. I like my bread, like my men, to have some height. I let it rise longer than suggested, but it still isn’t the majestic loaf I wanted.

What I learned by this initial experiment is that you cannot bake bread if you are in a rush. It took most of the day. Of course, much of the time was waiting for it to rise or “proof” as my cookbook calls it. This allowed me plenty of time to give the house a good cleaning. I felt rather like a frontier woman, albeit a frontier women with plumbing, lots of appliances, and a terrific soundtrack to help the task along. Tomorrow, I continue my journey yeast. I lost a bet to the hubby. Since we share a bank account, waging money is an exercise in absurdity.  In our house, the stakes are much higher than mere dollars. We bet fresh baked cinnamon buns. I lost, I bake. I’ll let you know how things go. Update: here’s the Cinnamon Bun story.