Adventures in Baking #3: (First!) Successful Bread!

Bread-making is hard. I've tried numerous times to make bread, but it always comes out super dense and hard on the outside. I was just about to give up, but then...

BAM! Successful bread!

This recipe was so easy that I thought it was worth sharing!

Canape Bread

(recipe from here)

Ingredients:

-1/3 cup very warm water (about 110° F)

-1 tsp. granulated sugar

-.25 oz. yeast (1 package)

-1 cup milk

-2 tbsp. butter, melted

-1 1/4 tsp. salt

-3-4 cups all-purpose flour

Method:

1. In the measuring cup with the water, add in the sugar and yeast. Stir occasionally and let stand for 5 minutes, until foamy.

2. In a large bowl, combine the milk, butter and salt. Add the yeast mixture and stir to combine.

3. Add in 2 1/2 cups flour and stir, adding as much as needed to make a soft dough (I believe I used a little over 4 cups).

4. Scrape onto a floured surface and knead for 7 minutes.

5. Shape into a ball, place into a greased bowl, and flip the ball of dough so that all of its surface is greased. Cover with plastic wrap.

6. Let rise in a warm area until doubled in size.

8. Preheat oven to 400° F. Punch down dough, divide into two pieces and roll until they are 3 to 4 inches shorter than the bread molds.

9. Cap and bake (vertically) for 60-70 minutes. Once done baking, remove from tubes and let cool.

Ta-da! You've just made cute bread!

Next time I make this, I will:

-Coat the outside with melted butter: As soon as these cooled, the crusts got super hard. I think if you put water into ramekins on a rack under the bread as it's baking, it will help keep the crust soft, but I think it will be much easier to spread butter on the crusts. Hard crusts are kind of good sometimes, too, though.

-Add in some roasted garlic: This bread is soooo good alone, but if I ever make it to eat with our mussels marinara or white clam-sauce spaghetti, adding in some roasted garlic will be even tastier.

Don't let unsuccessful bread discourage you from trying again! I think once you get the gist of making bread, it becomes a lot easier (I also have just made some successful chocolate bread!). 

I hope everyone's weekend is lovely so far :-)