White Bread

I was very excited when I received my book in the mail, Baking with Julia, by Dorie Greenspan. The illustrations are beautiful. I curled up on the couch and started reading through the first section of the book. I love to cook, but haven’t had any real guidance other than trial and error. I’m still in the “ignorance is bliss” stage of baking! Although some of the recipes look intimidating, I am hopeful I will be able to turn out some beautiful baked goods, that are delicious as well.

I bought myself a scraper for my first project! My husband always says, “you have to have the right tool for a job!” Besides I have always wanted one… I pulled out my huge wooden cutting board, uncovered my giant mixer, and lined up my ingredients. The day was a gorgeous sunny desert day, and the sun was streaming in through the kitchen blinds, making a well-lit work space.

This recipe put my mixer to its first real vigorous and extended test. I was thrilled to find out that it could handle such a laborious task. The directions and my results all fell into place. The warnings before the dough was ready to fall apart were reassuring. Everything went very well and having the dough rising in my sunny kitchen was so wonderful. The back door was open and I could hear the ducks and chickens squawking in their yard. All was well out here in the desert.

I chose to put some peanut butter on the second loaf. My family puts peanut butter on everything. I’ve learned to accept it. I still get a little annoyed when they want to put it on breakfast crepes, but if I load one with fruits and cream before they pull out their knives, they get at least one without their old stand-by.

I turned the loaves out on a cooling rack and left them for the afternoon. When I cut into the peanut butter loaf, the chunks of peanut butter fell out of the slice and left holes in the bread. I ended up making French toast out of the remainder of that loaf and left that as a lesson learned. I made an additional two loaves, one to go with a spaghetti dinner and another for a neighbor that always has something from her garden to share. I saved the prettiest for her. And yet another pair because the family was asking for more.

I am not a white bread eater, so I didn't go gaga for these loaves. However, there is something about a fresh baked loaf of bread, no matter what type, that makes it just that much more delicious. I am so happy to have the familiarity and confidence with this recipe. I thought it was fantastic, warm and buttered with the spaghetti dinner. The family gave it thumbs up, so it will get a little check and through time the page will be spattered with flour and eventually the wet-then-dried spots will have a special wrinkle on the page making it easy to find.