Cooking Baking Eating

I think everyone will have at least one disaster while learning how to cook. At LEAST one. I think I’ve made hundreds, but that’s a whole other story.

This whole cooking thing has been a journey for me, from not knowing that some foods like marshmallows could actually be made by hand, to actually making the things that cause others to say “You did WHAT?”

That has to be the best reaction ever by the way.

I have to say my biggest disaster was my Franken-bread.

I had just gotten my very first bread machine and wanted to make bread. It was one I had gotten used, but it had the manual and seemed to work ok so I had to go for it.

Keep in mind I had never made bread until I started with this. Ok, correction. I had never made yeast bread before. I am the queen of quick breads (zucchini, pumpkin, banana), but never the yeast.

So home I went, with my ingredients in hand, a cook book for bread, and my beloved bread machine. I turned it on, threw in the ingredients and let it do its thing. What came out was not expected, though it was slightly edible the farther down it got.

Over time I slowly got better at making bread, not have another horribly disastrous loaf like my first one, but they were still slightly misshapen.

They were edible though! Well, after you cut the burned top off at least. It yielded great, fluffy crumbed bread that tasted great with a little butter and honey on it. It even made the greatest French toast.

After a while, I finally realized that what everyone was saying on my favorite baker forum The Fresh Loaf was right. I needed to actually pay attention to my measurements and weigh my flour. It makes such the difference.

I went from having the crazy loaf to having a wonderful and perfectly sized loaf of bread.

I eventually branched out and made a great honey wheat bread, but I think my white bread will always be my favorite.

See? Everyone makes mistakes. It’s just learning and listening to get it right.