Gimme the Bread!

Twenty-twenty was the year of trying new things, right? Although, for the most part, travel and adventure was on a low during 2020, but most people who happened to stay at home more and find themselves in the kitchen more ended up trying new things!

Though, with trying more, there was a massive buy-out of all baking ingredients! From March to September, I could not for the life of me, find yeast anywhere in stores. The aisles at all the stores, even tiny little convenient stores, were sparse! So, when I was finally able to find some yeast in November, I had to buy it. However, I did not make use of the yeast until now!

I was inspired to make bread this weekend. I saw an episode of a TV show that is not even related to cooking and it made me want to make bread. The EMT on the show Chicago Fire made a loaf of bread had risen so nicely in a container and then she instructed one of the fire fighters to place it in the oven. The loaf of bread didn't work out, but I saw how great that bread dough looked and how easy it seemed.

So, I decided to give bread a go myself!

I found an easy bread recipe online and followed mostly every step that I could. I realized that I didn't turn the bead dough when I put it into the oiled bowl, so I don't know if that was a dire step, but my loaf didn't rise the way it said it should on the recipe. Regardless of my little mistake, the bread came out PERFECTLY.

According to the recipe, my bread dough in the bread loaf pans should have risen about an inch above the loaf pans. It didn't, but it did double in size. At least the second one did. I wanted to see whether the first bread loaf would work out, so I popped it in the oven after an hour of rising.

The second loaf of bread went into the oven after an hour and a half of rising.

Although the second loaf of bread looked way better than the first loaf, the first definitely does taste pretty good! It tastes the way my moms bread maker used to make the house smell. Remember the days of the bread maker? In the 90's, bread machines were the rage. I remember mom having a white bread machine that stood on the table right beside the kitchen door to the left. It wasn't pristine white, but discolored with use. I do not know when she first got it, but she definitely had it when I was between the ages of 4-9 while we lived in Venezuela. All that I can remember was the smell that came from the machine when she made bread. I was never all too keen on the smell, but when making our bread loaves today, it smelled just the same. And boy, it smelled great! That is how I knew that my bread was going to be OK. Smelled just like mom's old bread machine!

Baked loaf of bread beside an unbaked loaf

The two of these loaves look so great beside each other. You can see that my loaf of bread did rise quite a bit, though it did not raise above the loaf pans, which is unfortunate.

I baked each of these loafs for 35 minutes and I am so so happy with the results!

How beautiful does this second loaf of bread look? S and I are completely mesmirized by this loaf (well, and its sibling). They both look so great compared to my bumpy loaves that I baked last year.

I delved into my Instagram account and was able to find the photo of my bumpy loaf of bread. It was yeast free.... never again. Seeing how amazing these loaves of bread look, I am going to stick to yeast for my bread from now on!

This yeast free loaf of bread was great. We ate breakfast sandwiches with this bread and really just overall enjoyed it.

But it was no bread with yeast in it!

Well, as soon as my first loaf of bread had cooled down, I sliced it up and we had to try it with some butter! Bread and butter is my solace. My 100% guilty pleasure. ShoJo likes to make fun of me and my guilty pleasure. Loving bread and butter, especially white bread, seems to be something all Canadians really enjoy. White bread and salted butter... YUM 🤤🤤🤤

Now for dinner, I promised the man of the house that we would have garlic bread with steak!

I made a beautiful (and small) batch of garlic butter to spread onto the bread.

Unfortunately, it tastes so good that I pretty much finished the first loaf of bread to myself. I have a love for carbs just like my mom!

For the garlic butter, I melted 3 Tablespoons of unsalted butter with 2 cloves of garlic, crushed, and a Tablespoon of fresh parsley!

I do not know about you, but I would make a TERRIBLE vampire because I love garlic way too much. I love it so much that I occasionally give myself heart burn from garlic. Alas, this is the absolute best combination... garlic butter with home made bread!

Gimme the bread! I want it all.

I can't wait till ShoJo gets to try my garlic bread with the steak that I will make for him.

I won't be posting the recipe for this bread until I can make my own bread catered to our own flavour wants. But, if you want to make this bread yourself, definitely check out the blog Tastes Better from Scratch! This recipe is well worth it for first time bread makers.

I hope you all can make some fantastic bread in your own kitchens for future meals!

I hope you had a fantastic Sunday! Enjoy the week coming up!