Lessons Learned: A Logbook

• Saturday, 9:00 PM: It is not a good idea to start baking bread at 9:00 PM. Especially if you are not nocturnal.
• Saturday, 9:24 PM: It is a good idea to check to make sure you have enough flour before you start baking bread at 9:00 PM. 
• Sunday, 1:50 AM: A casserole pan does not substitute for a bread loaf pan. So if you are baking two loaves of bread, you probably need two bread loaf pans. Who knew?

• Sunday, 8:30 AM: This is a very good whole wheat bread recipe.

I've been working on my bread baking skills of late. I've always made a pretty good pizza dough, but my bread and biscuits have been less than stellar. As in, mostly inedible. I decided to tackle whole wheat bread first, so I googled "foolproof whole wheat bread recipes" a few weeks ago. I first tried this one. It was very foolproof and very good. My only issue was that it got stale very quickly. But maybe I've just become inured to the preservatives that come with store-bought bread

For my next experiment (begun at 9:00 PM), I went with a recipe that included dry milk (for flavor) and vital wheat gluten (extra protein, for texture and strength). And I think it may be a winner, save for the malapropos bread pan. This bread has a certain weight and oomph to it, two qualities I like in whole wheat bread. If I make it again, I'll definitely use honey instead of sugar though. It's not like I don't have enough. I'm just beginning my adventures in (edible) bread, so if you have any tips or tricks, send them my way. 

bread pan loaf, straight to the freezer

casserole loaf, breakfast this morning