Bad Bread

I've only had my bread maker for about 2 weeks and we've already established quite a tumultuous relationship. I made, scratch that, attempted to make 3 different loaves of bread over the last several days. Unfortunately for me, and my baking supplies, only one of the loaves turned out remotely decent. One of the loaves actually turned out so bad that I had no choice but to just toss it in the trash!

This was my second attempt. How does this even happen? The dough didn't even rise, let alone mix completely. There were random balls of dough in the center and the outside was just like an extremely crusty wall. I wanted to kick my machine into next week I was so mad. I decided to take a day off before even thinking about attempting another loaf. I also needed to go to the store and get more bread making supplies because I was quickly running out. This time I decided to purchase actual bread flour. After going over it in my head and re-reading the recipe I decided that, that had to be the problem because I followed every other instruction to the tee! 

So it's the next day and I give it a go. I make sure, once again, that I'm dead on with the directions, measurements, and ingredients. Unfortunately, it takes almost 4 hours for a loaf to mix and bake so I figured I would go work out, run some errands, and get my nails done (time well spent!) while I waited for my dough creation. After a couple hours, I returned home to the most incredibly scrumptious bakery like smell! Better yet, my loaf had risen completely and looked 100% edible. Progress people. This loaf still looks a little wonky, but it pleased my taste buds so I don't care :)

I knew I had done something right because this loaf was much easier to slice than the other loaf that had turned out decent, but oddly shaped. I was so excited. Which is sad because, well, it's just bread.

*This recipe is for the Oster 2lb. Bread Maker for those of you that want to try to make your own.

Honey Oat Bread

Ingredients:
1 3/8 Cups water
2 1/2 Tbsp Butter or Margarine
2 Tbsp Honey
1 3/4 tsp Salt
2 1/2 cups Bread Flour
1 1/4 cups Whole Wheat Flour
2/3 cup Quick Oats
2 1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast

Directions:
1.) Measure and add all wet ingredients to the bottom of the bread pan.
2.) Measure and add all of the dry ingredients to the bread pan, except for the yeast!
3.) Using your finger, make a well to pour the yeast in to, but make sure not to make it too deep so that the yeast doesn't          come in contact with the liquid ingredients.
4.) Snap the pan in to the bread maker and close the lid.
5.) Select the Whole Wheat Setting and choose your preferred crust color then push start/stop.
6.) After your bread is done unsnap the pan from the bread maker and tip the pan upside down over a cooling rack. The           bread should slide right out. If not, glide a rubber spatula around the edge of loaf to loosen it.