Bread Baker, not am I....

Several months ago, I joined a bread baking group based on the book, Healthy Bread in Five.  Michelle, at Big Black Dog, is graciously hosting the challenge.  I decided to take the challenge, because I have always had a fear of baking homemade bread.  It just seemed too laborious and difficult.  This week, the challenge was to make a batch of the master whole wheat bread recipe and bake a loaf, a shaped bread and Spicy Whole Grain Snack Crackers.  I have tried several other recipes from the book in the last couple of months and none have turned out well. 


This is the loaf of bread that I made.  My husband and son liked the bread, but I did not. It's too dense and didn't rise like it should have. Actually, it hardly rose at all.

These were the disasters that were supposed to be the crackers. Rolling out the dough was a mess! Then trying to transfer the rolled out dough was impossible. They just ended up balled-up clumps. I attempted to roll them out again and just put the dough on the pan and baked it. I thought some rustic crackers would be good, but they didn't crisp up enough. They were chewy and difficult to eat.

This was the most successful attempt using this bread recipe. My son loves pizza rolls so I decided to try using the dough sort of like pizza dough. They were very tasty, especially when dipped into marinara sauce.

I rolled out the dough and sprinkled mozarella cheese, mini pepperonis, and browned ground turkey seasoned with Italian seasoning.

I rolled it up as tight as I could and sliced it, cinammon roll style. I put them in the pan and let them rest for almost two hours, then baked. They didn't rise much but turned out quite yummy. They worked out perfectly for Cameron to take in his lunch box with a little container of marinara sauce.

 

I'm not giving up on bread baking or this challenge. I am doing something wrong and I have been reading others' comments and plan on watching some of the videos to figure out how to do things correctly.  I will be posting some new pictures soon.  :)