A Day of Play and Dough

Recently my friend, Tiffany, and I decided we would like to try our hand at baking homemade bread.  I found a seemingly good recipe for beginners (Farmhouse White), as well as lots of information and tips at http://www.farmgirlfare.com/, and so began our little baking journey. 

Tiffany and her daughter, Kayla (11 mo's), came over this past week for a fun day of hanging out and baking, since bread-baking is kind of an all-day affair!  I have never baked bread alone, but after our joint baking experience I feel that co-baking is definitely the way to go when it comes to bread.  All the kneading and stirring of dough was definitely a work-out and so nice to have someone to hand off to when your arm feels like it might fall off!!

Another benefit was that the girls kept each other entertained so we could stay focused on the bread :).  Here they are playing on the kitchen floor.

The smell of homemade bread baking in the oven has got to be one of the best smells in the world!  And here are our fresh loaves, right out of the oven.  It was all we could do to wait the prescribed 30 - 40 minutes before tucking in (apparently they still need to time to bake internally or set or something!).

The entire process, start to finish, took about four and a half hours, but believe me, once we sliced into the loaves and buttered up that fresh doughy heaven, it was well worth the wait.  Here is Lily, enjoying every last morsel!!

Tiffany said her loaves hardened after being refrigerated, while the loaves left out at room temperature remained moist, so if you try the recipe yourself you may want to keep this in mind.  Next time I think we'll try a different recipe or a variation on this one.  

I love the thrill of trying something new and having a friend along for the journey just makes it that much sweeter!  Have a great Labor Day weekend, friends!