80% rocks!

today was my first day-off-in-the-middle-of-the-week-and-still-get-saturday-off-day! woo hoo! i made my second attempt at “aunt bes’ bread recipe.” one of my new year’s resolutions is to conquer my fear of baking with yeast. i’ve never been very good at it and i’ve pretty much resigned myself to the fact that it’s just because i need to practice it if i’m ever going to get any better. i guess you could say that i started this new year’s resolution last december with “pastor tonya’s whole wheat bread” recipe (did i already tell you all this whole new year’s resolution thing? sorry.). so january’s bread of the month is the basic white bread recipe from my dearly departed great aunt bess. the first attempt (last week) failed because the recipe neglected to mention that it was portioned to make two loaves. i baked the whole shebang in one loaf pan. it rose so high while it was baking that it began to wrap itself around the heating coils at the top of my oven. luckily, i smelled it burning before the timer went off and i was able to move it to a lower rack position without ruining the entire loaf (and my oven). this week’s disaster was slightly less theatrical, but not much more tasty. i think the oven must have heated up hotter than i’d set it (typical, but not exactly predictable) and the top crust was somewhat burnt. i also think there was a problem during the second rising. my tea towel that i’d placed over the top of the loaf was tucked under the pan accidentally, which made it somewhat taut across the top of the loaf, so it didn’t rise to its full potential, so the top is kinda flat. plus, i thought that when i was little you could cut right into a hot loaf of bread when it came out of the oven and enjoy it steaming hot and fresh and warm. something about my bread loaves (both recipes) necessitates the loaf having to cool off before you cut it or the knife will smush the bread down… maybe i need a sharper knife. or a less crusty top. oh well. it still made the house smell lovely and i think it tastes ok. except for the top crust.