Learn something new every day...

The last few days I have acquired a new understanding of how to make bread.  I figure I have made bread for at least 50 years, and for the most part I have done a pretty good job of it. So my thought was, I probably knew all that I would ever need to know about making bread.  Somehow I stumbled on an online recipe that I wanted to try and I scrolled down to read a couple reviews on it.  In the review there was reference to a book that this lady just loved.  I went to Amazon to see if I could find the book with the hopes of the link "look inside" being next to the book... and it was there.  I was able to read several pages that inspired me to order the book... there was no digital version.  In the review the lady also noted that she has not bought bread in the store since she retired 10 years ago, which got me thinking on Ron's comment recently about the bread we have been buying at the store... how it was so dry and we needed to try another brand or something.

Yesterday I used some of my new knowledge regarding the art of making bread, and made a loaf of Oatmeal bread... we typically buy our oatmeal in large quantity boxes at Sam's.  Somehow I thought we were out when we went on one of our Sam's runs and bought another box of oatmeal, then when we got home I found a box already there.  So Oatmeal bread seemed like a good idea to use up some of the abundance of oatmeal we had on hand.

In the excerpts of the book I read, there was also reference to kneading the bread using a stand mixer.  It seems there is really a significance on how long you knead your bread dough, and how long you let your bread rise, and the temperature of the water, and oh yes... very big new info for me... weighing instead of measuring your dry ingredients.  I measured first and then put it on my scale and had to take out a tablespoon or two.  All of these... and so much more, has such an impact on the end result.  I had no idea. 

This morning Ron asked if it was okay to use some of my Oatmeal bread to make French toast... he saw Garth make French toast glazed with cinnamon for Trisha last night on her cooking show on FoodNetwork.  Ron did an awesome job on making the French toast, but I have to tell you that the Oatmeal bread definitely made a big difference... best French toast I can remember in a very long time.  I am not a syrupy kind of person anyhow, but the French toast he made really needed nothing added to make them perfect.

I used to think that air pockets were a given and the more air in the bread, the lighter and fluffier it would be.  Well I made this loaf using some of what I learned and my air pockets were much smaller and the bread was so light.  A truly remarkable difference.