Apparently, I am an Italian Nonna

Bakin' Bread


Yesterday I got to leave work a few hours early and decided to take advantage of a spare afternoon. I've been wanting to try to make bread with my new Kitchenaid mixer (which, by the way, I have named Betty), because why have a heavy-duty piece of kitchen machinery and not try to knead bread with it?


I knew that bread needs to rise, I knew that yeast is what makes it rise. Two things I did not know were: Bread needs about THREE HOURS to rise and yeast smells terrible. Also, when planning to make loaves of bread, it is best to have the adequate number of bread tins that the recipe calls for.  I only have one, so the other loaf had to go in a square pan. I was worried that this would completely ruin the three hours I spent waiting for the bread to rise, but thankfully it didn't. The second loaf just looks kind of rustic.


Now, using a mixer takes a lot of the work out of making bread since the machine does the kneading for you. I've never really used a bread machine before, but I am going to assume that even while making the dough with a mixer, it is still more work than doing it in a bread machine. It is also a very messy job, and took me ages to clean up all the bits of dough that were clinging to practically every surface the bread touched.


A very important lesson that I learned while making bread is this: DO NOT TOUCH THE BREAD AFTER ITS SECOND RISE. Hey, I can't help it. I was curious. It had risen so much, I had to see what it felt like.


The bread promptly deflated. It's okay, it was the wonky one in the square pan and it still turned out. The one in the bread tin worked out well, too. They were delicious and my whole apartment smelled like a bakery.


Makin' Supper


As if making homemade bread wasn't ambitious enough, I also decided that last night was the night I was going to make risotto. There's not much story to this, it's just risotto and anyone can make it if they take the time to do it. I just felt like I should have been wearing a headscarf and apron and had some small children underfoot calling me Nonna.