Stop right there. I’m not pregnant. But my oven was. I decided to use the extra time on my hands [read: unemployment] to make bread. I don’t know why mixing flour and water frightens me so much, but it does and I’ll be honest about it. The image I have in my head is an apron-clad, thick waisted old woman pounding at dough all day, hair matted to her sweaty forehead and then finally throwing it into a wood oven where she has to keep watch on it, never able to leave the kitchen.
I want to leave the kitchen. Is that so much to ask?
So I dove into a no-knead recipe, aptly named “No-Knead Bread”. I just bought a new mixer, so hopefully that will help me in the future with “Knead Bread” recipes, but I was too eager to wait.
These are the only ingredients I used. I was afraid to use any other type of flour, even though I have whole-wheat flour, for fear of messing up the recipe and getting discouraged*.
So I let set it out overnight and when I turned in for bed, I noticed that it did rise a bit. The next day it had gone back down again. Normal? The recipe tells you to use more flour and play around with the dough. The end result ended up looking like a large pancake. The recipe asked for a ball. Hmmm… Not to mention the kitchen looked like it survived the Dust Bowl.
So I pop it into the oven and quickly jumped from the tiles onto the carpet into the living room…to I guess prove that I wouldn’t be stuck in the kitchen all day. Don’t ask.
On the top, the end result looked nice. But if you can’t tell from the photo, it didn’t rise very much. I decided to read one of my favorite blog’s tutorial and found it very useful. I’m not discouraged at all, even though I know it didn’t come out right. (Yes, it didn’t stop me from breaking off a piece and dunking it in olive oil) I’m determined to make this a thoughtless process, if only for the health benefits (and to get out of the kitchen).
*Update: R came home, tried a piece and almost broke his tooth. Discouraged.
cuethebanjo.com 
I can’t believe that didn’t taste good, it looks fabulous! Keep it up! I think you’ve encouraged me to make cinnamon rolls this weekend…we’ll see how that goes!