The Joy of Baking (again)

My new (second hand) breadmaker and its produce - yum!

Back in the day, I had the bread-making bug and tried numerous times to make it myself with varying degrees of success.

Because bread making is not as easy as, say, making cakes I kinda gave up on the whole thing though. I was fed up of making heavy, overly-yeasty bread that didn't taste right. I longed to be able to produce soft and fluffy white loaves like they make in the bakery. Had I more time, I guess I could have worked to perfect my skills – but time is a precious commodity of which I have very little at present.

Until, that is, that we were bequeathed a bread maker. Oh yes!

Now, I accept that this is sort of cheating but I thought I'd give it a go and I have been impressed with the results so far.

I've been fairly unadventurous and stuck with white loaves (apart from one wholemeal that I made which the family disapproved of), and each time they have come out pretty much perfect. So, the bread making will continue (despite the fact that it's far, far cheaper to buy the stuff from the supermarket!), and maybe I'll try a few more exciting varieties down the line.

At some point, I hope to use the bread maker to just do the kneading (this is the hard part - not just physically but technically, I feel) and do the rest myself. But that, unfortunately, requires a bit more time.

So, maybe one day...