A few years ago, I had to give in, however, on the stern advice of a friend, and buy a bread-making machine. I came to it extremely reluctantly. After all, I had been doing it the old-fashioned way, kneading and forming by hand, for probably 60 years or more. Despite the routine bread-making, I lost the strength in my hands, and found that I could no longer knead sufficiently to turn out decent loaves. So I got a machine. The main difference was that I could now make only one loaf at a time, not four or so. Oh well. I’m the only one in the household any more, so it probably didn’t matter to the world how I went about it.
A couple of months ago, that machine died. Unable to go a week without some homemade bread, I ordered another right away. Fortunately it arrived in good time, so I was not deprived. It has turned out that this new one has some improvements that I appreciate; for instance, the bread slides out very easily, without having to be forced, and so does the paddle, that little gadget that does the kneading, that used to drive me crazy because it didn’t want to leave its post when the bread was done. Now it does, so life is much easier in that respect, at least.
Another thing that came with the new machine was the book of instructions, which includes a variety of recipes for bread. I don’t usually make white bread. I alternate between anadama or oatmeal most of the time, but I discovered a recipe for Italian herb bread in the book, and decided to try it. I love it, because it’s so flavorful. It’s the perfect complement to the soups I construct, so I gobble it up in no time.
There’s nothing like a good piece of bread, and the one I used for toast this morning was simply delicious … yummy. One piece calls for more a bit later on, I do believe, but I do have to be careful not to eat the entire loaf at one sitting; I doubt that that would be very good for me, despite the enjoyment that would be in the doing.
