Bread

After about 13 years of service, our trusty bread machine died on us. One day it made perfect loaves, the next they started exploding and then imploding. It wasn't pretty...

This might not be as dire of a situation for some as it is in our house. Except for some herb focaccia buns I buy at Costco, we don't buy bread. We make all of the bread we eat, so this was not good! My inclination was to hop on Amazon, find a new machine and have it overnighted. But, since my mother-in-law was diagnosed with Celiac's disease years ago, the only thing she's been able to do with her bread machine is make yeast door stops. So, she graciously gave it to us. Unfortunately, they weren't due to visit us for a month and a half. I could have made bread the old fashioned way, but instead I chose to support the cute little old lady that brings baked goods to our Farmers Market.

We had a good visit with the family, and the day after they left we fired up the new bread machine. Dan made the first loaf - whole wheat bread. It turned out beautiful...it neither exploded nor imploded. We let it cool for a bit then tried to slide it out of pan. It wasn't budging. We tried pulling. Nothing. We tried loosening the crust from the sides. Nothing. I stepped away and then Dan announced he got the bread out.



I'm not sure if you call this male or Yankee ingenuity, or both. It wasn't pretty and we weren't eating any sandwiches on it, but it sure was tasty!

Next was my turn. I had some very ripe bananas so I decided to try banana bread. One cool thing about this machine is that it has a 2 inch extension that can attach to the pan to make extra large loaves. I figure if I'm going to take the time to bake bread, I might as well throw a little more in and get a bigger loaf. I dumped everything in and 4 hours later I heard the wonderful beep indicating my bread was done. I opened the top slowly, still having residual fears of exploded bread, and not only was it beautiful, it was large. When the recipe stated 'extra large' they weren't kidding!



Here is my "It's bigger than my head" pose. And best of all, it slid right out! I can't help but crack up every time I look at this bread. It reminds me of those tall chef hats. Who knew bread machines could be comical too?