Adventures in Bread Making

Okay! I did not attempt rolls last night. I was running short on time so I decided to do biscuits instead. They were so good! I basted them with olive oil and sprinkled garlic salt and italian seasoning on top. They were really fluffy too! After dinner I decided to make bread. I only had white flour so white bread is what I made. I found a basic recipe and started throwing in the ingredients...until I got to Powdered Milk. I don't have any powdered milk. Hmmmmm....so my brain started thinking of other things that could substitute powdered milk. I came up with powdered potatoes! So I added the requested amount of "powdered stuff" and continued adding and mixing the ingredients together. Well, after adding everything, the dough looked really dry. So I added some milk! That looked a little better, but it was still pretty crumbly. I've seen others make bread before and it just doesn't look like that. So, I was getting ready to add more milk when I realized, "Duh!" the milk is COLD! Yeast doesn't grow in cold temperatures, thus the reason you store it in your fridge. So I added some warm water and it started looking a little better, except that the warm water was now leaking out the sides due the the intense sloshing that was going on in the bowl. Well, I just let it mix and after about 20 minutes, I hesitantly checked it. Whoa! It actually looked like bread dough! Amazing. I tested the 'elasticity' as I had seen my mother do....I really couldn't tell what I was testing for. Oh, well! I did the test! Next, the recipe said to let it rise for an hour. So I waited about 40 minutes. It looked bigger. I poked it and it started to deflate so I figured I was good to go! I took the extrememly sticky dough out of my Bosch and tried to shape it into loaves so I could put it into pans. They weren't pretty. I kept having to pull the dough off my hands and fingers! Again it said to let rise for an hour, but after 20 minutes, my dough was about ready to spill over the sides! So I popped them into the oven and a bit later.... Da Dum! Bread!! Yay! I tentively tasted it and it was surprisingly really good! And moist! So, I'm very proud of myself and my first attempt at making bread with my new Bosch! Hopefully many more loaves will come out of it...