Wasting No Time
I've never been one to like to wait patiently for anything and once I made up my mind about purchasing a Bosch mixer, all I could do was wait...but I didn't even have to wait long! My new mixer was on my doorstep before noon today, and just like any grown up would do, I danced a happy dance and went inside to rip open the box and empty the contents!
It is always exciting when something new arrives, but to me, this is like a new toy and I wasted no time taking it out and studying everything that was in the box.
I also didn't waste any time checking out what it would look like on my counter top.
I'm not entirely sure why I'm so concerned about how it will look considering I constantly have things cluttering my kitchen that don't add much decorative flair...
I can live with it. In fact, it isn't really as bad as I thought, and there are a few noticeable benefits even before I used it, one being that I can pull it all the way out where as my Kitchen Aid was too tall to come out past the upper cabinets. Two, this thing is SO light in comparison!
It didn't take me very long to break out the recipes that were included...they're all healthy, whole grain recipes, so I'll be eager to try them all. Today though, to break in my new toy, I wanted to try the bread recipe that was included. I was missing one ingredient--the dough enhancer--but I decided it would be ok and I jumped in anyway.
You would have thought that I was test-driving a brand new car! First things first: the wheat must be ground. Suddenly, even though I've done this a hundred times before, it felt different...maybe because this was my grown up version of my childhood baking escapades. Now I am going to bake for my kids just like my mom did for us...right down to the mixer. HA. Silly, I know, but true feeling!!
The wheat starts as the whole berry and is transformed into this powdery goodness...
Apparently, it is finger-licking good too...
Anyway...from there I got to use my new mixer to mix a total of 12 cups of flour into the other ingredients...effortlessly. I must admit that at this point, still being quite giddy about this whole process, I had no other expectation other than that of amazingly beautiful loaves of whole wheat bread.
It was fun to watch all of the ingredients being combined and kneaded into sticky dough...and quietly too.
The loaves all formed quite well and everything looked good to go.
Twenty minutes to rise and they were ready to bake...oh, only 30 minutes to my glorious loaves of bread!!!
SIGH...
They were not fluffy...they were flat. Grrr!!!
However...
I totally could have eaten the entire loaf...it still tasted great!! Practice--practice--practice. I'll get there! Maybe it IS just me and not my mixer. LOL!!
