My Very First Loaf of Bread

Last Friday, I decided to make homemade bread for the very first time. Baking bread has always intimidated me, but I figured I'd give it a try. I consulted my three cookbooks and settled on a challah recipe I found in my Cook's Illustrated cookbook, given to me by my sister. After mixing up the dough, I was feeling quite smug at my bread-making abilities. Bread making seemed much easier than I thought it would be. After about an hour, I checked to see how far my dough had risen. To my surprise, the dough had not risen at ALL. I reviewed the recipe three times, wondering what I could have possibly done wrong. Finally, it dawned on me...

Instead of using instant yeast, as the recipe had called for, I had used active dry yeast, a slower acting yeast that must be activated in water before it is mixed in with dough. In a panic, I searched the internet for instructions on how to revitalize dough that fails to rise. I revitalized the dough with fresh, activated yeast. Thankfully, the dough rose as expected and baked up quite nicely.

The bread was a little heavier and flatter than I had expected, but considering my mistake, it wasn't that bad.

The bread also made excellent French toast. Yum!