My Bread Story

Hello, I'm Cathy and here's my bread story.

Photo of Cathy

I started baking when I was a little girl and I've been baking ever since. I had my very own Susie Homemaker Oven when I was little and I baked for my family all the time. Some of my creations were actually edible.

I still love to bake, but I've graduated to big ovens now -- bread machines and conventional ovens. My sons will vouch that my creations are edible these days. Well, most of them.

A little background about me
There's just something about bread
My favorite recipe
What's your favorite bread?

A little background about me...

Like most of you, I have a very stressful day job. I'm a project manager for an international company and I help maintain the content and user experience for one of their Intranet sites. I really like my job because I'm able to help employees find the information they need while doing something I enjoy.

Even though I enjoy my job, it does get stressful at times and baking bread helps me unwind and be creative. Not to mention homemade bread tastes so much better than store bought bread.

My other love is dance. I've also been dancing since I was a little girl so it's ranks up there with baking. These days, you'll find me baking bread and dancing around the kitchen. My sons just leave me alone when I'm in the baking mode.

Did you know that the women of Ancient Greece would knead dough around a worktable with a musician playing the flute? I'm just carrying on the tradition by listening to music and dancing a gig (except when the bread is baking in the oven). If you don't believe me, check out Benard Dupaigne's The History of Bread to see for yourself.

There's just something about bread

Bread is definitely the staff of life as the saying goes. There's nothing that compares to the aroma of fresh-baked bread or the taste as you bite into a warm, buttered roll or biscuit.

Through The Bread Experience site and the bread baking blog, I want to share with you my passion for baking bread and to provide recipes and techniques to assist you in making great tasting bread.

I also look forward to providing you with some unique content that you won't find on other bread-related sites. So stay tuned...

My favorite bread recipe

One of my favorite recipes is for yeast rolls. I enjoy making these rolls because my sons love them and I love to see the expression on their faces when they know I'm baking them. Actually, these rolls smell so good, my sons usually run downstairs because of the aroma. I don't even have to tell them I'm baking them.

My funny bread story

I like to bake bread on Sundays and one day, I got so caught up making these rolls, I forgot about dinner. My oldest son came in the kitchen to ask what was for dinner and I remember thinking oops! However, I just said, "yeast rolls" like that was what I had been planning all along. He said "sweet" and filled up on the rolls never complaining about not having anything else for dinner. That's how much he loves these rolls.

Yeast Rolls Recipe

(Makes 16 Rolls)

The good thing about this recipe is that you get to handle the dough without all the work. The bread machine does the work and you get to have fun shaping the rolls by hand and then baking them in a conventional oven.

Ingredients:
1 cup water
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
3 1/4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons bread machine or active dry yeast
Butter or margarine, melted, if desired

Directions:

Measure the ingredients and place all ingredients (except the melted butter) in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.

Select Dough/Manual cycle. Do not use Delay cycle.

When the bread machine is finished, remove the dough from pan, using lightly floured hands.

Cover and let rest 10 minutes on lightly floured surface. Grease a large baking sheet with shortening or cooking spray.

Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball, using floured hands. Place 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.

Cover and let rise in warm place 30 to 40 minutes or until double. (Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.)

Heat oven to 375°F. Uncover, bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Brush tops of rolls with melted butter. Serve warm, or cool on wire rack.

Enjoy! If you're lucky, your family will actually save a roll for you.

What is Your Favorite Bread Recipe?

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