The bread that wouldn't rise...

... or the dough that did not take over the kitchen.

Last weekend I made a trip over to Ft. Wayne. So naturally, there was baking. Due to the influx of candy around the house, we decided to bake bread.

The recipe was courtesy of the same website that brought us the "eighth of an egg" cookie recipe so long ago. This time we scaled from 24 servings to 12, because the smaller recipe required one packet of yeast. (We also discovered that 1 yeast packet is 2 1/4 teaspoons.) Oh, and we are uncertain just what constitutes a serving, because the bread went quickly after it was made, and there were definitely not 12 of us around to eat it.

Having followed the directions, we expected the bread to rise in an hour. One hour turned to several, and it was time to leave for the chili dinner and auction at the church hall (or hall next to the church). So, throwing caution to the wind, we left the bread dough to rise in our absence, figuring worst-case scenario was that the kitchen would be filled with bread dough upon our return.

Alas, the kitchen was not overflowing with dough when we returned. However, it had made sufficient progress so as to allow Shae to knead it some more (we need our kneaded biscuits plain) and then put it back for a second rising (which we were determined would not take as long as the first).

So, it was after midnight before the oven timer went off to tell us the bread was baked. Luckily, the oven timer was not mocking us, as was the wont of the ovens in the triplets (at least when I was the one checking the oven). Naturally, the first thing we did was sample some, since it was fresh out of the oven. Besides, we needed to make sure it wasn't toxic or anything like that.