The Great Bread Fiasco

I've been meaning to try my hand at bread making after reading Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. So yesterday morning I gave it a go.

Initially, things were looking good. I used the dough hook to kneed the bread for a while and then formed them into loaves. The only indicator that things might be a little wacky was that they took a while to rise. I was taking a chance by using yeast that was slightly past its prime. Well, let's just say that things didn't really go according to plan. My loaves were hard as a rock...

And incredibly flat.

I tried pawning them off on Bailey...

And that worked for about 10 seconds...

Before he realized his error.

They did make good Frisbees though.

So this morning I decided to have another go-round. I used fresh yeast this time.

So far, so good.

Nicely rising

Ready for the oven.

Hallelujah!! We have edible bread!!

Oh, it's even three-dimensional, too.