My Bread Thumb is Finally Brown

After years of high altitude bread baking failures, throwing out little hockey puck discs and 20lb. lead bricks, I have finally come across a recipe from Cook's Illustrated that works. Or maybe it was my yeast that worked. Whatever it was, I had whole grain TOAST for breakfast this morning!

Out of nowhere at 8pm last night, I decided I wanted to make bread. Rule number 1, don't try to make bread after 6:30pm at night, unless you are a night owl that likes to stay up. Rule number 2, read recipe directions in full before starting the recipe. Half way in, I realized I had to wait 1 hour for the 7 grain cereal mixture to cool. Ok, so if I add up the 30 minutes of adding ingredients and kneading (thank god for the kitchen aid mixer), 30 minutes of rising, another 15 minutes of kneading, 45 minutes of rising, and 45 minutes of baking, what I got was a late night. Counting on fingers, I realized it was going to be 11:30 before I went to bed. What had I gotten myself into? Even with the shortcuts I took, let's just say that DG was sawing z's by the time I got to bed.

But it was all worth it. Next stop, pizza dough.