I hadn’t planned to make bread tonight in my wonderful new bread machine. Not even after getting a copy of the recipe book in the mail from the manufacturer, to replace the one that should have been included but wasn’t. But the felines had other ideas.
Well, I don’t know if they intended the bread-making. But someone – or multiple someones – decided to fang open the packet of bread mix that was sitting on top of the machine waiting for me to try it. It had been packed as a sample with the machine, ready to go – just add water and the separate packet of yeast for a one-pound loaf.
I came downstairs to the kitchen to find flour dusted on the countertop in front of the machine. The plastic bag of bread mix lay there, ripped in two places. I sighed, opened it further, and dumped the contents into a bowl. I was about to throw it out – after all, it was 11:30 p.m. – but decided, what the heck? Very little of the mix had been lost, and I could make it up with some bread flour.
So I decided to go ahead. Threw in an egg just for the heck of it. I was about to measure out the water when a Bright Idea struck me. There on the counter sat the remains of the vanilla cappucino I’d bought that morning. I poured it into a measuring cup. Hmmmm… about a third to a half a cup. I topped it off with water to the amount called for in the instructions and dumped it into the baking pan; poured the bread mix on top of it; went to add the yeast packet – oh. No yeast packet. Had the felines made off with it? Oh, well. I measured out a teaspoonful from my yeast jar and tossed that in. Set it for Basic Medium and pressed Start.
The machine lurched into action. After five minutes of the kneading cycle, I checked the dough ball. Hmmmm… too battery-looking. The instructions said add more flour, a bit at a time. So I did, watching the flopping, twisting dough gradually take on a more respectable consistency. I must say, the vanilla-coffee aroma rising from the dough was quite alluring.
That was… um, about an hour ago as I write this, at 1:00+ a.m. The dough is rising now. I think it’s on the second rising. Still got the 50-minute baking cycle to go. Still has a nice aroma of vanilla and coffee. It should be interesting to see how it comes out.