Recipe: Really easy-to-make bread.

[ozarque]

REALLY EASY-TO-MAKE BREAD
(makes two one-pound loaves)

This bread truly is child's play to make. A lot of time goes by when you're making it because there are two one-hour periods of rising involved. But the actual amount of time you spend doing something couldn't be more than fifteen minutes. For me, ten minutes, and in an emergency I could cut

Comments

[wilfulcait]

I love your directions. It sounds like you're talking me through this in terms I can actually understand. I've never succeeded in making bread, but I may give it another try with these directions.

[ozarque]

I learned to write directions this way as a result of the inedible messes I used to make as I tried to use ordinary cookbooks. I try to anticipate the questions someone new to cooking might have and answer them in advance. Many academics call this dumbing-down, but then nobody has to actually eat a textbook or a scholarly article.

If I were doing a whole cookbook I wouldn't keep repeating everything -- like the instructions for getting your oven warm enough; I'd refer people to the page where I explained it the first time.

I try to be careful .... still, there may be a problem someone would have with making this bread that I haven't thought of. If you run into any trouble, just ask me about it. I give you my word: This bread is as easy to make as a peanut butter sandwich.

[glinda_w]

Many academics call this dumbing-down

Heh. One of the reasons I did well as a tech writer is that I scaled my writing to my audience; in fact, I'd have a specific person from that group in mind (for example, one of the assemblers, or one of the techs, or one of the engineers). Assemblers: every step, explained in detail (like your recipe); techs: skip the stuff they'd find intuitive; engineers: a breed of their own (*grin* *duck* *hide*).

I'm going to have to print this out and try it, though; now that I've got a kitchen again, I really want to make bread, but between the tendonitis in my wrists, and the fibromyalgia, kneading isn't something I'm usually up for.

Thanks!

[meepa]

I realize this is a rather late reply, but I thought I'd recommend keeping an eye on your local Goodwill or Salvation Army store. I recently found a brand-new breadmaker for $5 there, which will make the best egg bread I've ever had.

Unfortunately it requires remembering to set it up, but it does -not- require standing while I mix or bending over to tend the stove, which is a big no-no for me. I'm a fellow fibromite; for me bending over or standing for more than 5min is just a no-go.

I'm currently experimenting with just how far I can push the directions in terms of precision of measuring---do I really have to scrape off the tops of the flour measure? Can I measure the salt by eye?---and several times I've ended up with something distinctly odd, but still edible, so hey. :)

[trinker]

Thank you!

[ozarque]

You're most welcome.

[ex_chaos_by_699]

Thanks for posting this. I'm not much of a cook, but this look like a bread recipe that even I could do.

[ozarque]

You can do this. I promise.

[onefixedstar]

Thank you for posting this! I've been wanting to try making bread for a while now, and I think I might make this the first recipe I try.

[ozarque]

I recommend it.

Before I try it ---

[idiotgrrl]

We're at about 5,000 feet here. What altitude is this for and do you know how to adjust it for altitude? i can try, but being unfamiliar with yeast bread, I'm not totally sure.

Re: Before I try it ---

[crossfire]

I live in Denver, and my local elevation is about 5,300 feet. I never adjust recipes for my yeast breads, and never have any problems.

Re: Before I try it ---

[ozarque]

Thanks for this -- that's good to know.

Re: Before I try it ---

[ozarque]

I'm at only 1300 feet, and am therefore anything but expert on high altitude cooking. I went to Google and did some looking, and it appears to me that these are the basics