I have Proof!

We got a new oven a month or so ago.  It's a convection oven.  I am having to learn a whole new way to bake and for the most part, everything I've tried to bake on convection has turned out badly.  Coincidentally it just so happens that every loaf of bread I have tried to bake in the last few years has also turned out badly.

Yesterday I noticed a button on my new stove:

Could this be the answer to all my problems??

Although my main focus these days in on the floor, I thought it wouldn't hurt to bake AND strip the floor.  I'm a woman, I can multitask.

So I dug out my mother's 1946 copy of Woman's Home Companion that contains archaic quotes like: "Service with and without a maid, the proper arrangement of silver..." and "Even the sterner sex can bake successfully with the help of the chapter on breads." 

I mean if I don't need a maid, and MEN can bake bread from this book I figure I stood a chance.

 I took this 70 year old recipe and went back to basics.  No bread maker.  No food processor.  No mixer.  I tried to follow this recipe to the letter only running into slight difficulty when looking for the definition of the term "lukewarm."  I really was trying to follow the recipe EXACTLY and I had my thermometer out and on the ready.  I referred to Mirriam Webster and the best I could find was: "not hot, not cold, tepid."  So I looked up tepid and found: "not hot, not cold, lukewarm."  Sigh. So naturally, I tossed my thermometer aside and guessed.  I kneaded the prescribed 10 minutes.  I let it rise for 2 hours. Then another 1/2 hours.  Then another hour.  Allowing it to rise in my new oven on the "proof" setting.  

Now I'm sure you are dying to know what happened aren't you?

I will tell you what happened.  

BREAD happened!!

It's not incredibly pretty (but it's not ugly either).  But it tastes pretty darn good.  I am pleasantly surprised.  Woot!

Now if you are also wondering about the floor.  I made good progress on that too. Although after a week of hard work, my hands are blistered  (one.  I have ONE blister..) they scream in agony when I move them, my shoulders are achy and my back weeps pitifully when I try to stand up straight.  But it's a worthy cause.