Bread and Cheese...No Soap

I took another step towards my "simple life" by baking bread. I have baked bread before, back in the day when I was young and had more energy than I do today. This time, I brought out the big guns and used my Kitchenaid mixer to help knead the dough. Some people may say it's cheating. Some may say that kneading bread by hand is part of the process and a great stress reliever. I'm sure they are right, but I have some problems with hand strength and numbness, so I'm taking baby steps. I did knead it some, once it was together in a nice ball, and it felt pretty good. And oh man, there is nothing like fresh baked bread. I started with a recipe for foccacia bread because it was quick to make and seemed easy. It turned out really nice, so much better that any foccacia I'd ever had before. I was encouraged by the results, so the next day I tried out a recipe for French bread. Delicious! The next day, I used the French bread recipe to make rolls which we used for sausage sandwiches. They were so perfect! Yummy and soft inside, hearty enough to stand up to the sausage and sauce, but easy to bite into. My mouth is watering just thinking about those sandwiches. I was so empowered my my re-discovered baking skills that I decided to make homemade sweet rolls for Father's Day. Due to timing issues, I had to chill the dough before the second rise, and I don't think they raised enough before I put them in the oven. They were a little too dry and dense. I also used Rapid Rise yeast for the rolls instead of the regular yeast I'd been using for the bread, so that may have been the problem. Now I'm out of flour. I'm heading to the store today to stock up on flour. The mixer makes it so easy to bake fresh bread every day.

I also tried my hand at cheese making. I used a recipe for 30-minute mozzarella and the results were just okay. I had never made cheese before, so I wasn't expecting perfection. Making cheese is very different from the type of cooking I'm used to doing. It requires constant monitoring, adding ingredients at precise temperatures and exact measurements. I rarely even follow a recipe when I cook, so making bread is already way more structure than I am used to. Cheese is like a science experiment! I'm sure the more cheese I make the better it will be. My first attempt wasn't terrible, but it wasn't even as good as store bought and really, when you're making something from scratch you expect at least that.

So that just leaves soap. I discovered through further research that , no, you cannot use drain crystals to make soap. I dug a little more and found a local soap-making supply store right in my neighborhood so my plan is to try out soap making this week. I hope it turns out better than my cheese.