Yeast. It hates me.

It is a fact universally acknowledged that I am good in the kitchen. Until you add yeast. Then all hell breaks loose.

I've been around baking my whole life, my mother can bake in her sleep and yet every time I attempt something where yeast is one of the ingredients it's always a disaster. ALWAYS. My last fail was so bad I haven't touched yeast since then. And that was approximately seven years ago. I was in high school. But when I saw Smitten's post last week on Sally Lunn bread, it looked so good (and there is no kneading involved) I decided to bite the bullet and give yeast another try.

Stupid plan.

My kitchen is a wreck. There is a towel COATED in sticky dough. There is the ugliest loaf of bread I've ever seen in my life sitting on my counter. And I need a stiff drink.

Do you know what the best part is? I was following a recipe out of a CHILDREN'S COOKBOOK. No lie! I was too chicken shit to follow the grown up recipe so dug out my copy of Felicity's Cookbook and used that one! And I still epic failed!

At least this time I got the yeast to activate. That was a fail point last time. And it did rise. I just had it rising in a bowl that was too small so it got all over the towel when it doubled in size. And then in an oven that was a little too hot so it started to bake IN THE GLASS BOWL. I was on the phone with the darling Miss Dick when I discovered that horrifying fact and I'm glad somebody found it funny. *glare*

I honestly think the only reason I didn't throw it's lumpy ass out right then and there was a line from an email my mom sent me the other day. To embrace my successes as well as my failures. So in this case bake and eat them. Like Julia Child after she failed her Cordon Bleu exam.

And in the end I'm glad I did. Even though it's a loaf with looks only a mother could love, it managed to not taste too bad. Maybe a bit good. The crust is golden and crusty, the innards soft and yeasty. They say looks aren't everything right??

So not a complete fail. A first attempt perhaps? I wouldn't say my luck with yeast-y things has improved, that would be tempting fate, but its at least a bit less hostile.

I had drinks later that evening (after a fierce walk to let off the Fail steam) with Miss Cait and her girlfriend Miss Lisa. I relayed the whole mess to them, as well as made them eat a slice, and in the course of conversation Cait shared something really lovely her mom said. That bread is a habit. And I think she's right about that. Baking bread when you do it often is one of the easiest things in the world to do. On the other hand if you're an infrequent bread maker it is sooo easy to do something really stupid. It's a habit I'd like to take up, not at the moment, but some day. For a few glorious years my mom made bread in her bread machine religiously. It was just sandwich bread but it was damn good and I'll never forget it. There's something about fresh bread that is so unbeatable, such a simply good thing. An excellent habit indeed!

And funny enough, my next food book read (courtesy of Miss Moshka) is Susan Seligson's Going With the Grain. It's all about bread. Specifically the cultural role of bread all over the world, and it's got recipes. Yes please!

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, putting a dough covered towel in a bowl of hot water and scraping with a spoon will eventually leave you with a (soaking wet) but dough free towel.

Happy weekend.