Learning how to make bread

Every week I find myself buying bread and/or rolls and not really using them all. Things mold, end up getting thrown out, or tossed into the freezer and lost. It seems kind of a waste. I thought maybe a better solution might be to try to make some bread for the family every other week instead of buying it. So the past week I tried to make a couple different things. I wrote about making Kale Parmesan bread and the results of that experiment.

Additionally, I tried to make some sweet potato rolls to use as buns for burgers. I followed the recipe but instead of making 30 small rolls I tried to make a dozen larger rolls. Like most times I’ve made anything of the yeast bread variety, I had trouble with the shaping. Getting the dough shaped into proper balls didn’t work out correctly. My friend Michelle says that I need to make sure the dough is sticky when I shape things so it sticks and takes the new shape correctly. I also think I need to pay closer attention to the second rise, the one that happens after you shape the dough. Hopefully, I can have a bread making day with my friend because she is more experienced than me with making bread and I have a lot to learn. She also make sourdough and that is something I’d really like to know more about. As with most things, the more practice one has the more likely it is that one will be successful. I guess that means I have to give yeast breads another go to figure out the best techniques for success.