Making bread

Ok, let me first just say that making bread really is an art, either that or you have the wrong recipe!  I have a breadmaker.  It makes beautiful loaves of bread, but my kids do not like the amount of crust on the loaves.   The breadmaker was given to me free by the secretary of our church and I have been using it for about 2 years now.  It makes short fat loaves.  I love this breadmaker for making bread if I have to leave for the day or if I make raisin bread.  However, because this is all about knowing what goes into my families bodies, I have decided that this is the bread we will eat.  The kids hate it, I dont really care for it all that much, it doesnt make great "sandwich" bread, and if no one likes it how are we going to keep eating it?!  So I went on the search for a nice bread recipe.  I started my search for a long bread pan on amazon and read some reviews.  People were using this particular pan with a recipe from King Arthur Flour company.  I looked them up and made a loaf.  Let me say first that this is the greatest bread ever!!!! Here is the link to the recipe itself.  http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/white-sandwich-bread-recipe There are many other recipes and I know some of you dont eat white bread but they do have a wheat one that I am going to try here soon.  It is worth trying and you can call a hotline if it doesnt turn out and they will help you!  Its guaranteed bread lol.  Follow the recipe to the T and it should turn out fine.  Here is the loaf I am in the process of making.  Here is it rising the second time in the bread pan.

Here is a picture of what it looks like when it is done rising and is getting ready to go into the oven.

Dont let it rise too much over the top because it will puff a little when baking, plus you need to be able to put it in the toaster if you want toast!
It is in the process of baking now.  Here is my first loaf.  OH the other best thing about this recipe is it makes ONE loaf.  How many beginner bread makers do you know with more than one loaf pan?? Yet every recipe is for two loaves? what is up with that?!!  So obviously for this longer pan I doubled the recipe.  But anyway here is my first loaf.

It looked, smelled, and tasted like sandwich bread and my family loved it!  Ok so my loaf is almost done baking. I'm a little nervous because I doubled my batch and let me just say that I have no luck usually with doubling my batches of anything.  It kneaded well though and didnt use as much flour as it called for..but then again its a dry day.  Ok.  Here is what my long loaf looks like now that it is done baking.  I usually take the foil off and turn off the oven and let it sit inside off for another 5 minutes.

Doesnt that look Good!!!  By letting it sit another 5 minutes it browns the top more, then I pull it out, place on a cooling rack and butter the top.  Then let it completely cool and place it in my plastic bread box.  I ordered it on amazon also and it will just fit this long loaf.  If you are intrested in the pan and/or box let me know in a comment and I will give you the link.  Its a very nice and sturdy pan.  Almost feels commercial.  Thanks for reading my blog!