I made bread

I made bread for the first time. Well... I've made sweet breads before, like Pumpkin Bread or Cinnamon Bread or Zucchini Bread or Amish Friendship Bread, but this was the first normal/non-sweet sort of bread.

Yesterday I just felt like trying it out, so I looked through my Joy of Cooking book and decided on one of the first ones I saw, which was Challah. It was chosen mostly because it has poppy seeds on top and that sounded quite yummy. It also reminded me of eating it at the shlew of Bar and Bat Mitzvahs I attended in junior high school. Those were some good times.

I have to admit that it's not all I dreamed of. It's not bad, and it made for a good chicken salad sandwich for lunch, but it's not great. I'd like to blame the altitude, since that's a common issue with baking up here where I live, but that's not really fair. I've often had problems in getting yeast to do it's job, so it's probably just baker error.

Here are some photos to show of my skillz (that z was added just for you, Karyn... and yes, I'm enjoying the use of the Urban Dictionary tonight).

Before:
During:
After: