bread bricks

i've been cooking my fool head off today. nothing else has cooperated, so at least i accomplished something.

i made some split pea soup and decided that since we were having a hearty soup for dinner in honor of the rainy/thunderstormy/nastiness that is today, i'd bake a loaf of yummy crusty bread.

the beauty of both of these is that with the joy of mechanical assistance (hellllooooo, bread machine!), both the soup and the bread didn't have to be pampered or watched much. which left me free to deal with assorted other dilemmas. my soup? looks and smells yummy. my bread? is a brick.

a somewhat flat, hard brick.

ahem. this is not what the bread machine and i discussed.

i dutifully measured out each ingredient and made sure that each was at the right temperature before placing them in the machine in the exact order prescribed. all should have gone quite according to plan. but no, i have a brick.

i remember reading somewhere, i apologize for not recalling where, that bread dough is something you just have to learn. kinda in a zen way. hopefully soon i'll get to that point. i do think that i'm close...i peeked in on this batch (as i always do...can't. leave. the. machine. alone.) and noticed that the dough did look a smidge dry...but i had put in all the right measurements, so surely all would turn out well, right? not so right.

once i learn to trust my instincts i'm sure that i'll have far fewer final products like the one today, but i'd be lying if i didn't say it was a bit disheartening.