A little story

So, in my previous post, I was making Elvo's favourite soup and I had decided to make biscuits.

But no, wait, I decided to make bread. Elvo loves bread. And since I have gluten free bread flour (I stopped making my own and just buy Pamela's now, I know I know, sell out, but it's easier) I figured I'd just concoct a delicious, coarse bread good for soup dipping.

I threw together some ingredients. To the best of my knowledge my recipe included an egg, a cup of milk, 3 cups of gf flour, some salt, a handful of brown sugar, a bit of oil, and a spoonful of butter, plus some yeast.

Apparently baking is not like cooking.

You can't just make things up, and you definitely can't say "a handful of" or "just a pinch". I've made bread before, and apparently done so only with extreme luck. Though in my defense I've made bread three times and only twice had it come out tasty.

Back to the budding failure:
I tossed all these ingredients in the machine and turned it on. I can't remember which setting I used. My beloved machine got to work.
I recommend a bread machine to everyone. I got mine second hand for just $18, and it came with two cookbooks as well. It's fun, it makes the house smell amazing, and it's healthier.

Anyway. Fast forward time. Ding! Bread it done. I pop it out on a plate and Elvo slices it up.
Hm, what's wrong with this? It's really dense, and it seems under baked in the center.
Elvo: Did you follow the recipe?
Me: Well, I just kind of made it up.
Elvo: ...What did you put in it?
Me: I'm not exactly sure... some sugar and flour and..."
Elvo: Did you measure?
Me: (sensing danger) N-nnnooo?
Elvo: Ok, try a recipe from the book and measure everything.

Round two: I chose a simple white bread recipe and measured the ingredients out mostly-carefully. Put it all in the machine and press fast forward on time. Ding! Bread's done.

And it was even worse!

Elvo: Did you substitute anything?
Me: Well, brown sugar for white, gluten free mix for regular flour, oil for margarine, soy for milk power and water...
Elvo: ....~facepalm~


Lesson to the wise.