No Knead: I Get it Now

It's such a rainy, drizzly day that comfort foods such as oatmeal and apples, chicken pot pie, and homemade bread are a must. And so I decided to make my friend Rev. M's Oatmeal and Molasses bread.

Mercy, I get now why "no knead" and bread machines are so popular: kneading that bread for 15+ minutes was a workout. And I'm not convinced we did it right or enough. It was so stiff and hard to work with, never really becoming "elastic" or "soft" (I should note, for the record, I know it is me and not the recipe because I've had this wonderful bread several times). See, I should admit, that "Little Mommy Hungry Homemaker" though I try to be, I don't every actually bake bread from scratch. I've used my bread machine a lot to do the whole thing, or at least for the dough cycle. Or I make yeast-free quick breads. I have only made a bread that required kneading once before by hand, years and years ago, and it didn't turn out well. So, after a few years of loving homemade by bread machine baked goods, I thought it was time to try doing it all by hand. And isn't that a great thing to do with the kids and their grandma? Well, we'll see, I guess. But I'm not hopeful.

Though, on such a day, almost anything warm, when slathered with butter and honey or jam, will be good.