While writing Katherine’s Story (still untitled) I decided I needed to bake some bread–the old-fashioned kind with yeast and sponges and rising dough that has to rest and breathe and get snuggly under a blanket before going into the oven. 
I used to bake a lot more but haven’t baked from scratch in a long time. And I am RUSTY!
As you can see from the beautiful photo of the finished product, the bread looks gorgeous. But in fact, the middle of it is dense and mealy. Yuck. Either my oven runs to hot or… well, something, I don’t know…
I could use the loaf for display in a store but to actually enjoy it? No!
I gave my bread taster @donna hanlon a wedge of the bread to try. She and her daughter, Danielle, confirmed it–crust was good, inside–thumbs down.
I am going to try more. I’ve done some more research and see that I might need some specialized baking tools. But then that just seems wrong to me because my mind goes back to the 1800’s when they didn’t even have temperature control on ovens and I think I’m making it way too hard… it has to be simpler than baking stones and cloches and special whisks.
But then I’m reminded of how many times we hear that the “old” days were simple and I 
recall all the Victorian life difficulties that my research has revealed and I know… nothing was simple then.
The one positive from this was that I did get the yeast to work. At one point I thought I either didn’t get it activated or that I killed it… yay, yeast was alive and kicking. More soon…